Over the past five years technology has expanded in unbelievable ways bringing with it so many positives, and more than a few challenges.
One of the delights of the internet is that it gives us, if we wish, the freedom to work from home and also to connect with others, friends and family that we can't see on a daily basis. Technology saves us time in so many ways and yet it also steals our time and our attention.
Our land line that used to ring on a regular basis now stands quiet, when it does ring we look round in surprise, instead we all have mobile phones and I look forward to my regular texts making arrangements to meet.
However, there are moments when I feel the gift of technology demands a big sacrifice, and that sacrifice comes in our ability to interact with and communicate with one another. I find myself on occasion wanting to write text speak instead of real words, young people now often communicate with text language in their everyday conversations, it has become so familiar to us all and there is a growing body of research on the falling language skills of young children.
Our phones and ipads have become “our lives in our pockets”, so engrossed are we with them that we fail to see a lot of what is going on in the world around us. I watch with concern as see mothers pushing babies in prams in front of them while their eyes stare constantly at the screen in their hands.
Young children need our conscience awareness. They do not need constant entertainment from us but they do need to feel our presence, to know we are there. How many times has your child been playing contentedly, absorbed in what they are doing until the phone goes or your friend arrives and your attention is diverted?
This of course is one of life’s many lessons, undivided attention is rare, but our computer screens, mobile phones and ipads demand more than their fair share!
Let’s look up from our phones and enjoy the wonder of the world around us and allow our children to enjoy the wonder of childhood, a time that is slowly being eroded by the pace and ways of modern life.