Every member of my family has a cell phone.
David (11) has a fancy LG touch screen cellphone with a full keyboard
Lindsay (14) has Allan's old iPhone 3Gs
And Allan and I both have iPhone 4's
The kids "need" cellphones - so we believe - because they walk and bus to and from school (or soon will) and it is a safety thing.
David also has an iPod Touch that he "needed" for school but it doesn't have a phone. So now he has 2 devices.
Lindsay texts a mile a minute and is very good about staying in touch with us when she is out and I like having "accesss" to her. She now doesn't need her iPod nano as her music is on her phone - one less device to manage and charge... oh no, not quite true as she just got a kindle.....
Allan uses his phone as, well, a phone and has all his music on it too. And Angry Birds
My phone is a work requirement - I didn't honestly care what I had but I wanted to be more efficient when I was out of the office at meetings etc so I like having email access from my phone. I do not listen to music on my phone or any other device. I do have Angry Birds and I am very good at it.
But now we are all checking our phones and sending texts and playing games on our phones. I feel like we are our own little iByres iCloud - I can "see" the signals whizzing about the house...... We also have 3 laptops......
And I am not at all sure how I feel about it all.
I read this today on a blog I frequently read.....
I’ve been joking lately that cellphones are the new cigarettes, and the more I see people in the elevator, on the corner, at the restaurants, heads bent over their phones, feeding their addiction to information and communication, the more I think it’s true. When there’s a moment to spend waiting for something – an elevator, a bus, a coffee – instead of lighting up, we pull out our phones. And as much as I despise the tendency, I find myself doing exactly the same, far more often than I’d like.
My BlackBerry was lifted from my bag recently, and I didn’t replace it until last week, just using my old faithful Motorola while waiting for insurance money to come through. It really was a relief to be rid of the constant tug at my attention from that blinking red light on my phone. It was great to only be able to check email when it was convenient for me, instead of constantly being alerted to the fact that yet another one had arrived.
So it was with some reluctance that I’ve replaced my BlackBerry, but this time with a small adjustment: I’ve stuck a little patch of gaffer tape over the blinker.
Smokers have to stick on patches to curb their addiction too, and I’m hoping by blanking the blink, I’ll soon chuck the urge to check, and I’ll manage to stand and wait quietly for the coffee/bus/elevator, undistracted. Or, at least, I’ll stand there, itching to reach for my phone, and my patch will remind me that my urge to be busy is exhausting, antisocial, and bad for my health, and instead, I’ll breathe in some fresh air, and just savour a moment of not being busy.
Hmmmmm........ I need to find some strategies for technology free time and space in my life and in my family and in our house. It feels like it might be in a losing cause but I want to try.... Anyone got any good ideas or strategies?
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