Day 34

I have a serious love/hate relationship with technology. I love the ease and convenience it brings to normal everyday life, as well as the ability to bring people together, but I also really hate the whole new set of rules one must learn to navigate, manage, and keep up with, not to mention the new terms of social etiquette, lack of human contact, and lure of addiction that it brings.

I love being able to shoot off an e-mail, but I hate that I rarely get or give anything in the mail now besides junk or bills. I like that with a letter, the expectation is to receive a response back in a week or two (which allows for processing and thoughtful response), whereas with an e-mail, text, or social media, if you don't give a response within a day, hour, or even minutes, it comes across as if you're blowing people off (and often end up offering opinions in which you've not given ample time to think on). Those statements run the risk of becoming more about expressing rapid-fire opinions due to pressure rather than maintaining the relationship that actually means something.

More kids get grounded from their "media" than anything these days. What ever happened to being grounded from friends? Now it's like we hope and pray our kids would rather want to be with their friends than a videogameipodphone so we do everything we can to promote those friendships and hold the media hostage for disobedience. Which shows where their hearts are, in machines rather than souls.

We get frustrated that the generations coming up struggle focusing, don't know how to interact properly with others, don't make eye contact, don't know how to deal with conflict and work through problems, and prefer spending their time with machines than with people. And yet, we're making them that way. Whether it's because of our schedules that are too busy, a lack of interest in investing in them, using the television/iphone/portable dvd players for a babysitter, or giving them every media under the sun that comes out with the latest and greatest gadget, gizmo, graphic, or sound, we are actively teaching the next generation that this is an okay way to exist.

And again, where do they learn this? From mom and dad who are endlessly on media; whether it's facebook, e-mail, checking sport stats, watching "amazing" youtube videos, texting, on the phone, watching tv, installing dvd players/cable in every nook and cranny conceivable, doing school, pinetristing, playing games, downloading new apps, etc. etc. etc. . . These things in and of themselves aren't bad, but we're a generation that didn't necessarily grow up with all this as our norm. For the most part, we know the limits, for we've known another way of life. But do our kids? Or is this craziness the new norm? Please Lord, let it not be so! I believe we don't have a clue to the ramifications this new era will present.

So in terms of do I steward this area of my life well or not . . . yes and no. I'm definitely on the computer WAY TOO MUCH! I've resisted fancy phones and data packages because I know they'd just feed that addiction, both of mine and my kids. Plus, I'd rather spend my money on other things. We very much regulate video game and tv time, but often spend much of our "free" time (though it's few and far between) in front of the tv rather than doing more interesting family things. I don't model well not being pressured to get "projects" done. I text regularly throughout the day, which may in a sense be better than being on the phone all day, but it's still a distraction, especially for a homeschooling family, and I need to learn to silence the phone. I know there's more, but it's obvious to see there's tons of room for improvement here. So, perhaps after Lent, we'll go on a media fast.