Connected

I am connected. I have an IPhone, IPad and a notebook computer. I also have a home phone, a desk top computer and two televisions 3 if you count our old 15 inch television with the VCR in it that we use to plug into our car for our girls when we would travel. I believe that that small little television is what has fueled the connection fever. Not just for our family, but for family’s everywhere.

What started as a convenience to keep our families entertained while we traveled has now become a lust for us to be continuously entertained. Don’t get me wrong, I am not standing here in judgment of anyone, since I am never without some form of connection. I am more just trying to understand where we will go from here. I recently read that a family had decided to shut off their televisions for a month and at first I had admiration for their endeavor until I realized that that plan would never work here, we are just too connected.

 If I suggested to my family that we disconnect I would be setting all of us up for failure. Now it is not just the television that is disconnecting the family units it is the cell phones, Ieverythings, onboard DVD players in vehicles, computers of every shape and size and of course Netflix. Anyone in our family could be connected all alone in their room and no one would ever know. The world has become more informed than ever before about so many things, yet in the end I wonder if we are becoming less connected with each other. We are losing touch with what really matters, while we pursue information about things that do not.

I am connected and I hope to stay as connected as possible, but I am not willing to lose connection with my family and friends. While I cannot make my friends put their phones away, I am thinking of getting a docking station for my family’s electronics, some place where our technology can rest while we connect and recharge with each other.  What started as a little entertainment to keep the kids quiet during our travels has grown even larger than we ever expected. It is time to show technology who is boss and reclaim my family’s steering wheel. So I am curious, how connected are you?