The Information

Is all this information an overload? Remember when all we had being input into us was from the boob tube, when the biggest disciplinary action by our parents was taking away our TV time? Now if you told your kids they can’t have TV time they might just laugh at you. There are so many other screen time options these days that to take all of them away would be nearly impossible. I’ll tell you this, though. My kids aren’t getting cell phones until they’re teenagers. At the earliest.

I’ll admit they both have iPads, but they’re wi-fi so they can’t connect everywhere, having to rely on educational apps instead of the glut of Netflix that would otherwise occupy their time. In fact, having the time limit on their screen time has proven a good tactic, because it makes them use their imaginations and enjoy each others’ company. My wife even said tonight that we are going to clean out the iPads of most of the non-educational apps so they can have the screens to learn and improve on their skills instead of just to watch Netflix and play Temple Run.

So is this wealth of  information at our fingertips a positive or a negative? For example, there was a time my wife asked me what the weather was. I was standing right at the window but instead of looking outside I pulled out my phone to check my weather app. That’s one of the issues with having so much at the ready, that we can sometimes overlook simple things. Will our nostalgia for this time period feature these obsolete tablets and phones because the future holds so much more in the way of information explosion?

I worry about that future if that’s the case.

Sam