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I promised to let you know what the results were regarding how much leisure time I’m spending on the internet. Every time I paused in the midst of work, or spent time in my off hours surfing the internet, I timed it. My results weren’t exactly accurate, because I’d get up to do something else and leave the timer running for an two hours, or press “stop” instead of pause, and erase time accrued, but! As near as I can tell I spend about 2.5 hours a day on the net for leisure. Not too bad ( I can partially justify it because I so rarely watch TV), but not great either.
But I realized this week, it’s not just me. As a family, we spend more time with technology than we do with each other. Or at least that’s how it feels sometimes. If I’m not on the computer, my kids are. Or Aaron’s working on his laptop. If the kids aren’t watching TV, then Aaron is. And if it’s not the TV or the computer, it’s the iPod, or the Gameboy, ad infinitum. I don’t mean we spend all our time in front of something that requires electricity; we are a one-TV, one-computer family (excluding Aaron’s work laptop). We love to read, my kids have tons of friends in the neighborhood, but we do spend more time than is… optimal, I think.
Aaron and I were talking about it this weekend. As our kids get older they’re going to have more stuff to do and more places to go. That’s great, but I want to make sure we stay connected. So we decided that Saturday is going to technology free. I’ll try to plan a craft or something fun to do at home. We’ll read, play games, go sight seeing, and we’ll shut technology out for a day. Frankly, I don’t think it’s going to be very much fun for any of us in the beginning. It’s a discipline not to have instant information, instant communication, instant entertainment. But I do think that once we get used to it, we’ll really have fun together. I’ll let you know how it goes. I tend to start with a bang and end with a whimper, but even if it’s only a temporary thing I’m interested to see who I am, who we are, without HBO and AOL. At least for one day a week.
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I think tech free day is a great idea. I am constantly on the computer and my husband carries a Blackberry. I find that we’re addicted to being connected and it’s trunkating our communication and distracting us.
I’ll see how you do and then I think I am going to borrow this idea from you.
Nataly | October 29th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Very interesting experiment. It’s funny — we don’t even THINK of TV as “technology” at my house, it just EXISTS, like we all exist.
I wonder how hard it would be for my family to cut it out for an entire day? Probably REALLY hard (although I’ve always wanted to do that annual Turn Off the TV Week exercise). I’ll be interested to see what transpires at your house.
Lee | October 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
When my kids were younger, I used to informally monitor their TV, computer, gameboy, and various other screen-focussed activities. When they reached a (completely mom-subjective) critical point, I would declare a “no-screen” day, or 48 hours, or even a no-screen week.
No screen meant NO screen. Not computer games, not television, not DVD’s, no hand-held computing devices. Nothing.
I found it generally took a day or two, and then they sort of recalibrated themselves down to reasonable levels. They interacted more with each other (and with me), they read more, they went out to play more. It was great.
And then, as we relaxed, the amount of screen time would increase steadily until, three weeks, six weeks later, I would declare another “no-screen” session.
(And the more and the louder they complained? The more I would say “If you can’t cope without it, that PROVES there’s a problem. Be calm about it, act like it’s no big deal, and you can have it back SOONER.”)
Now they’re older teens, and I let them determine their own screen time. My son watches NO television at all, but a fair bit of computer. My youngest keeps it all in reasonable bounds. My oldest? I don’t know: she lives on her own — so it’s totally up to her, but she always has time to talk when her mother calls!
MaryP | October 31st, 2007 at 2:02 am
I’m looking forward to hearing more about this experiment! The togetherness part could be fun. I recommend baking, including prepping for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Daisy | November 3rd, 2007 at 1:28 am