Ode to Technology

Oh technology, how I love thee.
How I hate thee.
Let me count the ways.
 

You probably noticed I haven't posted for months on this blogspot site. When I left, I said I'd continue to post blogs about my family. Well time proved too hard for that. So now instead, I'm going to share my blogs on both sites. 
 
Stupid me should have read a little bit more about web-hosting before I made my wordpress website. Apparently if you have a wordpress.org site hosted by someone like Bluehost then you can add a plugin. But if you are using a site hosted by wordpress.com then you can’t (you can only use the plug-ins they allow). I wasted money buying a domain name, and at some point in the future will have to move this site. Not now. I like this site, and I have too many irons in the fire (cliché) to go all willy nilly and work on exporting my site to a new one. I may never change it. It depends on how motivated I am.

The only reason I wanted to change it in the first place was to be able to place a mailchimp sign-up form on the site. I’d like you all to be able to sign up for my newsletter, so here’s how you can do it.

Click this link to signup for my newsletter The Greene Pen: http://eepurl.com/bo4ILP

My wordpress site if you haven't been there is:  www.laurengreenewrites.com. Occasionally, I plan to have different content on both sites, so please follow me on both!

So technology, I hate you for being so complicating. I love you for letting me spread the word about my newsletter and my new book, The Devil Within, due to come out June 22ndish.

And speaking of The Devil Within…Guess what Friday is? It’s cover reveal day!  Join me and a dozen of my friends as I show you the amazing cover Greg Simanson made for my book!

Face to Face Communication in a World of Technology

Yesterday I was playing around on the Internet, like every other day in my life.  I read this great article by Jonathan Safran Foer, he's one of my favorite authors even if his middle name always makes me think of yellow rice (it's Safran not Saffron, but my brain just cannot tell the difference apparently!). 

In the article, How Not to Be Alone, Foer writes about sitting in the park playing on his phone.  He was people watching, but also mindlessly playing with his technology the way we all do.  He sees a young girl, and she is crying.  She is on the phone with her mother, and she keeps saying, "I know, Mama."  Foer wonders, "Do I do the hard thing and break away from my phone and try to comfort her?  This might make her uncomfortable and me uncomfortable, but it is the human thing to do.  Or do I just hide behind my technology and pretend there's not a young girl crying over there?"

Foer makes the point that technology was invented to make us communicate MORE.  Telephones were invented so people could call other people far away.  At some point, however, people began liking the simplicity of the telephone and would rather call then sit face to face, rather leave a message than actually talk to someone, rather text than actually phone.  The communication style became more and more simplistic: taking away tone of voice in the end.

Foer expounds with this acceptance of a "diminished substitute" as the primary communication in our life, over time we'll become diminished substitutes too, capable of feeling little empathy for others, incapable of offering sympathy, as in the case above.

I am one of the biggest culprits of technology overuse.  I can't stand it when someone doesn't know how to use computers.  When someone doesn't have a smartphone, I wonder if they're stuck in the rotary phone age.  I simply don't seem to understand that some people don't NEED WANT these things in their lives. 

I too rely on my phone.  I have it with me almost always.  I check it incessantly sometimes, for what?  The next text that says, "What's up?"  The next Facebook post of somebody's smiling kid (yes, I do love to look at Facebook posts of smiling kids!).  While my phone keeps me "close" to people who are not in my immediate family, it also diverts my attention away from my family.  With a computer screen always open or a phone to always look at, my kids get less and less of my attention, and they begin to think it's acceptable to communicate that way.  Hubby jokes when I misplace my phone, "Oh Lauren.  I'm sorry you lost the love of your life!"  It's funny, but not funny ha ha, more like funny in a sad way. 

Last night, Hubby and I took the kids out to Chappy's for dinner.  I purposely left my phone at home.  You know what?  I felt liberated.  I didn't care if I missed a call.  I didn't care if I missed the next Facebook post.  Whoever was going to text me would have to wait.  I was spending quality time with my kids, without the distractions, giving them all of me instead of only part of me.  It felt wonderful, and I'm sure they felt the glow of undivided attention, even if they still acted like little monkeys!

Technology does have a time and a place, but face to face communication is what makes us human: reading body language, listening for tone, and having someone's full undivided attention is a gift we can give to each other.  In regards to technology use: Limit it, use it for its purpose, but don't forget you're human and your job is to be empathetic of other people and raise your children to be the same way so they can become effective adult communicators, instead of mindless phone texters, TV-watchers, video game players who are incapable of feeling anything for their fellow human companions.

Ramblings

I'm tired.  I have a cough.  Yes, I feel like complaining, and this is my blog so I can do it.  It's Monday morning, and I have a short week at work.  This coming weekend, I'm going to enjoy a girl's weekend with my friends from elementary/middle/high school.  We used to all come together one a year for a wedding shower, then a baby shower, but alas we have all been married and we've all had, at least, our first child!  So this weekend, we're meeting for food and fun.  I'm so excited to see these girls, who every time we get together it's like we've never left each other. 

I've been pretty awful with picture taking lately.  I don't know why.  I keep forgetting the camera.  I have an iphone, and it takes "ok" photos.  I've been using it more than the camera, because it already comes everywhere with me. 

And speaking of iphones, or smart phones in general: I don't know if this thing is a blessing or a curse.  I mean, every minute of every day, I have access to the internet, my friends, texting, my email box.  Yesterday, while I was at my Mom's house, I left the thing in my car and it was like the 1990s again!  No pinging constantly, no one trying to reach me, awwww...pleasant solitude.  I had everyone with me that needed to be with me, why did I need to be reached that minute of have instant access to Shazam! or to Google or to any number of apps that do semi-useful (or more appropriately, semi-useless) things for me!

This is the last week of school for Number One.  I can't believe he is almost a second grader.  He has come so far this year.  He's also starting to look so much older, lengthening out, and his face is getting that boyish look instead of that babyish look it has always had.  His hair is darkening up. He's becoming more "reasonable" about some things.  He's bull-headed like his mother.  He has a constant thirst for knowledge, and he won't let anyone win a fight.  I love the kid.  I fear the summer a little bit for the lack of routine.  He thrives on routine.  He'll be in a summer program though, so hopefully it will be okay. 

This post is so rambly, and I have no photos, so I'm going to end it so I can go start the crockpot turkey chili that I have to make this morning before work. Adieu...