Tech No

We recently spent a long weekend in St. Louis, catching a Thomas Rhett 🤠 concert and a Cardinals-Dodgers ⚾️ baseball game. It was a kick-off for summer of sorts. Besides those two events, we had nothing on the agenda. Just the goal of good food and fun times. 🥳

Our seats at the ⚾️ baseball game were next to a family of four. The kids were early elementary and preschool ages, and they couldn’t care less about the game. Now, hear me when I say these parents deserved an afternoon of ☀️ sunshine and ballpark 🌭 hotdogs. If they had the money to buy 💵 tickets for the kids, more power to them. They probably hoped the kids would have a good time.

Want to know what the kids did while a ⚾️ baseball game happened in front of them? Played games and watched videos on their 📲 phones. The youngest complained several times that the crowd was too loud and she couldn’t hear her show.

At the 🎸 concert, a girl about 9 or 10 years old in the row behind us sat glued to her 📲 phone while everyone else sang along to every song.

I’m glad these parents tried to give their children real-life experiences. 😀 I’m just sad that the kids couldn’t look up from their phones long enough to enjoy them. 😏

I think parents of young kids today have some really tough challenges that we didn’t experience, primarily due to more advanced and accessible technology. Our kids used 🖥 technology, but it was nothing compared to what is available now. 📲 So when ours were bored or uninterested in whatever activity we forced them to sit through, they either watched anyway or found a way to occupy the time. Action figures. 🖌 Drawing. 📚 Reading. Something creative.

When I was teaching, I saw technology invading my students’ attention more and more every year. If I’m honest, I’d say that some kids are addicted to their 📱 phones. Probably some adults, too. Technology is a double-edged 🗡 sword, isn’t it? I rely on it every single day and am grateful for the lifestyle improvements that tech provides. 🙌 However, I wonder if we need more self-imposed limitations on how and how often we use it. 🤔

Enjoy the ⚾️ ball game and the 🎸 concert. The phones will still be there.

Just thinking out loud. 💖