Something has recently been revealed to my husband and I. The majority of the members of our house are addicted to technology. In my opinion, anything that consumes you to the degree that technology does to us, is bad news.
The scary thing is that I do not have the will power on my own to break my addiction. This is no different than alcoholics and drug addicts feel. Could I spend an entire day not looking at my phone? Honestly, I don’t think I could. Here’s what happened to bring me to this conclusion:
Our family was on their way to visit with family on Christmas Day and I wanted to sing Christmas carols (honestly, I wasn’t feeling very jolly this year and was trying to lift my spirits) I glanced into the back seat to see all 3 of my older children with their noses stuck in their new game systems. For the first time I got a true picture of what I look like every single day. Then, the following day, I asked my daughter to clear the kitchen table off. She took off running to her room to grab her toy phone to “be like mommy” because Mommy ALWAYS cleans while talking on the phone.
I am sick to my stomach to think of how much I have missed of their little childhoods. So, that brings me to my New Years Resolution. In 2014 I will make an honest effort to put down my phone, turn off the television, play board games, listen and LOOK at my children when they speak to me, and spend TIME with them.
We started this journey by deactivating our facebook accounts. I, sadly, cannot stay away otherwise and am in a sense detoxing myself from it to hopefully start over in a few weeks. We are planning to reactivate them on a set date but I am waiting to see how it goes because we may decide on prolonging the detox.
In just this first week I have made some observations:
-My children are lacking eye contact. It has improved greatly just in this first week so I’m extremely excited to see what more will come out of this. In the past, when they speak to us, not always but very often we were preoccupied with some form of technology. It tends to grab your attention and keep you locked into it.
-I miss paper. It is so therapeutic to sit down and actually write down your thoughts. This is why journaling has been used in therapy forever. You just don’t get the same release from typing. Writing is private, you can tear it up, burn it, and it’s gone forever. With the internet things are there to stay.
-I tend to get tension headaches. I’m sure the strain on my eyes and the constant input of information are contributing factors.
-I miss actually having conversations with people. I cannot even begin to count the times I have said something to someone and they reply “oh yea! I saw that on facebook.” It ends the conversation and you are left searching awkwardly for things to talk about.
-It cannot be pleasing to God. There are some things in our personal lives that should be kept private. I know that I am guilty of oversharing.
-Once again, it is an addiction. Remember a few months back when facebook had “technical difficulties” and the site shut down for just a few minutes. The entire world went into a panic! There were news articles about the “great FACEBOOK SHUTDOWN.” A lot of us do not have people’s contact information and rely on social networking to keep in touch. It is scary for anything to have this much control over our lives.
So, if you could, dear blog readers, could you please pray for our family while we continue on this journey. I am so excited to repair bonds in our home and see what 2014 holds for us. I am thrilled to actually take my life back and destroy the hold technology has over us. The first step in overcoming anything is admitting you have a problem, right? So, here’s to the New Year! What’s your resolution?
Living the Lacuna 
What an amazing article and a great plan!