It is Monday. Here I am again on my computer. Working, networking, blogging, writing, basically doing the 2010 thing.
I love it. I love technology. I love blogging. I love being able to hop on the computer and find something I need to know in an instant. I love networking with people across the country. I love having a tiny little device in my pocket at all times to be able to reach my kids. I love being connected.
But this past weekend as I watched my son texting, my husband on his laptop, my daughter with her iPod, and myself on Twitter, I wished the world were what it was just 15 years ago…1995. Back in 1995 I worked for an Internet company. Not many people had the ability to connect in their houses, I did. I had the internet for when I needed it. But that was all. When I needed it.
It was supplemental. Now it is required. We can’t live without it.
I admit I am someone who needs my internet access. I need that ability. However, I also think it would be nice and basically somewhat relieving to go back to 1995 for just a week. Especially with my kids the ages they are now. To have them go back to that day with no knowledge of today. To have them live in a world where they didn’t know what Facebook was. Where they could live life without the digital world nearby. Where they could concentrate fully on what is going on around them, family, and the simple life…not the little electronic device in their pockets. Where there is no such thing as Twitter, Facebook, or smartphones. Where they could appreciate what real life is. Where I too could honestly focus completely on life, real life.
How about you? Would you go back?
On a side note: Thank you to Sue Jackson of Great Books for Kids and Teens for the award. Check out her blog. It is a must for reviewing books for kids and teens.
{ 23 comments }
No. Freakin. Way.
I went without my Cell phone on Saturday and I almost died.
It’s really sad how controlled we’ve become by technology, I agree – but I could never ‘go back’ I don’t think. I’ve become to accustom to my life in the digital age.
I would! In a heartbeat. I was only 8 in 1995 but I remember a world that was not dependent on twitter, facebook and four square. I am actually trying to raise my children so that we spend more time outside than in, and less time with technology. I really believe all this techology is one major factor in the obesity issues everywhere.
But, like the rest of the world, the hubby and I are dependent on technology. We have to have it. Smartphones, ipods, laptops, interenet, gaming systems. All of it.
.-= Mama P´s last blog ..Oh Snap xD =-.
Yes. Yes, please.
Because then I could have a conversation with someone who isn’t texting simultaneously, and I never would have been in the car accident I was in last year caused by a guy who was playing with his iPod while going 70 in the highway.
I would miss Google and Wikipedia, though.
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..The One Where Im Feeling My Feelings =-.
Go back to the year that I graduated high school? There’s a scary thought!
Though I can see your point I do feel the opposite of you, I wonder what life would have been like with all of today’s technology when I was a teenager.
I have always had a shy nature and the online world has helped me out so much! I am a lot more outgoing (though still a naturally quiet person) because of all of the positive interactions I’ve had online.
I used to have 50 pen pals and I dreamed of connecting with them on a computer after I saw some ‘futuristic’ show where a rich guy had email. I would have absolutely had a blast with myspace and facebook as a teen.
.-= {Grow With} Stacy´s last blog ..How to Get Your Picture on Your Blog Comments =-.
I have been thinking for quite a while that it would be nice to have a tech-free day in our household. No computer, no video games, no extended periods of television watching simply out of boredom. I wouldn’t at all mind a return to fewer people having cell phones (and using them, rudely, while at the dinner table, while driving/walking/biking/working/on a date etc.) and fewer people plugged into social networking sites, online. I would miss blogging, and family history research on the computer, for sure! But – there are just so many people who are abusing the good nature of others by being continually plugged in to their electronics. Someone I know got a blackberry for work purposes. A friend, who has had one forever, said, “So – how do you like your tether?” Because. . . since the blackberry entered the workforce, this person has it on at home because he must now be readily accessible to anyone who needs to call him – even on weekends. AAARGH!
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Late Christmas =-.
You can have my iphone when you pry it from my cold, dead hands;)!!!
The two best tech advances (aside from the internet) in the last several years has been the iphone and tivo. I love them both and both have enriched my life, allowing me more Quality time to spend with my family. I don’t get lost, I don’t get stuck in traffic. I can read the news to my husband while he’s driving and the kids listen too. I don’t have to be home at a certain time to catch a certain show, so I spend more time outside with the kids. I can put my son on the computer to play a game while giving my daughter a bath, thereby giving her my full attention. Yes, I could hand him a book but he’s 4 and doesn’t read yet, but he plays puzzle games online and knows more dinosaur names than I do.
Sigh…we’re a tech family through and through, no 1995 for me thank you very much.
Cheers!
J.
.-= J Is a Bird´s last blog ..The Sketchbook Project – I just signed up! =-.
This one is hard for me. I love technology. Gosh, my job centers around it–I teach online classes. Still, I get mad when my husband only half hears me because he’s too busy texting someone (someone I do not know because they don’t call on the home phone to ask to speak with him anymore.) I also don’t want my little boy dependent on it. I fear the lack of social skills he will develop because he’s too busy visiting people online instead of in person. I also fear that he will never know what it’s like to have quiet time–time where you listen to yourself think and wonder about the world without interruptions…This is a great topic indeed…
.-= Annette Fay´s last blog ..Mondays Mommy Moment-Lost in a Sea of Sunflowers =-.
honestly, i wouldn’t. there are goods with all the bads. and there are a lot of reasons and ways that the internet and technology have helped us.
I’m right there with you! I have two active blogs (and another occasional one), Facebook, endless e-mails, and I work as a freelance writer – on the computer. I love the connection. As someone living with a chronic illness that can be very isolating, the internet has drastically changed my life by allowing me to connect with others all over the world dealing with the same challenges I am. I don’t want to give that up.
BUT…I have been realizing just this past year that sometimes I get too wrapped up in the online world and so do my kids. I really enjoy when we go on vacation each summer for a 3-week long road trip and I am unconnected – it’s a nice break. No, I have not yet given into the smart phone trend! Honestly, I just don’t want to pay for data plans for our phones. My 16-year old has texting on his, but my husband and I don’t. Technology is creeping into our vacations a bit – with handheld electronic games for the kids and my oldest had a cell phone for the first time this summer – but our trips and our camping weekends are still mostly tech-free and a nice break when we can all enjoy each other’s company without distractions.
Unlike some of the youngsters who have commented here, I lived a perfectly happy life without the internet for the first 3 1/3 decades of my life! I think we could all use a break from the constant connection once in awhile.
Sue
It’s funny that you wrote this for todays post. Just this weekend I was thinking about proud I was that we (husband, daughter and myself) were sitting outside into the late evening listening to music. Then I really took a look around and realized that both my husband and I were on our iPads and our 3 year old daughter was playing with her itouch.
I love technology! I love that it makes our lives so easy. I love that my daughter is learning to read, math and so on because of technology, but I think a good game of shoots and ladders is in our future. Who am I kidding.
.-= Theresa´s last blog ..Back to school advice- from a few Moms who ROCK! =-.
Sometimes, I have to turn off my cell. But the net? I get jittery when I need to restart my computer! MUST.BE.CONNECTED.
Oh, yes I would. Even if for a weekend. It does seem something extra that pulls me away from “real life” and I struggle with the balance. Luckily, I am way behind according to cell phone standards these days and am not really connected when out of the house. I love family vacations where we are unplugged but connected to each other
.-= Melissa (Confessions of a Dr.Mom)´s last blog ..The Remaining Pieces =-.
HA! I would love it, I’m sure!
I just don’t but my kids the electronic stuff. They are young so it is easy right now but I don’t have to worry about them with their nose in the DS. They use my Smart Phone but I have control over that so I can tell them no!
Following you now! Check us out!
Tiffany
.-= Tiffany @ Home Grown Families´s last blog ..MOMMY LOVES TUESDAYS 21 =-.
I hear what your saying, but I have to say out loud and proud I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! My undergraduate is technology, my masters is technology……… And now that I live abroad away from my family, I need it to keep in touch with them constantly. I do remember the days without it and they were enjoyed to the fullest, but I feel that we have evolved and technology comes with that in a big way.
I don’t know how I survived without technology in my 20′s! I love this age too, there’s pretty much no excuse to remain ignorant anymore and for that reason alone, I love it!
As for my kids, I have a tween getting slowly addicted to the Internet and my other two kids are too young yet to care…we still play board games and watch dvds, such is the simple life!
To answer selfishly: no, I wouldn’t go back. I am less lonely, more happy with the internet.
Before the internet, I was very much at a loss for people to talk to. In our small town, I am the outcast. I homeschool, for one. That makes me certifiable by some. Number 2, I am the only ethnic person in this town, that makes me “unfamiliar”.
And, I am a “bookworm” who speaks and wants to speak of things that are “out there.” Reason #3 to fear me, evidentally…I want to talk about more than how to bake a cake without doming.
SO, there you have it: I had to turn to the internet for finding my people.
On the other hand, yeah: I wish we could go back to what we had growing up…lots of time spent playing and being one on one.
Wistful for that.
I’d definitely go back-if I didn’t know what I know now. I think it would be hard to go back knowing all the things I do now, and it would definitely be hard to live without blogging
but it could be done. My kiddos aren’t quite old enough to be so worried about all the techno-licious stuff these days, but they will be one day. I’m sure by then it may even be a bit worse!! Decisions, decisions.
Great post!!!
.-= Kristen´s last blog ..Socially Savvy Parents on Twitter =-.
The Internet has so many great uses and it does make life easier in so many ways, but I agree with you. Especially now that I have a teenager. It truly makes raising children so much more difficult. Unfortunately, there’s no going back, even for a week.
Thanks for linking up to Tweet Me Tuesday! I’m tweeting this.
.-= Melinda´s last blog ..Tweet Me Tuesday- Twanalysis =-.
I enjoy technology, but I’ve often dreamed of living in simpler times. (I’ve even blogged about it.) I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Life may not have had all the conveniences of technology that we have today, but it was fun and I enjoyed life. In some ways it felt freer than life today. But then maybe that’s because I was a kid and I didn’t have the burdens I do today.
.-= Niki´s last blog ..Its a boy! And school stuff =-.
The short answer is: no.
I live in a very rural area. The internet is what keeps me connected to my friends and family. And, as we do not have telephone lines to the house or cable/satellite television, we appreciate having the internet to replace those things we don’t have.
I love all the information I can find quickly without having to go to our rural library and wait weeks for inter-library loan books to arrive. I love that I can send out last-minute invitations to people. I love that I can text a message to my husband at work instead of interrupting him with a phone call or waiting until he gets home.
And, in 1995, there were always calls for “Turn Off Your TV” weeks and campaigns to turn off the machine and do other things. It’s really the same now…we just have more machines to deal with.
Everyone in our family has techno-gadgets. We also know when to turn them off, too.
.-= Michele – The Professional Family Manager´s last blog ..Six Ways Business Cards Can Make Mom’s Life Easier =-.
What a great question! While I am addicting to technology as well, at times I wish I could go back…even a few years ago when I didn’t have a blackberry or lap top. Life was simple then…I felt like I had more in life conversations, was more focused on the kids, got more done around the house, etc. I am really trying to step away and not be so connected…or at least limit myself.
Good question!
But in 1995 I was a High School senior who was already addicted to AOL instant messenger (connected through a phone line, of course!).
So I’d have to go back to like 1991
And I would, but then I’d wonder what was the name of the girl who played Ariel in Footloose and I’d need to log on to imdb.com and it would drive me crazy until I did. 
I came over from Life Without Pink when she mentioned this post…because it is SAD how dependent I am on technology! I honestly freak out if I can’t get wireless service, etc. Maybe it would be nice to not have to be so “connected” for a day or two, but I’d probably be itching for a fix in the first few hours!