Put the PHONE away, sit still and LISTEN
Last night I went to the symphony. It was without a doubt the most outstanding performance I have ever attended. The young woman pianist playing a very, very difficult Rachmaninoff piece went beyond amazing, beyond astonishing. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it. Neither had the young woman beside me texting and playing on her cell phone. She still hasn’t seen or heard anything like it because she was so intent on her phone nothing else around her mattered. AND IT WAS DISTRACTING to the person sitting beside her – ME ! If you need to be so intimately involved with your electronic gadget then get a room. Stay home. Why pay $150 for a ticket for a performance you are not going to be a part of?
This brings me to the topic of today. What is electronic gadgetry doing to our lives. Is there such a thing as electronic addiction?
The debate is still raging between psychologists, educators and the likes. Some say yes there can be addiction to these little devices that have become so pervasive in our lives. Others say its not really an addiction but a choice on how we are spending our time. HOWEVER both sides agree – it is changing our culture and not necessarily for the better.
An article in the Daily Telegraph, London, England, this week reported that children as young as 7 years old are more likely to own/have a cell phone than to own/have a book of their own at home. Schools are reporting for the first time in years scores are down in reading comprehension tests, in test scores overall that require reading and attention.
Experts are saying that the reliance and amount of time being spent of electronic devices is putting reading and conversational skills, especially those of children and teens at risk. The childhood and teenage years are the time those and other social skills for life are being developed.
With all the online or device games and social networking, virtual relationships are becoming the norm and real life relationships are being left behind. Now some of you will defend your tweets and twitters by saying these make it more possible to stay in touch with friends/family. DISAGREEMENT POINT #1: Go be with that person. Do something together. Actually spend time with friends and family in person and interact fact to face with actual verbal conversation.
Educators are recommending limiting computer and handheld device use to 1 hour a day for children under 12 and 2 hours per day for 12 and over. This allows time to utilized computers for homework research and report writing.
An internet addict, per psychologists ,is someone who spends more than 40 hours a week on the internet on things NOT work/business related. This does not have to be in 6 or 8 hours stretches. It can be 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there throughout the day, into the evening and even during the night.Think you aren’t at risk for being anywhere near this category? Put a pad of paper beside your computer. Note the time when you sit down and log on and when you log off EACH TIME during the day for a week. You may be surprised. I know I am always surprised at how much time has passed in just the time it takes to write this daily blog. Don’t forget to add in the time you spent checking messages, texts, tweets, etc. on your smartphone, i-Pad, etc.
Down sides of this addiction/overuse? Other than the risk to reading and conversational skills I already mentioned, psychologists are also seeing an increase in anxiety in people who are addicted to their phones and computers. If they, out of necessity are without them some people are actually experiencing anxiety attack symptoms, shortness of breath, palpitations, extreme worry, inability to concentrate, short attention span. Other people are complaining of back strain, eye strain, and carpel tunnel syndrome from sitting in front of the computer for hours. Its a danger while driving. Even taking your eyes off the road for a second to look at an incoming call or message can cause an accident.
Challenge your family to take an electronic technology timeout. Set aside an agreed upon time each day that all gadgets are turned off or put away. Spend that time together as a family or with friends actually doing something. Learn a new sport together, read together, paint a room, The point is to actually physically interact with another person. I remember when my son was 15 he asked if I would take tennis lessons with him, a friend of his and that friend’s mother. I was very reluctant. I am NOT athletically inclined and knew it would mostly be a waste of money but he really really wanted this. Its not often a teenage boy wants to spend time with his mother so I said OK. What I learned was I CAN play tennis, we could have fun together and I made several new friends. That hour twice a week was time well spent. And it turned into more than two hours. We frequently played tennis together when we actually got good enough to get the ball back and forth over the net. We played, just the two of us, or with his friend and his mother. Good times that I would not trade for all the electronic gadgetry in the world.