Dear lovely old friend,
I’ve spent a large proportion of this week trying to write an essay about crowd theory. I say TRYING, I am easily distracted. Suddenly I just had to do some research on the new season of 24 coming soon, then there was a lot of action on Facebook, and then YouTube became quite appealing. It’s REALLY hard to turn off all those fun distractions and concentrate on something slightly less interesting.
I found myself reminiscing about years gone by, when writing essays involved a trip to the library, dusting off old journals to find information and sitting down to handwrite an assignment. As much as I love technology I do miss the simplicity of an actual book, pen and paper. I have a romantic notion of opening up a beautifully bound scientific journal to read about new discoveries and research. It just seems so much more special than opening an article on the internet. If I ever manage noteworthy research I’d like to see it in a leather bound book, even if it’s stored that corner of the library no one ever visits.
Essay writing at Uni was fun, whispering in the library, sneaking out for coffee and cake, poring over piles of books with no thoughts of Facebook and internet shopping.
My biggest internet fear has to be that the internet takes over from real life and socialising. I cannot stand the idea of my children in ten years time spending every evening communicating with friends over the internet. I want them to be out, talking to people face to face, living a life, maybe even giggling in a library trying to do homework, but definitely NOT hiding away behind a computer.
I don’t know whether that’s a foolish fear or not, perhaps I should be worried about cyber-bulling or stalking instead? The internet offers us so much and has so many amazing benefits, but there is a real downside as well.
Part of my fears are not so much the internet but technology. I want to embrace all it has to offer, but at the same time I want my kids to be playing real games with me not by themselves on an iPad. I want them to spend a lot of time outside, away from a screen, getting wonderful experiences of the world around them.
I don’t really know how to balance it all out, how to keep my children happy and safe in this world that seems to be changing by the second, and that scares me the most.
Emma
Oh yes and me but i am sorry to report i need to get out more too soend far too much time talking on line thathe rthan in real life !
I do worry about it. I think our children are very tech savvy but they are still children ….. oh and I remember giggling in the Library too 🙂
I remember being stuck recently when out for a meal, I looked around the dimly lit tables and all I could see was the glow of people’s phone screens bouncing back off their faces. Couples, sat opposite each other not talking but texting or tweeting, mums and dads scrolling away while their kids were ignored… it made me so sad!
So spot on!! And as I feel myself sucked into the online world more and more, something I NEED to address!!
As a teacher I am sad to say that I have seen a handful of children who spend more time online than in the real world and it is not something I would ever encourage. I think that getting outdoors and feeling the wind on your face should never be replaced. Time online is great but it shouldn’t be all the time
I completely agree – I was talking about this with a friend the other day and we said exactly the same. I make an extra effort to get my two outside as much as possible x
it breaks my heart to see parents setting up accounts on facebook etc for their children, have seen them as young as 6 🙁 my son asking for a mobile, he got a stern no and maybe when he is moving up to high school only x