So I decided it’s about time I really think about how the “glow” of electronics is affecting my family. I wanted to step back and really reflect on how our electronic devices have helped or hindered our family. I even listened to a little lecture on the “Pull of Electronic Devices” in which they discussed the positive and the negative of them.
When I observed our family, this is what I saw happening a lot (not always, but a lot):
My Man comes home for dinner after a long day at work. Afterwards, he can be found chillaxin’ on the sofa, device in hand. He’s checking emails, reading, or returning phone calls.
Sweet Tween heads straight to her room after school to check her device. She’s gotta see which friend has emailed her today. She does NOT have texting yet. But she can email and it means to world to her.
Little Son cannot find anyone to play with at the moment, so he immediately asks if he can play the Wii. His favorite right now is Mario Baseball. We only have games rated E for him. He’d play all day if I let him.
Baby Girl wakes up each morning and after breakfast, the first thing she asks me is, “Can I watch my movie now?”
And me? . . . I’m blogging.
So I’ve been trying to figure out a way to curb it a little . . . or really just CONTROL the media devices and not let them CONTROL us. It’s hard. They do so much good and are sooooo fun.
The only thing really allowed is telephone calls. It’s kind of different because it involves communicating with another live, human being.
It’s only 2 hours a day . . . can we do it? I’ll let ya know how it goes.
What about your family? What’s your NO GLOW GOAL?
So I’ve talked a lot about children and media on this blog. Wanna read more?
There’s my post about the dangers of YouTube {HERE}
And my post about helping kids use the internet safely {HERE}.