This Plugged-In Life
Technology is amazing… for those of us lucky enough to have it
Dallas Morning News
I just finished reading yet another nervous essay that decries the evils of technological multitasking and our inability to really get away from it all. And you know what? Enough, already.
Admittedly, I don’t have all the toys. I don’t own a Blackberry or know how to IM (that could change when the kids head to college). But I do have high-speed Internet access, a laptop, a cellphone and a soft spot for wireless hotspots.
Here’s a glimpse of what these “evil” technologies have allowed me to do recently:Order groceries from across an ocean; investigate the finer points of the Geneva Conventions; research butterflies with my son; and find and procure the perfect Mother’s Day gift. And all of that without having to buckle a child into a car seat.
You cannot tell me that’s not a beautiful thing.
I am – and I say this without hesitation, caveat or irony – a better mother for these technologies. And a better citizen, writer and wife.
For starters, technology has gifted me with “mellowness,” something my children definitely appreciate. Skip the trip to the grocery story, and you skip the fight with them on the cereal aisle. Library research that can be done without the inevitable traffic jam coming home? Priceless.
It’s true that any tool used incorrectly can be dangerous. I admit that I have checked my e-mail in the middle of reading Goodnight Moon, and I sometimes feel alarmingly unconnected when in a cellular dead zone.
We’ve already had to establish limits to our first-grader’s “screen time.” Then there’s the bigger danger to the entire family – the temptation to operate any one of these devices in moving vehicles.
But aren’t the dangers largely human-created, not technological? After all, we are the ones ultimately in charge.
Our lives have changed in ways so revolutionary that we – the middle class and up – no longer see it. Technology is now just as much a part of our daily life as running water and electric lights. And for my money, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks.
If you want to talk about the real problem, it’s the disconnect between the have-tech and the no-tech groups. Among children in Africa, the British newspaper The Guardian reported last year, a minuscule 2 percent of all students have ever used a computer. In Mali, to combat the lack of phone lines, the nonprofit Geekcorps builds Wi-Fi network relay stations – using wire mesh, bamboo poles and plastic bottles.
America isn’t immune. According to the nonprofit Children’s Partnership, nearly 90 percent of U.S. households with school-age kids and an income of more than $35,000 have a computer. But in households earning less, nearly half don’t. The second income bracket represents about a third of American families with children.
Bottom line? A lot of kids and their parents don’t have the basic equipment that so many of us are hand-wringing over being distracted by. For those of you lucky enough to have the tech goodies, if you can’t stop checking your e-mail during dinner, put your Blackberry away.
But, honestly, don’t tell me it’s a social ill.
Emily L. Hauser is a freelance writer.
