"Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding x100 + Excessive vibrating"

This is what I, and millions of people wake up to every morning. This is the sound of my rather frustrating phone alarm in the morning, of course its mostly annoying due to the fact that it is 7:30 in the morning, and I rather an extra hour in bed, but its also because I really hate the stupid noise it makes.

I hop out of the bed, and proceed to press every button on my rather big iPhone 6+ hoping that the noise will stop, and eventually I am successful in this process. This then leads to my morning ritual of bringing the phone back into bed with me, and begin flicking through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn and emails, answering all of the notifications that appeared throughout the night.

After the morning ritual of flicking through the notifications, I begin to get myself ready for the day ahead by doing the usuals, throwing on the uniform, and then head down for the bowl of Cornflakes (ALWAYS CORNFLAKES!!). As I sit at the table with one hand swiping up and down my phone screen, the other is narrowly helping the spoon transport the milk and the cornflakes from my bowl into my mouth, not always successfully may I add!

Fast forward 14 hours later, through school, lunch, homework, study and my constant checking of my phone.

Its now 10pm, and Im heading up to bed to get ready for school the next, I get changed for bed, turned off my lights, and as the room goes dark,  I make my carefully from the switch to my bed, trying not to kill myself. As I lie there in my bed, I cant help but notice my room illuminate as yet another notification hits my screen. I try to ignore it, but as the phone continues to light up, like a light show, the temptation becomes to much, and I get out my bed and address the notifications. Eventually I make my way to my bed, role over, and rest for the next day.

Why have I told you my daily routine? Well let me explain....

Throughout my day, from the minute I wake up, till the minute I go to sleep, my life is controlled by the device in my pocket and the laptop in my bag. Every moment of the day, I am aware that there is something in my pocket connecting with people all around the World, waiting for me to swipe it open and explore the World it offers.

This is the same for most of us, and well we are now at the stage were we are no longer in control in our relationship with technology.


What am I doing/what have I done to address my problem with technology?

I went on a Digital Detox!

I attended an Unplug.ie Digital Detox weekend to step away from my technology for 48hrs, and discover how much it is effecting my relationships, education and other aspects of my life. I spent the weekend with an amazing group of people just like me, who were also trying to take back the control in their relationship with technology .... I like to of it as couples counselling, except instead of you and your spouse/partner, its you and your technology.


I truly believe the 48hrs I spent away from my technology helped me to realise that I need to be more aware of how I am using it, and how much of a part it is playing in my life. I think this is something everyone must do, because like every relationship, you need to feel in control, you need to feel as if the relationship adds something to your life, not make you feel like you are loosing something.


Do what I did! Take your 48hrs without your technology, think about how much of a part it plays in your life, and decide if its something that makes your life truly better.



Best of luck, and make sure to check out Unplug.ie & keep an eye out for the RTE series in September that I filmed my experience with at Unplug.

Harry 



The list below is something I came across over the weekend on Twitter, and it really made me start to think.




I decided to try something on the list everyday and see if picking up something from the successful list or stop doing something from the unsuccessful list makes me any more successful.

Which fist was the question?

So, I decided to see what I already do on the successful list:

- Keep a "to be" list
- Talk about ideas
- Accept responsibility for my failures
- Keep a Journal
- Compliment
- Wants others to succeed

After looking at the list I was quite happy that I could come back to the successful people list, and concentrate on what is on the unsuccessful list, and see if I could get rid of some of my so called "Bad Habbits"

Anyone who knows me knows that I a big fan of watching TV in the evening time, and it something thats on the list.

Honestly after my day, I decided that me sitting in front of the TV with my laptop working away isn't going to make me less successful than anyone else. I have a hard enough day, and like everyone else, I like to watch TV.

I go to school from 9am-3:45pm , then come home and do work from 3:45pm-4:45pm, then going for a run from 5:00pm - 5:25pm and then finishing off with homework till 6:30pm.

The thing is that watching TV for a few hours in the evening won't make that much of a difference, and thats the same for most people. If you spend your day like me quite busy, then you deserve to just sit down.

So, my verdict on todays trait - NOT TRUE


Yesterday my blog was shortlisted for the Irish Blog Awards 2015 in the Best Youth Blog category.

 
It is just amazing to be shortlisted for this award, and it really does me a lot. I have been only blogging for 4 months, and in this time the blog has had 10,000 + page views.

The blog was originally only there for me to remember all of the brilliant opportunities that have been coming my way, but that changed along the way. I really wanted to start using the blog to reach out those young people like me, and hope that those young people who are like me, and had the experiences as me, could take comfort in knowing that there is someone else out there just like them.

The simple fact is that we are all talented, and unique in our own way, and hopefully thanks to my blog, a few more people realise that.

So, Thank You to everyone who continues to check out my blog on a regular basis, and please keep doing so, and tweeting/sharing when you do.

Harry
I finished up in Accenture last Friday (21st) but I had quite a busy week, so I didn't have time to write about my experience.

I spent the just over 3 weeks in Accenture, and it really was a great few weeks. Everything about the place was just incredible, not just the work they do they do, but also things like Strawberry day and the amazing view.





I had the opportunity to learn from the best in the area, and really get stuck into some amazing work. It was really great to see the work Accenture does, and also get involved.



The extremely friendly and helpful team at Accenture made the experience even better, and just made it such a truly enjoyable place to spend my summer. Everyone took time to stop and explain to me what they were doing.



I really did have such a great time at Accenture, so a big Thank You to everyone at Accenture for having me.

Also a note to anyone look for a great place to work, there are places at Accenture, so check them out at the link below:

https://www.accenture.com/ie-en/Careers/jobsearch.aspx


This week I am lucky enough to tweeting from one of my favourite accounts on Twitter, @Ireland. 

I am so excited to be connecting with an audience of over 30k people for the week, and hopefully I impress. 

I've decided to do a shot post to give those people who will be following me for the week, an idea of what to expect. As many people know, I love Twitter, and social media in general, so I plan on being quite active for the week.

I'll start off every morning with a quick hello and let people know the plan for the day, and where that plan will be taking me. Once I get on the selected mode of transportation for the day, I will chat with those people who are tweeting away in the morning about what ever is happening in the world.

I will then keep everyone updated throughout the day with a few tweets, the odd selfie, and then hopefully at least once a day, a Periscope of where I am, and what I am doing.

Evening times is when it will start to become interesting, hopefully. I will start out by tweeting out a discussion point, and then have hopefully some really great discussions.

Then I will finish the day with a blog post!

So please make sure to tune in for the week, and follow @Ireland ! You can tweet me suggestions for discussions, or even just say Hello on @Ireland or the place I call home @TheHarryMcC

Slán


In 2008 my family purchased a six birth camper van to travel around Ireland on our family holidays that summer. I am still seven years later travelling all around Ireland in that same camper van with my family.

These past seven years have been to say the least, have been interesting. I have travelled all around Ireland with my family in rain, wind, sun and even snow. We have travelled from one of the country to the other end staying in campsites with people from all around the world, and visiting some of the most beautiful places in the world, that we are lucky to have only a couple of hours away from home.

In 2013 over 6.7 million tourists visited Ireland, spending an estimated 5.9 billion euro while on their holidays. This is a huge amount of people, and thanks to these people there is over 200,000 people employed in tourism in Ireland.

This played a huge part in our decision to buy a camper van, and holiday at home in Ireland, so we could spend our money at home, and contribute to the above figures.

I have had some of the best moments of my childhood in this camper van, because no matter what anyone else says, we truly do live in the most beautiful places in the world. I have seen the giants causeway, climbed Croagh Patrick, kissed the blarney stone and visited the Burren, I have discovered Ireland.

Why don't you Discover Ireland? .....

I'm not saying you have to go out and purchase a camper van or caravan, but what I am saying is grab a tent, book a hotel, and discover the place that you call home.

You can contribute to those figures above, you to can discover Ireland!

Please like, share, comment, subscribe, and let me know what you think on Twitter! (@TheHarryMcC)















I was going through a friends post about how they finally felt like they belonged somewhere after all these years, and to be truthfully honest it brought me back to something that happened to me late last year, early this year.

As most people who follow me on Twitter know, earlier this year I won a competition to Strasbourg in France, which involved travelling to the EU Parliament. This trip was called the Rotary Youth Leadership.

I first heard about this in November 2014 when my teacher informed me of the first round of interviews. Our school had only had one person win ever, and she had gone on to study Law in the UK, and to be honest I never thought I could win. I had to beat 6 other people in a school level, 6 more in a county level, and then several more in a regional level to win the competition. The thing was it wasn't just an application process, you had to do interviews!

The thing is no matter how many things I do outside of school, inside of school I considered average, because I'm a part of a system that doesn't recognise extra curricular, even if it does involve me running a business which thought 1000 kids to code in just over a year.

The truth was when I made it past the first set of interviews for this trip, the people in charge of the competition spoke to my school, and the school said "Harry doesn't do very well in school", they were almost surprised I had made it through to the next round.

Anyway to get down to the my favourite part of this story. After making through the first round of the interviews in my school, I went on to beat six other people on a local level, and then went on to beat several other people in rounds of interviews to make it through to the trip. I am still only the second person EVER in my school to win this competition!



My point?

My point is very simple, and is one I want to make to every young person currently going into the rather cruel environment that is secondary school. You don't have to get straight A's, you don't even need B's, if you do, then great, and keep it up, but if you don't, then don't worry!

The thing is you need to go out there, and find that one thing that you love more than anything else, and work on it like you have never worked on anything harder in your life, and prove those people who called you stupid, or incapable, WRONG.

Trust me when you find that one thing you love, you will find that place you belong and the people you belong with.