Take a Tech Detox for the Kids
I am taking the Causes.com pledge to unplug for the National Day of Unplugging for my 3-year-old. I already see how much my use of technology has impacted him. He walks around the house saying, “Where’s my iPhone? I have a call in a minute.” And he has two (fake) phones he carries around in his pockets in case an “important call” comes in. I know all too well whom he is modeling.
While I have a full-time job that very much involves technology and I cannot take the six-month digital detox that I envy Professor Jennifer Rauch for, I certainly can unplug for 24 hours on the National Day of Unplugging (NDU) on March 23-24, 2012, and work to make it a weekly ritual.
I’ve already been practicing. Yes, sometimes it’s a pain not to have my phone on me (it took me a little longer during a recent unplugged weekend to find the Lego store with my son without Siri giving me directions), but it has yet to become an emergency situation. Remember the days when the hostess at a restaurant would come to tell you at your table that you had a phone call from home? Perhaps not as convenient as an immediate connection but how many times have you really had the babysitter call you while you were out on a date with a true emergency. It’s never happened to me in my nine years as a parent. My last text from our babysitter was that my son was asking if he could watch a show. The answer was “no” before I left home and it was still “no” then. I doubt she would have called the restaurant to ask about that.
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