Electronics (and) Attachment

There is no doubt that our day can easily be consumed by our electronics. Video games, social networking, blogging, emails... even making calls to friends and family... takes a significant amount of time out our lives if we're not careful. Further, it can affect children and their development - in every aspect - in just as negative a way as to adults.

Technology is a great tool and should be treated as nothing more. The Internet was first developed as a new way for the military to pass information between squads and between allies and became the hub for, theoretically, all of the world's information. You watch a movie like Transcendence and see just how much information could be out there but we spend most of our time focusing on 140 characters or less.

I find the biggest issue with technology today is its ease of use. Cell phones, tablets, computers, and alike boot up quickly, run on powerful batteries, and can connect to every form of radio wave we use for communication. With that ease of use comes ease of access - said with some irony attached - which can lead to addiction to various forms of gaming and pornography.

What we do with that access to pixels is put up (fire)walls around ourselves against the people around us. Individuals within couples will complain about the other not spending enough devoted time - time away from the object of addiction; often just asking for a half hour without the tech in hand or in view. What is concerning is I am now hearing this from children.

And it comes down to this simple act: Put the tech away for increasing increments every day. Regardless of the profession it is possible to put the tech away for an extra hour per day literally starting at just 1 minute. I propose two challenges:
A) Day 1: 1 minute. Day 2: 1 minute. Day 3: 2 minutes.  Day 4: 3 minutes. Day 5: 5 minutes. Day 6: 8 minutes... and so on. (I call it the Fibonacci challenge)
B) Day 1: 1 minute. Day 2: 2 minutes. Day 3: 4 minutes.  Day 4: 8 minutes. Day 5: 16 minutes.... so on
C) One minute added per day.

In each case, this must be consecutive time as opposed to random minutes away from the tech. As you build up the minutes, use the time you have earned to do something with friends, spouses, children, and family to make up the gap.

​Enjoy.