living half alive. until i found the doc.: Back to the Roots.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Back to the Roots.

I don't know if this disgusts me or scares the hell out of me:

A study done by AVG found that 19% of 2-5 year old kids could play with a smart phone app, while only 9% of those very same kids could tie their own shoes.

And learning how to dress themselves isn’t the only thing that these kids are not learning.

Tech skills are replacing life skills.

More kids know how to open a web browser than swim by themselves. More kids know how to play computer games than ride a bike. Pretty scary. Competent in life? Or they just know how to play with electronic toys.

Now, all you parents out there. I want to encourage you to take a look at your own parenting skills. Your children will take your lead. Are you coming home and sitting in front of the television and telling them to go read? It doesn’t work that way. Your children will also look at your own work ethic. If you say you are going to go and fix the broken toilet this weekend, and come the weekend you are not fixing the toilet, your children will see that. If you have a desire to try new things and learn new things, your children will also reflect a boredom in just sitting around watching television. If you like to read, even if you don't like to read, cuddle up with your kids and read your book while they read theirs. I for one am scared at the amount of technology that is taking over our lives.

So, just because I don't have children doesn’t mean that technology is taking over different aspects of my own life, I am committing now to put forth effort to get back to my own roots. I am going to challenge myself to something right now for 2 weeks. I encourage you to find something in your own life to challenge yourself to.

My challenge: I am not going to get on Facebook or turn on my television for 2 weeks. I am herby committing to that and I hope those of you who see me on a regular basis will ask me how it is going. I will report back on my experience here in 2 weeks. If any of my readers want to challenge themselves to a similar challenge, and want to share your own experiences, I would be happy to feature you on the blog to share your own experiences. 2 weeks starts today and ends on February 21. I may even keep it going longer than that.

I will tell you that I am going to be linking my blog on Facebook, but I can do that without actually getting on, so even if you see a blog update doesn’t mean I didn’t follow through on my deal.