Yesterday my husband and I went out for Sunday lunch and opposite us sat a family consisting of a mother, father and two kids. The kids were aged around thirteen and fourteen respectively.
From the moment that we arrived the kids were busy on their cellphones. What they were doing exactly I have no idea but it seemed very interesting. The mother and the father accepted this as normal and they did not once ask the kids to put down their phones so that they can finish eating. The girl started eating with her one hand when her food arrived, while keeping the phone in the other. Her brother gobbled down his food as if it was the last food he would ever see and then grabbed his phone immediately after.
I'm not trying to judge them but certainly there is some problem with communication in this family. It bothers me that they were sitting eating lunch at the same table and none of them had any interest in having a proper conversation with each other. The parents seemed to be enjoying themselves, but the kids not so much. If children at these young ages do not have interest in their parents now, what is going to happen to these parents once they get old? Will they then still not be bothered?
Perhaps they will phone their parents once in a while, seeing that they are so in love with their phones. What saddens me most is that these people had all the time in the world, but they did not even bother to have a proper conversation with each other.
Technology is taking over so much in our lives that it is hard to even imagine our lives without it. We live in an age where we need to have cellphones and computers because everything around us revolves around technology.
When I grew up we did not even have computers. It just did not exist in South Africa. (And no I am not ancient yet) We had an Atari game console that we played, but it did not consume our whole lives. We still read books- real paper books an we still had imaginations. We played outside until late at night, without any worries, and when it became dark we knew that we had to go home, but our parents knew exactly where we were at all times.
We did not lie to our parents because we knew that we would get a slap or that we would be punished in some way. On the other hand, crime was less and it was safer. With the current crime rate in the our country it is not safe to have a child go out of the house without a cellphone, but on the other hand with today's phones kids have access to the internet and it is scary what goes on in the world of the internet.
Kids are exposed to so much technology and for them it might not be so scary to live in this age as they grew up in this environment. I lived in a time where technology started to develop and in some way I feel blessed that I have seen the development of technology where we are today from where we came, but on the other hand it scares me to even think where technology is going.
Is technology busy changing kids into idiots, that are so into themselves that they don't care about things like personal relationships, or is technology changing them into better human beings because they are staying on track with the latest technology?
What is your view on this?
