So I was sitting around, computerless for almost the whole weekend, agitated beyond belief until I finally thought, "Hey, why do I need to check Facebook? Why do I need to answer emails the instant I receive them? STOP AGITATING, woman!"
What is it about the computer/Internet that makes us ... well, a lot of us ... think that everything is urgent. Not to mention cell phones, iPhones, the BlackBerry ... I no longer have a cell phone and only about once a week do I think to myself, "Why don't I have a cell phone?"
What's so freakin' urgent? NOTHING ... I got on line here at my friend's house and there was nothing urgent; nothing that couldn't wait. (Although I have to say, I do not have children.)
I'm so unused to speaking with someone who doesn't have some kind of electronic device in one hand that I'm starting to miss it when they don't ... I'm exaggerating, of course. But I once sat with someone at lunch who texted until his food went cold and then was surprised that his food had gone cold.
About the same time period, I sat with another man who not even once checked his electronic device, in all the 2 hrs. or so we spent chatting. Just chatting.
What a novel experience.
3 comments:
Not on topic--but just thought you might want to know--and publicize---that one of Newburyport's own will be honored as 2010 Red Cross Community Hero next week:
http://northeastmassredcross.org/index.php?pr=heroes_nominations_2010
(scroll through the list)
Have a great day!
I for one have vowed to only respond to blog posts when I have something vital to say.
Doh.
If we adults feel the "stress" when not "connected", new studies are coming out as to what all this electronic and video stimulation does to the still developing brains, not to mention the language and communication skillds of kids and adolescents.
Teens, in particular, are rapidly becoming addicted to technology.
As one pediatric neuro/psychiatrist at the University of Chicago put it, many teens' brains react to all the stimulation much the same way a gambler's brain does when he/she "hits the jackpot at a slot machine and all the bells and whistles go off."
Kids get "rushes" from all this and many are becoming addicted that rush sensation.
It's just one aspect of the downside to some of this stuff we all now think is absolutely indispensable to our well being,
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