This all seems a bit ironic to me; the idea of sharing thoughts about minimizing our exposure to technology, all the while typing away and knowing you’ll read this all online! But I need to get it off my chest so I ‘d best get going, irony or not.
At what point did I start to become so obsessed with the weather that I stare at my smartphone weather app so often, which today, let me down anyway. It wasn’t a good day to hang laundry. It’s raining. I was sitting side by side with my wife, in bed, getting ready to sleep and I was checking the news headlines. It doesn’t happen every time but it was enough to get an irritated ‘Do you need to be on your phone right NOW? I put it away. I love always knowing what’s going on in the world but pre smartphone days, I would have waited to find out and been very content to. Ignorance really was bliss. This isn’t a new concept that I’m writing about here, and we’ve all been challenged by someone to talk ‘face to face’ and not ‘screen to screen’. We’ve seen the damning stats and that Facebook meme of the kids all huddled together on their phones with a supposed quote from Albert Einstein, warning us that human interaction would be surpassed by technology. Oh yes, and that we’d become a generation of idiots!
I don’t think it’s ok to be glued to that small screen of mine, I really don’t. I must be able to function ok without knowing, this very minute, what is happening in the world, or what the score is or whether someone ‘liked’ the pic of my peanut butter sandwich. If it’s not happening to me right now, it surely isn’t that important? We need to set boundaries or something, don’t we? ‘Phone off’ or ‘no phone’ times at home , or in a restaurant or whereever you could really benefit from conversation, or just plain old observation. It should be ok to stare out of the window when you’re feeling a bit bored, and to get lost in your own imagination. Surely you don’t need Tetris, or Temple Run? Perhaps it’s time to take people and together time seriously again. To step out a bit and set those boundaries, for you and your family’s sake. Play a game, read a book, or complete a puzzle. Go and lie on your back outside, and imagine what shapes you see as the clouds drift by. Kick a ball, or swing a bat, but just do something away from from the lure of technology. Or am I just a boring old fool?
There are videos that do the rounds almost weekly, and although different, carry a similar message. Not too dissimilar to what I’ve been trying to say over the last couple of paragraphs. This hit home with me. How does it speak to you?