A friend of mine, Marion, recently shared a thought provoking video on her Facebook page called ‘A silent message to us all’. It’s an advertisement for Dtac, a mobile phone company in Thailand, that shows people so engrossed in their mobile phones that they forget the world around them ….. and that happens at our house too.

It’s hard to get a good conversation going in this house most evenings, by the time the dinner rush has finished and homework, soccer, kick boxing and all other activities are complete, everyone seems to scuttle off to the nearest electronic device.

In the sitting room the husband is usually found with the feet up, TV on, cup of tea on the side table and the tablet on his lap. (it’s a blackberry, really wanted an ipad but this was the cheaper option) He loves to relax at the end of the day and catch up on the horse racing, news and any other sports.

One look in the ‘play room’ and one son is usually goggle eyed and plonked in front of the computer and the other in front of the Xbox, both of course with head phones on and in their own worlds. If that’s not the case, then they are on their ipods or mobile phones with ear phones in the ears and totally oblivious to their surroundings.

And I am the biggest culprit, while my husband and the boys are in their worlds, I am in my own and usually found on the laptop creating a new caricature, blogging or catching up on Facebook. When I do log off the laptop the mobile phone is always close at hand, God forbid I miss a text, a Facebook or a Twitter notification as soon as they come in!

When did we all become so hooked to technology? A fellow blogger Belle, wrote a beautiful piece recently called ‘Today Meant‘, which is about ignoring the addictive and consuming social media and spending the day with her daughter. There is more to life than the internet, social media and games (I am still ignoring all the Candy Crush invites) and sometimes we really need to turn off the computers, phones and ipads more often and get out and enjoy what’s around us.

Life is too short and it doesn’t all have to be shared on the internet (me being philosophical again 😉 ), so get out and enjoy friends and family more and try to have conversations that don’t include the words Facebook, Twitter or Youtube (and in my case blog!). 🙂

Mr Techie

Mr Techie

Framed Caricatures make unique gifts. Contact Carmel at bagsbycarmel@eircom.net for more information.