Everyday, it seems like I read another article about how Facebook, cellphones, and the Internet are ruining humanity. Perhaps the people writing most of these articles are too young to remember the "olden days." The days of party-lines before the term landline even was invented. When finding answers to your questions involved going to the library and using the card catalog. Writing letters (to one person at a time) - and waiting for them to be delivered - was the best way to communicate with someone at a distance. And then wait for a response. When people were only concerned with what happened in their neighborhood or their town.
Yes, today's instant connections can swallow up a person's time. But it is like blaming alcohol for people's addiction to it. Prohibition was a notable failure - as was making abstinence made a religious premise. Learning habits to regulate one's time spent on-line is as essential as learning that consuming excessive alcohol is a poor idea. Too much of anything is a poor idea.
When I go lunch and look around me, I see people eating alone on their lunch breaks - and chatting away on their cell-phones. I think, go for it, because there was a time in the past where phoning someone meant finding one of those phones attached to the wall with an umbilical cord.
When I sit down at my computer in the morning, news of world events is just a click away. My image of the world as a globe has shrunk and includes places that do matter to me and the rest of humanity.
When I check my Facebook account, I know some of what is going on today among my family's and friend's lives here and far away. A time-consuming task if I was limited to a landline phone and letters.
When I am writing and want to know something, I can search the Internet, rather than put down my pen, get in my car and drive to a library. And hope the book I want is not checked out.
When I use my credit card or bank account, I can track my purchases, checks and deposits. Rather than waiting for the end of the month to discover problems. And it has made it much easier to budget my finances.
When a family member (or me) buys a family member a gift they want, we can send that info out to the rest of the family - rather than multiple gifts to be returned after the holidays.
Perhaps you get my point?
The problem is not that all these tools are bad for us, like eating a whole bag of my daughter's Christmas toffee all at once. It is learning to use them well.
Have a guilt-free time on your computer today - and know when to stop. A face-to-face lunch with friends will never be replaced by the clicking of the keys in front of me.
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