A Good Idea?

Remember when people used to talk to each other? While technology may be a wonderful thing, it has created a generation of people who either do not want to or can't interact with each other because they simply don't know how. I don't know how many times I've been out in public and have witnessed groups of young people sitting together texting away on their phones instead of engaging each other in conversation and laughing out loud instead of texting "lol". What have we become? Do we no longer need human contact? Do we no longer need to gaze into each other's eyes?

When my children were young occasionally we would have no television/ computer/videogame days and yes, at first it caused great wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it didn't take long for the family to adjust to those days of intimate bonding. We played board games. We played cards. We played outside. We went to the beach. We found other things to do, but more importantly whatever we decided to do we did it TOGETHER.

My daughter, as an adult made a decision not to ever get cable or satellite television . When my grandson was young the first thing he would do whenever he would come for a visit was to find the cartoon network. What a treat that was for him. Yes, he played video games and had a computer, but he didn't spend countless hours watching television. In fact, in later years when I would mention some television show on TV that I thought he might like a lot of times he truly didn't know the show. I have to admit it was almost refreshing, but I always would whisper in his ear and tell him he needed to "binge" a season or two of shows like Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy just so when his friends at school would talk about shows they were watching, he'd be in the loop. I was that "bad" Nana!  He even developed a liking for That 70's Show. I thought that was a riot because he did that on his own.

BTW...Happy 21st Birthday, Nathan! I love you!

A few years ago I questioned him about why he's not on Facebook and he's just not interested in it. Hallelujah! I have to say I'm proud of him because I think it's a wise decision on his part. I think Facebook has become ultra intrusive in so many people's private data and has also become a vehicle for propaganda to unwittingly to get spread around by uninformed "nitwits."  My apologies if you're one of those nitwits...If you are, FACT CHECK FIRST, before you share and spread lies with the rest of Facebook. Thanks!

Now on to the good stuff...
If this doesn't warm the cockles of your heart, nothing will! [lol]



MARENGO, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) - ‘No phone, new friends Fridays’ is a new tradition at Iowa Valley Junior-Senior High School in Marengo. Principal Janet Behrens started it this year.

[Students take part in No phone, new friends Friday]

She said she noticed students at the school with their heads down, looking at their phones. Instead, she wanted them to look at each other, and learn face-to-face communication skills.

Students like junior Page Weick say they're seeing a difference. “Everybody enjoys it,” Weick said.

Students get a colored card when they walk in the cafeteria that tells them at which table to sit. The tables also have conversation starters.

“I think it's fun, I like doing it,” said Sahara Kanke, a freshman.

It's also a no-phone zone.

“Every little thing helps in this day and age with all of the things that you have going on, all the pressures that they have with social media. It's nice to see them take a break from all that,” Behrens said.

It took students a couple of weeks to get used to the idea.

“When it first started, I didn't want to do it at all,” Kanke explained.

“At the all-school assembly on the first day of school, there was a little bit of like, ‘No way, she's not really going to do that,'” Behrens said.

“Conversation is one of the most human, and humanizing things that we can do,” said Nathan Hodges, who teaches communication studies at Coe College.

He has an assignment where students go on a 24-hour tech detox, showing the importance of human connection in a digital age.

“You learn how to listen to people. You learn how to empathize with them,” he said.

Students said they think a phone-free lunch hour, spent talking with new friends, is helping their school to become a kinder place.

“People are more nice to each other now because they got to know each other at lunch,” Kanke said.

“I think people have a lot more respect for others,” Weick said.

Copyright 2019 KCRG via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.


Read the original version of this article at kcrg.com.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?

Recently, I started thinking about all the changes that televisions have undergone in my lifetime. When I was a kid, a TV set was tiny compared to the room size ones we have today and initially, the television shows were all in black and white. Imagine that? We had to imagine what the colors were! Finally owning a color TV was like manna from heaven.

Getting the display on screen just right was sometimes a little tricky. Besides the picture rolling at times and having to be adjusted, someone would have to "play" with the rabbit ears to position them in just the right spot to get the best picture possible while someone else strategically positioned would bark out "a little more that way..." If the reception still sucked, many people would wrap bow-like pieces of tinfoil on the ends of the rabbit ears hoping for some magic result. I still have a pair of rabbit ears poked away in a closet just in case of a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion. Now, all I need to do is stock up on food and weapons...oh yeah, and lots of tin foil for the rabbit ears and to make tin foil hats.

Keep in mind, when I was a kid we only had 3 networks...ABC, CBS and NBC. Nowadays, we have hundreds of channels, but many times people complain that they can't find anything to watch. Hey, if you can't find anything on the television, there's Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and a slew of other options. Three channels and guess what? I don't remember anyone ever complaining that they couldn't find something to watch except when the channels would sign off late at night. Insomniacs were S.O.L in those days! I don't remember exactly what time sign off was. I know on the weekends we would stay up and watch monster movies on Weird (a local program hosted by Eddie Driscoll) and Outer Limits, but I don't remember exactly when the broadcast "flatline" would occur.

One thing that I always thought was funny was when the ominous question, "It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?" was asked every night. I don't remember exactly when or why that stopped. Can you imagine if that was asked on television nowadays?  Today's youth would roll their eyes and say something horribly disrespectful. Back in the day, we might get away with an occasional eyeroll, but most of us knew better than to tell our parents to "fuck off "

Also can you imagine having to walk to the television in order to change the channel? How undignified is that? Parents claimed that's what having children were for...that and doing dishes or any other menial household chores that they had grown weary of doing. They claimed it taught us responsibility. I'll have to ponder that one another few decades! The only thing the convenience of having a remote control has done is to enable us to become lazier and less motivated. Channel surfing wasn't done back in the Stone Age because having three channels didn't require much surfing. One! Two! Three! Presto! You're back to the beginning.

I just looked at the first picture I posted and two things immediately jumped out at me...my mother should have been horse-whipped for cutting my hair short and perming it (what the hell was she thinking) and she had horrible taste in décor. I guess I could look at it like this...I was fashion forward! I wore an afro long before they were in style and her decorating style was eclectic. Phew! That takes the sting completely out of looking at that picture.

CREATURES OF HABIT

Long ago (and far away) I programmed myself to require "background noise" in order to fall asleep. Yes, I actually do sleep for short periods of time occasionally. If I fall asleep while watching television and someone turns the television off, I immediately wake up. Silence boggles my brain! Years ago, reading a book was like a sleeping pill for me, but now I can't read. Books are purchased and piled on my nightstand with the first page reread about a thousand times before I give up. WTF! I used to be an avid reader and now, I enjoy nothing.

Is that the depression stripping me of all pleasure? Does depression affect comprehension and our ability to retain what we read? I think I have come to know what adult ADD (attention deficit disorder) feels like. When I have the strength and stamina, I start one thing and before long I find myself doing some entirely unrelated task without finishing the first. Round and round I go until finally I come back to the first task and finish it.

This cycle used to happen quickly, but these days some tasks take months or years to complete. Procrastination? Not really! It's my distractibility that keeps me unfocused and unable to stay on task. Perhaps, I've always been this way, but unable to see it until I got depressed and started slowing down and really examining myself.

Gratitude statement: I'm grateful for the hundreds of television stations I have to choose from late at night.