Celebrities brought the world another 12 months of interesting events, from record-breaking album releases to viral Tik Tok trends. So before we say farewell to another crazy year, let’s review some of the biggest headlines and milestones of 2022.

(January 3) Apple becomes the first company to reach a stock market value of $3 trillion.

(February 13) For the first time in history, rap took center stage at the 56th Super Bowl Halftime. The show featured some of the music industry’s biggest icons including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige.

(May 13) Rihanna gave birth to her first baby, a boy, with A$AP Rocky. 

(May 20) Harry Styles released his third album, ‘Harry’s House,’ which led to an insanely popular world tour. 

(May 27) Top Gun: Maverick was released in May and by September, the film had amassed over $700,000 in North America, becoming one of six movies to ever surpass that milestone at the domestic box office. 

(May 27) Stranger Things released their fourth season, making 80’s pop culture all the rage again. 

(June) We all felt the effects of record-high inflation this year. Consumer prices were up 9.1 percent over the year that ended in June 2022, this is the largest increase in 40 years. *source 

(July) Hailey Bieber debuted a manicure, later named Glazed Donut Nails, that was copied by millions of fans, making the look a viral trend on Tik Tok. 

(July 16) In a move that no one saw coming, the most famous couple of the early ’00s — Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck — got married, and the bride has since officially changed her name to Jennifer Affleck. 

(September 8) The United Kingdom went into a period of mourning when Queen Elizabeth II died at age 96 as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. A new era began when her son ascended the throne as King Charles III.

(October 27) Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 million.

(November 5) The Houston Astros won the World Series for the second time, the first was in 2017. 

(November 15) Demand for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, her first in five years, essentially crashed Ticketmaster. With 2.4 million tickets sold, Ticketmaster had to cancel the second presale but demand could have filled 900 stadiums. Tickets are now being resold for as high as $22,000 and a lawsuit has been filed against the company.

(November 15) The world reached its first landmark of 1 billion people in 1803. Over 200 years later, on November 15 2022, the world surpassed 8 billion people.

(November 23) Wednesday beats out Dahmer in Netflix streaming records, reaching 1 billion watch hours but Squid Game still reigns supreme. Tim Burton’s series Wednesday, based on a new interpretation of the Addams Family, has exceeded 1 billion watch hours, putting it in the top three most-streamed shows on Netflix.

(December 18) Argentina defeated France in the Fifa World Cup Championship. This is their third win following 1978 and 1986.

Tik Tok reached 1 billion users in January and grew to 1.8 billion by December 2022. Dances that took the app by storm, with millions of creators posting their own renditions were Duke & Jones’ My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle, Lizzo’s About Damn Time, and Beyonce’s Cuff It. 

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To spend hours trying to get in contact with a customer service representative, stay on the line. 

We all know how difficult it can be to resolve an issue with big conglomerate companies, typically in the phone service or air travel industries. In fact, Forbes named cable, internet providers, wireless phone service providers, healthcare, and the airline industry as the Top 5 Industries Most Hated By Customers. Unfortunately, the questions we need answered by these companies are usually very pressing, pecuniary matters. We’ve never thought “wow, I’d really like to talk to a machine about this”  when calling a service line.

At CTTC, we do things differently. When you call our office, you’ll speak to a living, breathing human being. Under no circumstance will you ever receive an automated message. Better still, our service representatives are 100% local to Central Texas, meaning we understand the barriers and needs of our rural residents. We know the inconvenience of losing service between towns, the difficulty of finding a connection when away from your home, and the annoyance of calls dropping with unreliable service. 

CTTC’s customer service is reliant on four pillars – we strive to give you a convenient, personalized, proactive, and competent experience. Cutting out the automated middleman makes getting to the root of your problem quicker and easier. Throughout your customer journey, our representatives get to know you at every step. We make notes in our system of specific needs, past issues, and personal anecdotes for each and every customer. We want to get to know you to proactively solve problems. And each CTTC employee undergoes extensive training to know how to best approach your needs. With all this in mind, we are proud to offer a superior level of customer care, unmatched by our multinational counterparts. 

Our service plans will not lock you into long-term contracts, leaving our customers in complete control. We allow you the freedom to search for the best deals and find the service plan best suited to you. Despite not locking customers into long-term contracts, don’t be surprised if you fall in love with our service! If you’ve been burned by service providers in the past, eliminate the risk and give CTTC a call.

For decades, rural America has suffered from a digital divide in broadband access. As small Texas towns grow, so does our need for internet access. CTTC believes our rural communities deserve the best technology available, which is why we offer high-speed fiber internet to 18 different service areas. As our towns develop, service needs adapt. With our headquarters in Goldthwaite, we keep up with this evolution of service needs and advancements in telecommunication. 

Digital Cleanup

The start of Spring may be the time to clean out your closets, dust ceiling fans, and organize pantries, but now that your home is sparkling, it’s time to clean up your digital presence. When was the last time you cleared your cache or deleted old accounts? How many apps are just taking up storage on your phone? How many drawers are filled with sticky notes of old passwords? There’s a lot more to tidying up online than simply sweeping the crumbs off your keyboard. Follow these tips for a safer, more organized cyberspace.

Email

Unsubscribe

• There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who open every email and those who have thousands in one inbox. Spam and promotional emails are probably taking up the majority of your storage. Either spend time manually unsubscribing from accounts or use this tool to easily unsubscribe in bulk. 

Organize Folders

• Now that you’re done receiving thousands of unwanted emails, you can prioritize what’s important. Sorting into folders will help you keep track of conversations, documents, travel plans, work needs, et cetera, making it easier to locate what you need to come back to. 

Empty Spam and Trash Folders

• There is no need to keep a receipt from a purchase three years ago. Start by emptying your spam and promotional folders. Then permanently delete the emails in your trash. No need to be worried. If you haven’t opened an email in 6 months, you no longer need to hold on. Update your settings to automatically delete messages older than a certain date to keep your emails under control.

Mobile Devices

Delete Apps

• Candy Crush, Pandora, and VSCO don’t need to take up space on your phone anymore. (Unless, of course, you still use these throwback apps then please, carry on!) There are tons of viral games and dead social media platforms that you probably haven’t opened in a few years. Delete and make space for the next big thing!

Unfollow Old Social Media Accounts

• Interests come and go. Why crowd your feed with products that aren’t for sale anymore, people you never see, or groups you’re no longer a part of? Declutter your social media, declutter your mind, and focus on who’s important to you now. 

Delete Texts and Pictures

• While we’re purging, scroll down to the bottom of your texts and start deleting! Images and videos take up mass amounts of storage space, so this is a great way to get rid of that annoying “your iCloud is full” pop-up. An even better solution is to go through your photos. You would be surprised with how many duplicates, randoms, and photos taken by accident may be in there. Consider an organizational app, such as Google Photos or SmugMug, that can help clear up storage space and make it easier to find photos by category. 

Sanitize Devices

• We sanitize toilets, door handles, and elevator buttons but we often forget about the number one collector of germs and bacteria – our cell phones. Before you hold up any number of viruses to your face again, wipe it down with disinfectant first. And don’t forget about your laptops, tablets, smart home devices, and tv remotes. 

Go Through “My List” in Streaming Platforms

• Everyone is guilty of saving something on Netflix and never coming back to it. Go through that list! You might rediscover something really interesting or realize that was just a fad and (you guessed it) delete! 

Laptops

Cancel Unused Subscriptions

• Look at your bank statement. Are there any magazines, gaming or music services, streaming platforms, subscription boxes, fitness gyms, meal kits, newspapers, dating apps, photo editors, or anything else that you just don’t need anymore? There are likely quite a few subscriptions you can cancel and stop paying for that unnecessary service. 

Organize Desktop

• Screenshots, apps, and web pages crowd our laptops. A cluttered home screen does not allow efficient work. Review what needs to remain on your desktop and hide or delete what does not. The same idea applies to your digital bookmarks or dock menu. 

Clear Downloads Folder 

• Going through your downloads folder can actually be quite comical. You might find old school projects, silly photos, and random zip files, but you will definitely find thousands of files you no longer need. Manually go through your downloads from the last 3 months and bulk delete the rest! 

Update PC

• Don’t just click away from those pesky “software update” notifications. Downloading the latest operating system can improve speed, add new device features, and fend off hacker attacks.

Household

Recycle or Destroy 

• Gather all the old CDs, floppy disks, thumb drives, external hard drives, flash drives (basically any kind of “drive”), laptops, gaming consoles, smart home gadgets, chargers, TVs, printers, and landline phones gathering dust in your home and take them to your nearest electronic recycling center. Information on where that may be can be found here. 

Passwords Manager 

• Are you the kind of person who uses the same password everywhere or makes up easy ones that any elementary hacker could hack if they wanted to? It’s time to switch to a password management tool. This software will generate unique, random passwords for each of your accounts and store them in a secure digital vault. They’ll notify you of a potential data breach and update passwords if necessary, keeping you and your data safe from any identity theft. 

Just any cleaning ritual, you’ll be happy you put in the work! Take a day to organize your cyberspace thereby creating a safer, faster, more efficient digital presence!