Today I realized that my Handspring (now owned by Palm) has been on the shelf next to my desk for more than a year. More importantly, I haven’t missed it. I said a quiet hallelujah and left it there.
The progression of technology has been exponential since the birth of the industrial age. We keep creating more and more gadgets and technologies that were probably thought up with the best of intentions. Each new advance brings with it new hope for efficiency or the possibility to expand our personal world to include new people, places, experiences, and feelings. I’ve found very few to be so essential that I feel a need to at least try them.
I’m not one of those people who has to have the latest gadget. I’m perfectly happy with an older laptop (the one I’m using, a Dell Latitude, is about 4 years old now) and my cell phone is one of the basic models. No pictures or BlueTooth connections. I like to pick and choose the technologies I want and I wait until I see a need or real usefulness. I didn’t have my first cell phone until my wife (ex-wife now) gave me one soon after she learned she was pregnant. It suddenly made sense for me to have one.
On the whole, I’m pretty picky about the technologies I choose. I eschew most because I’m all too aware of how easy it is for me to get sucked into them and away from real life. I grew up in front of a TV so I know how powerful it can be. I’m an addict and for this reason don’t have cable TV. I can’t watch anything but movies – I have a VCR which at least forces me to either go to the movie rental store and choose or watch the same old movies I own. In this way I control my addiction. But I’ve spent many hours in front of a computer screen well after work hours surfing away on sites that seemed to draw me in like a magnet. I’d keep telling myself that I’d stop in just a few more clicks. I’d wait eagerly for the page to load and when the disappointment of not finding what I sought settled in, I’d click the back button and tell myself “just one more.” Unfortunately, my work life is online so this one has been a bit tougher to control. Research for my work is essential but realizing when I’m slipping off into the not so useful realm has been tricky. It’s taken a lot of training to learn how to stay on task.
I guess I’m frightened at all of the offerings available today. More so for my daughter’s sake. I see teenagers wondering around with earplugs in and their heads down on beautiful sunny days. I know teenagers like a certain amount of detachment from the world outside their immediate friendships but it seems like iPods make it much easier for them to ignore the world around them. I feel the same way about video games. We’ve never had a generation grow up using these technologies before. We’re about a decade into a grand experiment with our children.
Facebook and MySpace offer an easy way for our children to publicly advertise themselves and their thoughts, to experiment with the excitement of flirting with a stranger or with someone they think they know, or would like to know. Today our children have a ready made pathway into the hightech world beginning with the somewhat innocent Webkins and Virtual Pets. There are literally hundreds of ways for our children to not only talk with strangers but to provoke, tease, attack, tempt, and befriend them. And they don’t have to be strangers – they can be school mates and friends. Cyberbullying is very real and growing more each day – see stopcyberbullying.org to learn more about it. Many interactive games like Halo (which makes Doom look like a day in preschool), not only encourage detachment from the real world through their virtual stories but also allow children (and adults) to play out violent acts. The American Psychological Association believes the violent video games can increase aggressive behavior. At the very least, the shootings at our schools indicate something is seriously out of order.
Let me say that I don’t think all technology is bad. Cell phones, for example, while they can become addictive and even used as tools for bullying can also be very handy and help save lives. It begs the question of what makes the difference? I think the answer is obvious – parents.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on parenting in this technology laden world.
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