I came across this blog post by Gadzooki colleague Jim and I was appalled at how our children are as wired as they are now.

Barely in their teens, children now have Friendster accounts, and a myriad of other online accounts. They brandish high-end cellular phones, and for them, the Asus eeePC, or the OLPC, is just another toy. At age 3, my best friend’s niece had beat her computer game scores… And to think my best friend has the IQ of a genius! And yes, she creams me every time at Pinball (think a score of 5M to 1M). Imagine that!

But what all this implies to me is something scary, even sinister.

In the days when I was posting less and being remiss in my tasks on SplashPressMedia, and just being plain incommunicado online, I was able to live an un-wired lifestyle. In those days, I realized the preciousness of being able to sleep on time. I realized that sunlight streaming through my window in the mornings are actually very nice.. And poignant, and just plain comforting.

I think our children would miss these if we just allow them to go run around with their cellular phones and laptops and other gadgets. I just pray that parents would wake up and realize that the TV should never be a babysitter. If your family has both man and wife working, I pray that you would be able to give the attention and the human contact your children would need.

I am thankful that I am in a business that allows me to work from home. Because through this, I would be able to ensure that the kids are fed, I could parcel out my time to be able to give them attention and even tutor them, and I could make sure that no one gets to watch TV for more than 4 hours a week. I could also shoo the kids out of the house to get some sunshine and play and make friends, and I could make sure that my kids won’t be online for longer than they should.

It’s a matter of knowing your family’s priorities, and how you want your kids to grow up. I think too much media is too much, and my evidence is that I and so many of my peers cannot get work done because they’re glued to YouTube or whatever has their attention at the moment.

It’s time to take a stand. I choose sunshine over Friendster. I choose sunshine over the latest soap opera. I choose to streamline my life, and my future family’s life, from media.
Photo Credits:

http://www.tcfroar.org

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