I like technology, I mean... come on, their are so many things that come much quicker due to technology. Email, Direct Deposits, Music, Information... I mean you can sneeze and because of social media and sites like blogger,twitter, and facebook anyone and everyone has the ability to know within seconds afterwards. I love the ease of being able to share and store stories and memories of our life, and connect with people I would have otherwise never met.
But... sometimes I step back and go old school on myself. Thinking about the days I spent as a kid, running around in pastures, playing with the baby calves in my grandfathers barn, and helping my brother track numerous animals in the pipes on our sod farm. We didn't own an Atari or a Nintendo like some of our friends, nor did we have cable. I remember the day my dad brought home our first VHS player. The Internet wasn't around our home at that time, and computers where still a huge luxury.
My children will never know a time like that. My six year old already knows how to send and receive emails. My four year old is a pro at using a laptop mouse pad, and my two year old maneuvers an IPhone/IPad like a pro! Netflix is the new VHS, and computers are now a necessity. Instantaneous results are now an expectation... hm mm it defiantly has it's benefits, but I do miss those days.
I know I'm talking like I'm 80 years old... but... well it's my blog so I can! :) Ha!
Not long ago, William and I were in a public restroom. He had just come out of the stall and went to wash his hands. He turned on the water, placed his hands under the soap dispenser and .... waited. Then he shook his hand a little and ... waited. Annoyed he looked at me and then back at the soap dispenser. At that moment, it hit me, he was waiting for the dispenser to automatically shoot a bit of soap onto his hand. I looked at him and said, "Babe, you have to push the button." It then occurred to him that maybe the dispenser wasn't broken, it was just, "old"... HA HA! I got a good laugh out of it, but it is such a sign of the times.
By the way... I just ran spell check and it caught terms like, Netflix, IPhone, IPad, and Facebook... I guess my spell check needs to get with the times also! :)
![Finding Joy](<br /> <br /> <a href="http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.com/search/label/friday%20favorite%20things"><img vspace="none" hspace="none" alt="friday favorite things | finding joy" src="http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt255/ElvishAuthoress/fridayfavoritethings.png" /></a>)
Yeah, I like doing stuff "old school" when we can. Of course I love modern convenience, but a part of me wonders what our days would look like if we were in the 1800's. If it were just me and the babies all day, no outside interruptions or distractions, and then when Daddy was home, he was home. Just us. Part of what I love about homeschooling is that I can keep the kids electronic free as often as I feel they need. They don't use the computer, don't mess with our cell phones and the Wii is only one night a week. We've got Netflix, but the kids get one movie on Saturday's. For our family, it's what keeps the balance we're trying to achieve here. But each family is different. They kids know what all those great things are, but they're not a frequent part of their lives. Today, we built a fort out of cardboard boxes and they've been in there for 2 hours already!
ReplyDeleteIf you miss some of that electronic-free innocence, it's still possible, even in 2011, to make that a semi-reality for your kids. Just takes a little planning....like I had to make sure to get packing tape before I said, "let's build a fort!" The less I'm attached to something electronic, the more peace flows through me. There's got to be something to that.
Our kids have a totally different perspective on everything! It makes me realize that God has to touch their lives in a slightly different way. Makes me wonder if that's why He's always doing something new ;-)
ReplyDelete