I recently read a magazine article (Relevant) that kept applauding me at turns because I, part of this era of decreasing-attention-spans, had managed to stick with a print article that long. And I have to admit, with much sadness, that the writer's tactic worked--I did keep reading because it was almost a dare and I wanted to prove to myself that I was not one of "those" people always rushing, preferring all their information in tidy, truncated bites, with the inability/lack of desire to read what was once a standard article-length.
I tell myself I scan and only partially read media these days because I am a writer myself and I don't have time to read anything unnecessary if I am ever to get to writing myself! I tell myself I speed-read, especially anything online, because I prioritize my real life time (time with my family, friends and my time writing and reading books). But however I rationalize it, it's still true. I am just the type of consumer who's shrinking attention span is changing (and has been changed by) technology and online reading in general.
I started reading the article because the title and thesis interested me--the question about what our online time is doing to our lives. It's increasingly dividing us--into a body and a mind. Our bodies occupy a space, with our kids, significant others, friends or co-workers, and yet we are not present with them--or at least not entirely. Our mind is somewhere else, interacting with a computer screen, phone or other handheld media device.
I've read articles before about how it affects kids when a parent is constantly interfacing with some technology instead of giving the attention in the place and time their body exists in. But never had I thought of it in this very philosophical light. That overuse and addiction to communication media and social networks divides us in two--to the tune of a worldwide phenomenon.
This is a constant struggle for me, trying to work from home as a freelance writer. I began, saying staunchly that I'd write only when the kids were napping or sleeping. But in the mere 7 months since I've begun, sleeping patterns of kids have changed multiple times, as well as the schedules of my husband or myself. My writing time, as once strictly defined, sometimes disappears and I start stealing more and more online time for research, or writing time, during times of the days when I think my kids are otherwise engaged. And then too it becomes a crutch--a favorite video can give me time to write, etc. It's a slippery slope and then you realize you've been online, at least intermittently, all day, your kids are still in pajamas and you've not once been outside on a warm summer day.
I love writing. That's my problem. I consider it a great privilege to be a stay-at-home mom. I consider it a privilege too that what I do is something that can be done, at least very part-time, from home. But I think it will always be a struggle. Launching into writing has made me use social networking sites as part of my marketing and publishing. I've been drawn into that whole thing much more than I ever expected to be. It's a constant struggle to draw and then redraw boundaries for myself. I strive to continually make the unapologetic choice to put raising my kids first, and writing always has been something I do if I can fit it in.
I have to remember God gave me a body for a reason. He made me to be corporeal and limited to particular physical space because HE INTENDS ME TO BE THERE and interacting. We were made for relationship. No matter how much good I see come from relationships built and strengthened through social media, no matter how much good it gives anyone to read something I wrote, the primary relationships, for which no one else or any media or technology can never compensate, are the ones with the people in my house!
I'm not willing to trade my kids' first years in to daycare workers to go to work, as long as I have a choice. I do not then want to trade their first years in to the tv, loneliness, neglect at the hand of the facade of a mom who glances at them, distracted, glassy-eyed and glued to a screen. And all because she wanted to write "just a little bit longer."
I have cut back on writing, as daily facebook-visiting-friends may have noticed. What I have published is really stuff I wrote weeks/months before and only now just published, such as:
Governments Issue Warnings and Restrictions for Kids' Mobile Phone Use
Sleeping Tips to Give Your Child Restorative, Restful Sleep
No comments:
Post a Comment