OK, I must admit I do like my technology. I love gadgets, however over the last couple of years I have been becoming more gadget free and becoming more minimalist with the amount of ‘stuff’ I own. It has been a emotionally freeing experience. I am far more aware of how much of an emotional tie we have with possessions, and they can become an emotional drain. I still love my laptop (there are times my wife says I love it more than her as I give it more attention, you can probably tell her primary love language is quality time) and the wonderful productivity apps I find (such as Evernote).
I have been aware of how technology can be the catalyst for families no longer communing together. Instead of playing games together they are in their own rooms watching their own TV, or playing on their own games machine, on FB on their own computer etc. I do find this quite sad. We are social beings and over the years have gone from living in community (in our tribes) to being disparate communities (even families are spread over large distances) to now having our own pack becoming separate beings.
We don’t have a TV (partly for this reason as well as the evidence that demonstrates it damages children’s creativity) but do occasionally watch programs on iPlayer. I came across Electric Dreams which looks at how technology through the 70’s, 80’s and 90′ affect family life, for better or worse. They have a family living back in the 70’s and each day is another year and the new technology arrives in the home (from microwave oven, to video player). I loved reminiscing over the technology I grew up with (from the Simon electronic game and the Commodore 64 computer!). However, what really struck me was how during the 80’s the new technology (such as Nintendos Game and Watch, the first pocket game consoles and the Sony Walkman) was breaking up the family unit and putting them in to their own worlds. The program said it was during the 80’s that children first started playing in their bedrooms.
The mother of the family hated seeing what was happening to the family and wanted to go back to the 70’s. As a child of the 70’s and 80’s I was fascinated to look back and see this transformation of the family unit, how technology has played it’s role in family dynamics. The only technology the mother likes was the video recorder as it meant they no longer had to work meals around TV, the family meal could come first. Obviously as TVs and computers have got cheaper and more and more appear in houses, the more disperate families get.
I find this quite sad and surely is not good for the emotional wellbeing of children. Children learn by copying, we have mirror-neurons in our brain that imitate others. Who are they copying? Who are their role models?
So I think technology has a place, a value but needs to be handled with care. I think I would like to look at some of the research in to technology and family dynamics.
I find myself in front of my laptop at home but need to remember I might as well be in different city, or different country as I am not ‘there’. I have ditched my smart phone….I wonder what is next.
