Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ruled by the TV?

Many people say they want to be in charge of their life, but then they turn their evening schedules over to their tv sets... Stephen Covey

We don't have a TV, so for sure we are not ruled by it, but what I have noticed is that often our computers have become substitutes for the TV.  In some ways I would even say that this is more problematic than the TV - when we all sat down together and watched the same thing and talked about it together.  Now I've noticed that we're often all engaged with our computers - on 3 totally different things - and we don't talk about what we are doing at all!

I was passed on this article during the week by a friend - it's about a mum who banned electronic devices in a 6 month experiment.  It seems a bit of a drastic step to take, unplugging the whole family for 6 months, but it seems there were benefits too.  This Christmas our son was back with us from university and I loved the way we spent our evenings playing games:  backgammon, rummikub and cards - and not just plugged into our computers working.  Of course it's easy to do that during the holidays when you don't have to plan for a full day of school the following day, but I certainly think it's something we need to work on doing a little more of in the future.

Photo Credit:  Traveling without moving by Frederic Poirot

1 comment:

  1. Our family has never had a TV...but you know what? You have a great point about the computer taking its place. Thank you for this food for thought. I need it right now, especially as my blog is a big part of my work. Balance. A.

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