BE PRESENT

So here I am sitting at Panera reading about writing as a technology.  How great thinkers, like Plato, abhorred it, because it forced people to memorize less and rely more on stale, unresponsive symbols instead of the transmission of thoughts orally (which is more raw and honest).  All of this reading about writing as media, and I cannot help but hate the technology that was to my right.

A mom and daughter came in.  Aww...so cute!, I thought.  A mommy-daughter date.  *sigh*  Within seconds, the daughter pulled out her iPhone and completely ignored her mother for the duration of their too-quick meal.  It was a light lunch: a salad for both.  Mom kept trying to engage Daughter: asking what she should make for dinner...Maybe vegetable soup?  Maybe lasagna?  Daughter kept her eyes glued to her phone while making gagging noises.  Mom tries to change the subject to shopping, a subject that I judged Daughter would love, what with her Uggs on, French manicured nails, and acid-washed skinny jeans.  Still no interaction.  Just a long, one-sided convo on behalf of Mom.  Mom even tried talking about a salon trip, but again, no real interaction from Daughter, apart from some hems, haws, and guffaws.

I was so sad.  (And, I of course started to imagine my kids and husband sitting around the table glued to their phones while I just sit and try to talk to them.)  I wanted to weep for Mom, trying so hard to have a nice time with her daughter.  I just cannot, CANNOT stress how important it is to leave tech away from family time.  I love technology as much as the next person: don't even get me started on my adoration of the Roku, I love my iPod, I love my MacBook I'm using right now, I LOVE taking pics of my wee ones on my iPhone, but pretty soon we're all going to end up Cybermen, like in Season 2 of Doctor Who.  It just scares me to see communication deteriorate so rapidly over the past few years.  I have friends I can't even call, because they don't like to talk on the phone but would rather text.  Then I'm texting a convo, which leads me to multi-task at home, where a real phone conversation would demand all of my attention...not to mention LOVE, CARE, and TIME.

Can we all just hold back a little?  Put the tech away during dinner?  Leave the texting to later (cause if something's THAT SERIOUS, they'll call)?  Try some old-school tech sometime and WRITE somebody a NOTE?  Hey, Plato may not be too thrilled with that choice, but I know I would.

rant: fin