PCM20: When Tech Turns! Why I Cancelled My Apple Watch, How Facebook Hurts

Tech has made our world better in so many ways, but – as Apple Watch and Facebook sometimes shows us – that doesn’t mean it occasionally can’t turn on us.

Take PC Mike’s experience with Apple Watch. After waking in the middle of the night to order it not too long ago, he finally got sick of the delays and run around and simply cancelled his order. Mike talks about why he cancelled his order and how he feels about Apple now.

Then, Mike talks to Douglas Kenrick, a professor at Arizona State University and author of several books, and ASU Researcher Jessica Bodford, about ways Facebook is bad for our mental health.  They co-authored a story for Psychology Today called, “7 Ways Facebook is Bad for Your Mental Health.”

Among other things, the three discuss:

• The upside and positives about Facebook
• Why some Facebook posts can make you feel bad
• Why people are “programmed” to feel the need to use Facebook
• How certain online behaviors can be detrimental, such as checking up on spouses
• How Facebook can make events like break-ups or divorce even worse than they already are
• How postings on Facebook can hurt professionally
• How addiction to Facebook can be more powerful than to other addictions, such as tobacco
• How addiction to Facebook and Internet in general is causing health experts to develop new diagnoses and treatments
• What the phrase “alone together” means and how it applies to Facebook

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Shownotes from episode 20 of the PC Mike Techcast

First Things First: Why I Cancelled My Apple Watch Order

PC Mike cancelled his order for his Apple Watch, which he woke at 3 a.m. specifically to do not too long ago. Mike fills listeners in on how he was given the run around – and round again – and why he finally just cancelled it.

Apps of the Week: Don’t Get Lost Buying Produce at the Farmer’s Market!

In PC Mike’s report for NBC-TV this week, he takes a look at apps that guide you through the process of buying produce.

Among featured apps is the Specialty Produce app that draws on a database of more than 1,400 produce items and features information about history, nutrition, cultivation, seasonal availability and recipes. You can search by name or even use the price-look up codes used to identify produce. You can set it up to get notified when specific fruits and veggies are spotted in markets near you. Free for Android and iOS, with a pro versionsfeaturing even more features for $2.99.

To read and view the rest of Mike’s report this week, click here.

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Interview: Douglas Kenrick, Author and Professor, Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, and Jessica Bodford, Researcher at ASU

Kenrick and Bodford co-authored a story for Psychology Today called, “7 Ways Facebook is Bad for Your Mental Health.”

Kenrick is a professor in the department of psychology at Arizona State University. His bio can be found here. His most recent book is “The Rational Animal: How Evolution Has Made Us Smarter Than We Think.” As a special deal for PC Mike Techcast listeners, you can get a free copy of Kenrick’s latest book by signing up for a free 30-day trial of Audible.com via this link http://audibletrial.com/pcmike

Bodford recently graduated from ASU with her master’s degree.

Online Learning – Free Trial for PC Mike Listeners

I get asked a lot about finding online courses for learning how to use photography software such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom CC, which are both on my recently updated list of tech gear. I talk about how I benefited from taking online courses as well as a special deal available only to PC Mike Techcast listeners at pcmike.com/lynda, where you can even try it free for 10 days and see if online learning works as well for you as it has for me. By the way, they have more than 3,300 courses to pick from – including more than 100,000 video tutorials – in subjects ranging from photography, video and audio to graphic design and web development. With Lynda, you can get:

– Unlimited access to all 3,314 courses – more than 100,000 video tutorials
– Learn new software and stay up to date

Listeners of the PC Mike podcast can get a free 10-day trial. Try any course. Start your trial now and see what you can learn. Just go to https://pcmike.com/lynda to get the free 10 day trial.

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We Need Your Help!

As we begin a new podcast like this, it’s very important to get a bunch of reviews to be able to show well in the iTunes listings. So if you can, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave me your rating and review.

Here’s how:

First, open up the iTunes app on your computer or mobile device. Click on Podcasts on top
> From the iTunes Podcasts page, use the “Search Store” field up at the top right corner of the page. Type in PC Mike Techcast under the Podcasts category.
> Click on the logo image of the PC Mike Techcast on the search return page
> From there, you can:

1) Subscribe

2) Choose and Click on a star (1-5) that reflects your rating. Five stars means you really like it, one star not so much.

3) Leave a written review.

Thanks to all for the kind reviews we’ve received so far. I read and appreciate every review! If you haven’t left a review please do so. I will be so grateful!

And remember, you can appear in future episodes. Ask a question or voice your comments by clicking the Leave Voicemail tab on the right side of this page here at pcmike.com. You can then use the microphone on your computer to record your question.

Thank you!