After seeing Flashdance the Musical the other night with my daughters it left me feeling a little nostalgic. No, I don't miss 80's acid washed clothing and I wasn't a huge fan of much of the music of the era. It did leave me wishing there was some stuff from my teen years that my kids were still exposed to in this age of instant gratification and technology though.
Like they are missing out on the passing of notes in class. That secret, scared to death moment when your friend slips you a piece of paper not-so-discreetly when your teacher turns her back. And you can't wait to open it to find the tiny bit of information contained in that poor excuse for an origami attempt. You never knew what you would read. Or if you would be busted for having it or passing it. Now kids just text back and forth at lightening speed.
Like they are missing out on going to the record store with their allowance and thumbing through the stacks of albums and cassettes, agonizing which one was would be prioritized to the top of the list. There is no admiring of amazing cover artwork anymore. Or being excited to get the liner notes and lyrics when you open the single cellophane wrap of your purchase so you could figure out that Kurt Cobain was actually singing "Here we are now, entertain us, NOT Here we are now, in containers." Now they just instant download off iTunes or stream Spotify anytime a musical urge hits.
Like they are missing out on the unscheduled time to just screw around and be kids. Time with their friends is planned out in advance, and carefully choreographed by parents because they are over scheduled with activities. Everyone feels the pressure to find their 'thing" so much earlier in life now, and it comes with private lessons and extra tutoring. The days of being able to walk outside your house on a summer morning with your friends and spend the day hanging out without your parents being stressed out about your getting abducted, run over, or otherwise harassed are over.
And I'm sure there are about 100 other things they are missing out on, but the biggest one is the most important to me. It is why I, the girl with the cell phone constantly attached to her body, can make the argument against them…
They are in jeopardy of missing out on forming real, live, human relationships. Everything is done via those tiny devices. And we are all guilty of using them for everything they allow us to do. And in many cases, they have optimized our lives in a multitude of ways. My daughter calls in the middle of a meeting? I can quickly text back "can't talk now, what can I help you with?" and we can quickly solve a problem. But when they are in the midst of budding relationships, kids become a new couple via social media without having ever spoken? WTF? Or the courage that girls can feel from before their keyboard to taunt others? Way worse than any bullying we had to deal with when we were in middle school.
I adore technological advances. But I adore human relationships more. It's all about balance. I love that my kids are computer literate and have skills I can't imagine having at their age. However, I also have a major issue when technology takes over. Every parent has to create their own rules around this, and I do my best. We do enough communicating in my house I'm sure my kids wish they were heads down in technology more. It's important though, and something I bring to work with me. Emails and texts are great for a short message or response. Meaningful or challenging conversations are way better in person. And if our kids don't learn the basic skills of how to do that now, they are really going to be handicapped when they need to connect or work with each other later in life.
And that ends that rant for the night.
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