Technology

Technology is great but it is also the devil! Not really but I have very mixed feelings about it. Here are some of my latest thoughts.

Never thought I would be a blogger! It has almost been a year now that I started blogging. I started reading my friend's blog about her family, thoughts, and ongoings and it just made me want to write about my own family. It is kind of an online journal, diary, and scrapbook of our lives. I am SOO behind on scrapbooking our pictures and this at least gives me a timeline of what is going on in our family. My Uncle recently started reading my blog and he said some very kind words...he said that I should write for a Christian Family Magazine or something. He is very kind and it is funny because I really never thought that writing was my thing!

I never thought I would be on Facebook either. I thought it was for lonely, dramatic, silly people that didn't have anything else to do but to look into each others lives via the web ....oh wait maybe this is ME! YIKES!

Online scrapbooking...I just made my first digital scrapbook of our camping trip and I love it! I am totally hooked. It took me only an hour to do a whole album whereas doing it "by hand" would have taken me weeks. You cannot beat that!

Texting...all I have to say is that I love it! I am NOT a phone talker. Probably because I can't ever be sure that I am going to have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to actually carry on a conversation but texting allows for you to put an idea, thought, question, or comment out into cyberspace and allows the other person to answer when they have a moment. It goes along with my obsession with email in that perspective. I dislike talking to people when I barely know them and I guess I am a little bit of a anti socialist when it comes down to it...I just find it more comfortable and easier to email or text. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted Emily to have a cell phone over the past year. It would be easier sometimes to just be able to send one with her to send her a quick message, etc. She was at a birthday party a couple of months ago and I did not stay with her. John Daniel, Molly, and I ran some errands. Emily is my worrier. She will go and do anything but DON'T be late in picking her up...she will freak! So I drove up in the people's driveway and Molly of course was a sleep (a very much needed nap). So do I wake her up just to go in and tell Emily that I am in the driveway and she can come to the door when she is finished saying goodbye to her friends or do I leave the two kids in the car long enough to just run in. It would have been so nice to be able to text Emily a nice.."mom is in the driveway, come to the car when you are done" message. It all worked out though.

Now things that I do not like about technology....all the toys and gaming systems and such for kids. I seriously do not think that my 7 year old really needs a phone...and I do not think that she needs a TV in her room or a laptop or a fancy gaming system but that is just me. I would rather build her a treehouse to pretend play in! She wants an IPOD for Christmas and I am resisting! We still have leapsters! Some of this may be that John and I don't even have fancy new tech stuff. We still have our old TV from when we got married. John and I are VERY behind the technology curve. Part of it is money but part of it is us wanting to resist the urge to want to have the latest in everything. We seriously go back and forth about it but in shopping around for Emily and John Daniel over the weekend...I was just bummed by all the junk that is out there. I had this patient recently that was the epitome of what I DO NOT want my children to turn into. He was 17 years old. He had some hand held gaming system. Mom did all the talking for him. He could not even concentrate on talking to me as I was assessing him. He was in a fantasy world. He was a "gaming nerd" that didn't have any social skills and he was almost 18 years old. Mom bribed him with a "new game" for getting through the appointment. It was very strange! I came home and made everyone go play outside! We all raked leaves :)

Another thing I hate about technology and all the things I mentioned above is that we have less face to face time. I realized recently that because I email, text, blog, and facebook with all my friends that I feel like I know what is going on with them and if I don't, then I use one of the above ways to get "in touch" but never come face to face or actually really talk. I found myself lonely, feeling isolated, and in need of some face to face, real live, conversation and girl time. We went and ate dinner at the Connells house and I loved it and could have stayed longer just hanging out and then I had breakfast with my friend Debi and again I could have stayed longer just chatting! So all that to say is I am going to try harder to have actual communication and face to face time. I feel like I have become too dependent on the other ways of communicating and loss some of that personal contact that is very important!

So all that to say is technology and I have a love hate relationship and like MANY other things in this very hectic world...there is a balance!