Technology and the present moment

When it comes to cool technology, I tend to get as excited as my two-year-old granddaughter when she plays ball, although I try not to shriek out loud, at least in front of people!

I especially love it when technology offers us simple avenues of enhancing our world, of helping us be more present to our everyday life and finding gratefulness there.

The other day I read in Mashable about a new iPhone app that aims to make each day of our lives "memorable." Proposed on Kickstarter, the 1 Second Everyday app prompts users to capture one second of footage each day to create a "curated and definitive film reel of their lives." 

It's an interesting concept, and I like it much better than the $1.99 app that simply takes a picture of your face every day and records it so that you can see how you are "changing." Seriously?

Kuriyama giving a Ted talk on his project at Ted 2012

Here's what Cesar Kuriyama, the creator of 1 Second Everyday, explains about his intention, as reported on the project’s Kickstarter page:

“We have a tendency to pull cameras out when we’re doing something fun or interesting, but we probably don’t think to record when we’re just sitting at home watching TV. Recording a moment daily started encouraging me to wake up and seize each day.”

Check these more traditional Catholic apps that I enjoy:

• The Daughters of St. Paul have a list of apps for smartphones that you want to check out. My personal favorites: the Rosary in English and Spansih--beautiful!

• Did you know that the Divine Office is available as a very cool app? So is our Catholic missal

• One that I personally use everyday, on my iPhone or iPad: the Magnificat app. I still prefer the actual Magnificat Magazine in my hand with daily readings, prayers, reflections, saints. But this one is hard to beat when I'm traveling!