senior scribes
text

Along Life’s Way
Do You Have a Tech Addiction?
By Lois E. Wilson
 
Eleven years ago I wrote this verse:

          Evolution: Now Hear This
          Psychics predict by a not too distant year,
          Babes will be born with a cell phone on one ear.
 
It seems our civilization is being seduced by technology. At first telephones were boxes that hung on the wall. Then they became desk phones, base portable phones, cell phones, and now smartphones. Once computers were room size; they have been shrunk to PC size, lap top and now are hand held. Today technology is more and more intimate with us. I would guess that the only “touch” some folks enjoy today is that of their touch screens.
 
It’s rare to see a group of people without at least one of them staring down at their current device. You are exposed to others using devices in stores, restaurants, doctors’ waiting rooms, while driving, and occasionally at church. People wait in long lines to purchase the next generation of products. With some, it is a mania.
 
You’ve probably seen the ad with the coach at his team’s dinner. He is desperately trying to motivate the boys, but the team members ignore him for they are fully engrossed with their various devices. Once in the early 70’s, we had our son’s high school basketball team and his coaches to our house for dinner. No devices then—it was a before-game event to increase team unity.
 
Common Sense Media is an independent, nonprofit organization which some years ago launched its Device Free Dinner campaign. It has sponsored ads which illustrate families eating dinner in this “tech” age. Food writer Marion Cunningham thinks dinner should not be “gobble and go.” She states: “Food is more than fodder. It is an act of giving and receiving, because the experience at table is a communal sharing; talk begins to flow, feelings are expressed, and a sense of well-being takes over.”
 
One ad shows a small child at dinner trying to get his parents’ attention so that he can tell them about school. But his mom and dad are each tuned into their devices and only give the boy cursory responses without ever looking at him. He stares ahead with a frustrated and futile look. All children deserve our attention.
 
“Vice” is defined as “moral corruption or a habitual shortcoming.” Don’t you think it’s time to go on a digital diet, to “de-vice our devices” so we can sincerely interact with those around us whom we care about and love? If I had a hand-held device, I’d turn it off for you. If you don’t give me the same courtesy, as the saying goes “I’ll leave you to your own devices.”


  <
senior scribes
County News Online

is a Fundraiser for the Senior Scribes Scholarship Committee. All net profits go into a fund for Darke County Senior Scholarships
contact
Copyright © 2011 and design by cigs.kometweb.com