Wife asked me a good question after seeing some funny videos making fun of the new generation and how we are now experiencing life through our phones. Whole families can sit together, but everyone has their phone screens on and involved with conversations with people that may not even be in the same city. Are we finally becoming as the cold robots we see in our science fiction movies less and less human?
I say no. The pendulum swings back and forth. There was a time doctors were instructing new mothers that the best way to raise a child was to not cuddle with them, that this was not necessary, then of course studies were done with children from orphanages and it was very easy to see differences in behaviors between children receiving touch and emotional engagement and children who were tended to the bare minimum. Years later, even to their teens, these orphans still had not caught up with children from "loved" environments, having grown up with higher stress hormones like cortisol, and many other differences that could also be measured.
My point being that even though kids do flock to these new gadgets and honestly, as parents, it is nice to give in and buy our kids these phones for a myriad of reasons, nowadays, these gadgets are everywhere. Chubs has had a phone for about a year. We had an extra line on our Sprint account for a couple years when we took in one of Boy's friends and we got him a phone. After he left, we kept the line open to avoid paying the penalty of closing it. Eventually, we had the choice to close it or give it to Chubs, and the way the phone companies "give you" upgraded phones, it is hard to say no. Of course Chubs wanted it, and we convinced ourselves because if he has his phone, he is tethered to us, we can reach him anytime. He just saw it as a chance to carry a game system at all times. When we don't say anything, he can be on his phone for hours. He will go to Youtube, find some music and use it to listen while he may be playing a video game on the laptop or his xbox. Sometimes he is listening to instructionals on how to play a video game while he plays the video game which is something we would never have done, as that seems like cheating.
We don't really put controls on him as how much he should be online, but eventually he does get off and by himself seems to take breaks. This is when he goes on rants, and maybe he is learning how to argue by listening to great debates, but he will go on and on, to which I may even ask "hey, don't you have your phone with you?" Sometimes the answer is no. He wants to talk to his roommate humans face to face, some things, such as being a pain in the butt are best done in person.
Boy also goes offline frequently, although not really for us, his friends and he really enjoy playing board games and stuff like that. He may be at an age when he is not looking for us to be his best friends, but he will do this at our house and we can keep an eye on them and see their human interaction, I know it is their way of still having the human aspect there. They cook and drink and eat and go out together, which is good.
I personally believe that although the gadgets, whether phones or Ipods or whatever new brain implants are coming around the bend, we will still stop and look around occasionally. Life might seem great through a computer screen, sight and sound are only two senses. These gadgets still have a long way to go before they start incorporating smell, taste, and touch. A thanksgiving feast might look beautiful on a screen, I'll take a slightly burnt, dry turkey in the real world any day. Or you can make love to whatever model you want to pull up whether you're a male or female. I'll bang one out with my wife here and feel the reality of life, even if sometimes she does say "not tonight, dear."
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