A “futurist,” Brian David Johnson opined on Slate about our fear of technology. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/01/new_technologies_enter_our_lives_and_society_in_four_stages_.html
I beg to disagree. But that’s because my iPhone is several generations back and sometimes I leave in my purse or my car (in the garage) and don’t miss it for a while.
My concern is that families are splintering because their kids are texting all the time. Or they’re on their cell so set a bad example. My family always sat down to dinner together, for 1/2 hour to an hour and we had to ask to be excused from the table. Now I hate it when my husband and I go to a restaurant and the first thing he does is take his phone out of his pocket and sets it on the table and turns it on.
I believe family time is family time. Getting to know your kids can be a good thing, and they can get to know you. I’d put cell phones off and in a far corner and sit down and discuss how things were at school or work that day.
My husband has told me many times that, even as a scientist and software engineer, he views the computer as a tool to do work and maybe book a flight or find a good restaurant nearby.
I use mine to write. While I used to write longhand, a computer first scared me and I had to hand-write at least a few scribbles of talking points before I looked at that blank screen and wrote a speech. But I learned, and that was in the 80’s.
Parents have to set an example and put their own phones down for family time. We had one land line when I was growing up, and no-one was allowed to hijack it. Folks don’t understand that just because you have a cell phone doesn’t mean you have to be on it 24/7. It’s like wearing a really skimpy dress on a first date, just because you’re “available” doesn’t mean you’re friend or marriage material.
Ok, I’m writing this before dawn because I was stuffed up and couldn’t breathe as the air is so dry here. Next the dog goes out, I make my husband a hearty breakfast and we go from there.
Hope you enjoyed the long weekend. We didn’t have one and it stymied us a bit on the job front but it looks like a productive week. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 