I've turned into one of those people

I used to think they were snobs, or held themselves to an impossibly high standard. Maybe you've felt the same way, upon hearing that new couple announce they "don't watch television."

Well, I can't say I don't watch it at all. I spend half an hour a day with Alex Trebek. Because I'm old like that. And because my husband likes Jeopardy, so it's 30 minutes of quality time he and I spend together.

My husband also likes cable news. Me? Not so much. I've also turned into one of those people who gets her news, skewed as it is, from Facebook.

I started watching Beasts of the Southern Wild last night, but 10 minutes into it I couldn't see where it was going and wasn't interested enough to find out. I am, perhaps, a good candidate for Short Attention Span Theatre.


It's not that I don't get plenty of screen time. I'm at the computer or on my phone or tablet several hours daily. PRODUCTIVE hours, lemme tell ya. I log my daily food in LoseIt, use the MapMyRun app to track my daily workout, get my creativity on with Instagram and read your blogs on Feedly.

And then there's Pinterest.

I'm also an Imperial Mahjong whiz, and I'M CERTAIN I'm doing my brain a lot of good finding matches and tapping tiles. (My dad's wife got me hooked on mahjong. I've uninstalled it from every device I own, many times, but it's very cracklike for me. And as long as the laundry gets done and dinner is served, I'm not hurting anyone. Heh.)

I've lost so many paper lists halfway through a grocery run that I've started using an app (currently trying out ZipList) for shopping trips. Because while I might misplace a scrap of paper, my phone is permanently attached to my body.

Just ask my husband. Heh.

There are downsides to all this technology, of course. I haven't memorized a phone number in years. If I needed to reach my daughter, for instance, using your phone, I couldn't manage it AT ALL. She moved to a new house almost two years ago and I still don't know her address. It's in the palm of my hand (or on my laptop), and I've recently started saying you only need to know where to find information. Why waste brain cells memorizing something you can look up? Brain cells are a limited commodity, after all.

I'll get back to television soon. Pre-season pro football starts less than a month from now. (I know, pretty soon we're going to have year-round a year-round NFL schedule.) And college football begins August 29. Football is my reality TV, and I'll watch it all day long.

I could also watch the hummingbirds all day long. I took my first picture of one yesterday with the DSLR, and have been trying to catch one with the camera on my phone, a nearly impossible (for me) exercise. The feeder is hanging right outside the sliding glass door next to our dining table, and I can tell you that while last night's curried pork was delicious, I certainly wasn't paying as much attention to savoring my food as I was to watching the birds.

Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But it's an entertaining thing. And probably a better use of my time than playing mahjong.

I hope you don't think I'm a snob because I don't watch CNN. Or Dancing With the Stars. How about you? What are your go-to apps? And, more importantly, how do you get your news?