Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Nature, good and Technology, bad




I love my backyard. The grass, I know, is getting too tall, and the one shade tree is shedding bark that it will never grow again because it's slowly dying of some viral or fungal infection. Yet, the grass is green and the tree is too, mostly. There is a healthy pomegranate in its pot and a few other hardy plants in the border, and between the branches of the African Sumac tree, the sun rises each morning as we sit outside a little after 6 am.

In the desert that is when you want to be outside - very early morning. By 7:30 or 8 am I gather up my paper and the remnants of my breakfast from the patio table, call my children, and retreat inside. Shortly after, I close the blinds and curtains against the heat to save on the air conditioning bill. But until then, I enjoy the newspaper, real paper in my hands, spread out before me at my white patio table. I eat homemade bread and tea or toast with cocoa, dipping the golden wheat bread into the milky brown of the hot drink that I have, fair weather or foul. My children steal some toast and dip it too long in the communal cocoa, and then they run off to play, shedding shoes in defiance of the army ants when I'm not looking.

This most honored summer morning ritual has been marred this year, however, by my intelligent eldest son who sits and sulks in one of the patio chairs at my side. Worse than the silent sulking, he eventually launches a speech about how there's nothing to do outside, his sisters won't play the games he wants, and he should just be allowed to go inside and play video games (at 7 in the morning) while his siblings get their exercise.

I tried suggesting things he could play, even offering to pitch him some baseballs. I tried telling him to kick a soccer ball with his little brother, run from fence end to fence end. I even hinted that he could just sit and read a book. My suggestions were all discarded, and he wore me down with pleas for video games and whines about our backyard until, sadly, I let him go inside to turn on the TV to amuse himself nearly every morning.

Last summer was different. I played energetic games with my kids, took them for bike rides out front, and pitched balls to them in the yard. This year, I had outpatient surgery and couldn't do any of that. I still enjoyed going outside with them; I just couldn't participate in the games. My three youngest barely missed my involvement, but my eldest found an excuse for boredom in my sedentary preoccupation with the newspaper.

Eventually, it was going to come to a head, because I believe in nature, in the health-giving, calming...well, nature of it. Technology, on the other hand, is getting on my nerves more and more, eating up people's time and money and robbing them of real interaction with their fellow human beings, God and Mother Nature. (Ironic that I have a blog.)

Of course, there are people like me in every age. Technology is evil! It'll ruin our lives, take over our existence. Destroy the health and minds of our children! It should be no shock that we are still around. After all we spend a good deal of time outside; we're a healthy stock.

A few mornings ago the storm came. My daughters chose to do a puzzle instead of begging for TV upon their arrival indoors, and when I told my impatient son he should come help them, he came only to pester everyone to hurry up so they could watch something. My tirade came like water rushing through sand bags, and it flooded the plain of discontent with fearsome force. It blindsided my son.

It went something like this: If you are already so addicted to technology (ie video games, television) at nine, just imagine how you'll be when you can have your own smartphone or iPad someday or whatever crazy device is invented in the future that can read your mind and suck your energy! There are people who can't look up at those talking to them because they have to stare at their phones. Do you know how many older people I've heard complain that their niece or grandson won't even look them in the eye during a conversation because they're texting? It's rude. Parents ignore their kids or let them play on their phones when they're barely three-years-old! People don't just interact anymore. If they hear their friend make a joke, they say, "haha...that's great! Let me post it on Facebook." They go to dinner or a movie or have a thought, and they have to update their status. They can't go camping without their cellphones. They don't go outside and enjoy nature because it stretches their technological umbilical cord too far! They can't even sit quietly in a dark room and talk to God without the light from their phone providing its addictive glow! And they watch TV while playing games on their phones - ridiculous!

I looped back through those critical indictments about three more times with subtle variations. My son got more and more upset, but you must believe that I proceeded because I'm worried. I want my boy to enjoy exercise, find joy in fresh air, actually speak face-to-face with family and friends, be thrilled by new scenery - and not the new scenery in his friend's Facebook pictures from that beach vacation or some weird simulation that takes you on a walking tour through the French countryside without ever leaving your armchair. Real natural scenery. Smartphones are not Man's best friend despite what people may have bought. Trees are. And blue skies, clear water, rolling hills, grassy fields, the scent of fresh flowers or hay, animals.....and people.

My son retorted that I should yell at him after he starts doing all those things I categorically condemned. I protested that by then it would be too late; he would be an adult and stuck in his ways. I told him I am worried for him. I believe in the Green Hour. I believe in and dearly love my son and want him to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. There is no app for that.


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Since that conversation a couple weeks ago when I high-dived off the deep end, my eldest boy has been playing outside in the mornings - playing tennis and tag with his siblings and trying to catch lizards on the fence before asking for TV and video games at a more reasonable hour. Yesterday, he critiqued and condemned his sisters' carefully gathered bouquet of cicada skins and ran in the long grass despite the biting ants and played with his little brother.

Looking back, I realize perhaps I went overboard with my deluge of obsessive worry, but I will do a great deal to get my son outside, make him look around, entice him to run and play like a child, and convince him that his own thoughts and reflections in a quiet room are more enlightening than a flashlight app.

And I say to you whom I may have offended, to you who adore and anticipate every technological advance, that I do realize it is all about balance and order. Technology is not evil.

But nature is prettier.

14 comments:

  1. You know I totally agree with you, but we are unfortunately in the minority. I saw a great bumper sticker the other day that said, "The Best Education: No Child Left Inside." I too use the internet and enjoy that, but I still have a "dumb phone" and don't get the whole checking in to fb for everything. I fear the next generation will be fairly helpless and not far off from the vision of the movie Wall.E. Stepping off the soap box now! We should plan some morning hikes to help avert B of his need for a technology fix :)

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    1. No child left inside - yes, that is healthy. Holly, you know I like the internet, too, because I can read a whole lot there, but you and I have had these conversations; we fear the next generation, suckled at the full bosom of technology since toddlerhood, will cease to know how to relate and behave and communicate well.

      Looking forward to the morning hikes.

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  2. I think the problem is there's so MUCH for them to watch on TV and do online. When I was a kid I preferred to play outside because there were only 4 channels and the chances of any of them showing a kids show were pretty slim.

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    1. Yes, Kellie, so much darn temptation. I was the same, of course - sometimes my family didn't have a working television. I grew up seeking the woods, a cool swim in the creek, and a good run through the cornfield or walk down the lane to find a good climbing tree.

      But my kids don't live in the country. Thank God for city parks! I am going to try my hardest to make sure my son is well-rounded.

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  3. Hey Hillary. Great post as usual! A few years ago one of the other moms at KOG said that she had noticed how much her kids fought if they watched too much TV. After that, I began to notice how cranky Brendan would become if the TV was on too long. A favorite punishment at our house is "no TV" for a week (in fact we just finished such a week). He complains about how bored he is for a little while each morning, but eventually he finds something to do, and he is nicer to his sister as well. I know how it is during the Arizona summer, though. Sometimes YOU need a break and the TV is so easy. . . (Camille)

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    1. Good discipline, Camille! We should go a week without TV in this house - a certain little preschooler you know with curly hair is really starting to test everyone in this house. The Arizona summer does make it hard. If I didn't try to write...smile...we could do without TV better.

      And I too notice that in the evenings and afternoons when the kids can't have it, they are very energetic, laughing, and playing all sorts of inventive games with their siblings.

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  4. You're ahead of the game, Hillary.

    I am just learning now, in my 17th summer as a mother, to not predict or forecast their behavior.

    Good job, woman.

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    1. Empress, I have so much room to grow. Sometimes, I'll be frank, I just freak out. As you can probably guess, I talk to them alot and lecture them too long. They're often grateful when Papa comes home, and they can have his more practical perspective.

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  5. Ah Hillary-- Honestly, a mother's tirade is sometimes the most effective of any discipline. When we demonstrate (even via tirade) to our kids how much something means to us, they tend to get it. Aarrgghh!

    I fight the fight, too. Mine are both teens now. When they were kids we had serious technology restrictions (no TV or video games during school week--still enforced--limited TV/vid games during weekend) . During the school year we still enforce these rules. My kids don't have an xbox, but their grandfather gave them a Wii--so, there's that. But the novelty has worn off.

    Summer, however, is a free fall. And now they have cell phones. I rationalize: they work so hard all year in school; they need down time in the summer, etc.

    Over the years, they've come to understand that everything, even technology, is fine in moderation. But they may not feel the same way if we'd been less diligent. So... stand firm, Hillary. Those kids are in good hands and hearts. ;)

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    1. Jayne, you're my new hero. Amazing! I limit TV during after-school hours to 30 mins, but I have always wanted to go without TV completely during the school week. I need courage. Video games are reserved for weekends for the school year. But, goodness, you have to start early, and I am so very impressed with your enforced rules for your kids' health. I wish I had started off with no TV period once they entered school, but here I am. Perhaps it's not too late to make the attempt?

      Thank you, Jayne. I will continue to fight the battle.

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  6. I am in utter agreement. Good for you, Hoodoo. Yes, technology makes my life easier, but it's just a tool; the real world is always out-of-doors.

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    1. You spent alot of your time when you were younger exploring the Idaho mountains and Tennessee countryside, so I know how you love the outdoors. And you were often by yourself, too - alone with your thoughts. Except when you and Mama were working in the hills and hollows of TN. You thought up some of your best short story ideas while in the woods, so for me that's proof of the value of being in nature.

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  7. Everything in moderation is key. As you will discover in the next very short while, Berto will have to use computers for research projects, online projects, and typing up papers. I think the first computer-only assignment for my kids came in 4th grade. All research had to be done online and notated, and then typed in Word and printed out. We have a tv, but no cable, satellite, or antenna hooked up to it. They can only watch pre-approved movies, and shows on Netflix. And that is strictly limited; always has been. School year or summer, video games (whether console or personal handheld) are limited to weekend use. With all the kids allergies, I don't push the outside, but I was never an outside person either. I do push drawing and reading, and anything else creative they feel like getting into. On the technology plus side, David and I can flirt outrageously via text with the kids in the room, and they never realize that the temperature is rising ;)

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    1. You and your crazy text-flirting, Vinca! Yeah, I know about the school assignments; Berto had to use the computer quite a lot last year.

      Well, you're my hero, too. It seems the "hero room" is getting a little crowded with all you superwomen in there, but I have immense respect for all of you. And I know you were never a great one for outside - that's why you left your younger three siblings to get in trouble without you in the great outdoors!

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