Life as I Know It; Family; Lifestyle; and Healthy Living!

In our world today we can’t exist without our electronic gadgets. Each day there is a new technology marketed to us. It seems that we can’t get enough of them as manufacturers make what we already own, smaller and sometimes even better.


Have you ever stopped to think what your world would be like without that cell phone, or the Blackberry, Palm Pilot or that Bluetooth device?


Let’s face it for some of us that would be very hard. I’ve turned back for my cell phone that I left at home and mine is not even one of those fancy ones. However I have all my telephone numbers on it. It’s there when my kids need me because they got left by the school bus or forget their gym clothes. It’s there when I’m trying to track my hubby down because he’s out and about.

Now if you’re one of those people who have to have the latest and the best, my little cell phone is no comparison to your great trendy device and so you might feel even more lost without yours.

Are we becoming too dependent on these gadgets though? Would we be able to take a ‘day off’ without being connected to the Internet or our mobile devices?

Do you pay attention to your kids, or spouse when they’re talking to you or are you too busy texting away, barely glancing up, and mumbling a monosyllabic response?

Hmmm, if that’s the case, someone’s been in the ‘dog house’ more than once!

I know my kids and hubby have gotten frustrated with me being on the Internet too long, especially when I’m on JU responding to a blog or two. They’ll hear me laughing my head off and ask me what’s so funny. Sometimes I can explain to them, other times I can’t because they wouldn’t understand! Lately, since getting the Internet service at home all three of my kids have been fighting over whose turn it is. And I’ve had to be monitoring them, what they do, which sites they go on etc. I’ve even had to established rules, on how long each take, plus what they shouldn’t do while on a website.

My teenage daughter lives, lives on her cell phone. The child gets more calls than I do. She uses her 1000 minutes every month! Unbelievable!

My husband usually asks me what does she talk about, but he’s just as bad. He uses his 1000 minutes each month too and has been known to be on the phone for hours on end!

It’s definitely time to put these things aside and start talking to each other more. It will have to be up to me to make that happen. Oy! My son is stuck to his games, and of course endless cartoons!

What about you, does technology enhance your life, or ruin it?



Comments
on Aug 24, 2006

Having just spent $150 dollars on a game, router, (because MY router wouldn't run the game), and paying for tech support in the last 24 hours....well enhance isn't the word that comes to mind...

 

on Aug 24, 2006
Reply By: Tova7Posted: Thursday, August 24, 2006Having just spent $150 dollars on a game, router, (because MY router wouldn't run the game), and paying for tech support in the last 24 hours....well enhance isn't the word that comes to mind...


lol! i KNOW just how you feel! These days my son gets a new game when he trades the one he's tired of.
on Aug 24, 2006
I wonder if many people have thought about what their life was like without those gadgets (if they're old enough.)

Here's something I recently found:
Modern technology depletes human cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs, according to a psychiatric study conducted at King's College, London. And the curse of 'messaging' is to blame.Email users suffered a 10 per cent drop in IQ scores, more than twice the fall recorded by marijuana users, in a clinical trial of over a thousand participants. Doziness, lethargy and an inability to focus are classic characteristics of a spliffhead, but email users exhibited these particular symptoms to a "startling" degree, according to Dr Glenn Wilson.The deterioration in mental capacity was the direct result of the trialists' addiction to technology, researchers discovered.Email addicts were bombarded by context switches and developed an inability to distinguish between trivial and significant messages. Incredibly, 20 per cent of trialists jeopardized their immediate social relations by rushing off to "check their messages" in the middle of a conversation.Wilson's research is no flash in the pan. Computer technology in its modern, "interconnected" form is dumbing down the population more rapidly than television.A study of 100,000 school children in over 30 countries around the world testified that non-computer using kids performed better in literacy and numeracy schools than PC-using children. Education experts have dubbed it the "problem solving deficit disorder."

Link

on Aug 24, 2006
Reply By: IçonoçlastPosted: Thursday, August 24, 2006I wonder if many people have thought about what their life was like without those gadgets (if they're old enough.)


You know what? This is a great find. It is so true! I can't believe that some students are actually spelling words the way they do when they text each other. They no longer know how to spell simple words much less use them in sentences. I read an article abou t that recently too.

As much as technology is helping us, it hinders us in so many ways.
on Aug 24, 2006

I'd be lost without my telephone,  I need it for calling for refills,  doctor appts., bus rides,  and then there's just staying in touch with friends and family.

It was the computer and the internet that helped me find family all over the U.S.,  family I didn't even know existed!  What a wonderful thing to find cousins,  2nd cousins, 3rd cousins,  and find the family tree.

As for all those other devices I honestly don't need them and most of them I don't even know what the devil they are!

Maybe if I was back in the work force,  or younger,  or both I might have need of them. 

I was shocked and dismayed when my daughter showed me my oldest grandson's room,  ( he was 5 or 6 at the time) he had a VCR!!  unreal.   I strongly think that kids need to be outside playing softball,  kickball,  basketball,  not sitting in their room watching movies on their own VCR! 

Like all things I think these devices can be great tools! 

on Aug 24, 2006
I'd be lost without my telephone, I need it for calling for refills, doctor appts., bus rides, and then there's just staying in touch with friends and family.


I know Trudy. Not having a telephone at home would be hard.


I was shocked and dismayed when my daughter showed me my oldest grandson's room, ( he was 5 or 6 at the time) he had a VCR!! unreal. I strongly think that kids need to be outside playing softball, kickball, basketball, not sitting in their room watching movies on their own VCR!


Oh, lucky it wasn't a DVD player or PS II! I agee them getting out and getting exercise. For me too!!


Yes, they are great tools!~
on Aug 25, 2006
does technology enhance your life, or ruin it?


I'd have to say technology enhances my life. I like technology. If I could afford to have the latest, I would. But I'm not one for spending hours on end texting or talking on the phone. To be quite honest, I'd prefer to either write to people or talk to them face to face. As for my music, if it weren't for technology, I'd still be trying to find a drummer and bass player to record with. Thank goodness for intuitive music programs.
on Aug 25, 2006
I'd have to say technology enhances my life. I like technology. If I could afford to have the latest, I would


Yes, I would too. Maybe not some of them that are so popular but the ones that would be more useful! For example, I need a new blender and I would love to get one of those that does it all!






To be quite honest, I'd prefer to either write to people or talk to them face to face.


I hear ya. Nothing beats a face to face, getting together and having fun!


As for my music, if it weren't for technology, I'd still be trying to find a drummer and bass player to record with. Thank goodness for intuitive music programs.


Absolutely! Thank heavens too! I think my daughter would agree with you on this!
on Aug 25, 2006
Laptop, cell phone, microwave. I could do my job without these things, but they do indeed help me work and live more efficiently and with fewer hassles.
on Aug 25, 2006
Laptop, cell phone, microwave. I could do my job without these things, but they do indeed help me work and live more efficiently and with fewer hassles.


Absolutely M!
on Sep 02, 2006


Hum!! if I consider my almost illegible handwriting day by day, I must consider I am dependin too much on wordprocessor. I do seem to realise now how helpless I have become without my PC/ Laptop. True, i cant think of living without the techno gizmos including my cellphone, ipods and other gadgets, but i sometimes starts to think, whether we are in control of these gizmos or its the other way round?. I have to admit it that our lives today have become very mechanical. God forbid, our soul also become mechanical too! then our existence one day will be nothing sort of technological marvel for creatures from the outer space, who will find the earth inhabited by a two legged creature with all sorts of gadgets sticking out of his body and going beep beep on close proximity.
on Sep 06, 2006
but i sometimes starts to think, whether we are in control of these gizmos or its the other way round?.


LOL, I think it's the other way around most times!


our existence one day will be nothing sort of technological marvel for creatures from the outer space, who will find the earth inhabited by a two legged creature with all sorts of gadgets sticking out of his body and going beep beep on close proximity.


Maybe that will let them change their minds if they've come to take over! Bhwaaaaaaaaa!! [just trying to be funny!LOL!]
on Sep 22, 2006
I think I'd make it just fine, Donna!   
WWW Link
on Sep 24, 2006
ShovelheatSeptember 22, 2006 14:10:30Reply #13
I think I'd make it just fine, Donna


I know you can Joe! Nice song!