Smartphones, The Internet and Our Kids

We live in a technology-filled world.  I've mentioned this before a few times, and even talked about being a social media addict in a recent post, with the intention of backing off.  And I've done a pretty decent job at the backing off part.  The first few days I only signed onto Facebook two, maybe three times a day for less than 10 minutes each time, and I didn't touch my phone at all after climbing into bed.  Then we spent a weekend at a cabin with some friends, and I spent way more time than I should have on my smartphone out of pure laziness, which kind of rekindled the fire to be "connected".  So this week I've had to work on backing off again.  And I'm getting there.

It's not that I am anti-technology.  It's not that I despise the internet or the invention of social media or texting or any of that.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.  I just don't want it to take over my life like it has done with so many people.  I want to live in the moment.  I want to smell the roses and bask in the sunshine and enjoy my family and spend QUALITY time doing QUALITY things.  And although my computer and/or smartphone can keep me connected and updated with the world, I don't feel like it is time well spent (unless, of course, I am actually doing something productive, which would be an exception).

Interesting concept.....

I say all that (again) to talk about this.......I get Parents Magazine, and I've been reading a lot of articles and parenting blogs about the need that parents have nowadays to capture every. single. moment. of their child's life.  There are even commercials for it.

George Carlin even did a skit about parents who aren't really watching their children because they're too busy trying to capture the moment on their smartphones.  His advice?  Get the phone out of your face and actually WATCH your child.  And some of the parents' blogs I've read have talked about how they, too, have suffered from wanting to capture every cute and adorable moment so much that they have had to take a step back and actually LOOK at what they were really accomplishing.  They were collecting photos and videos of their child, but they weren't actually SEEING what was behind the lens.  If they didn't have those photos/videos, if for some reason they were erased, they wouldn't have actually seen a thing.

And I agree.  Granted, I am guilty of taking a billion pictures of Delano being cute and taking videos of him during funny or "milestone" moments.  And these pictures/videos often get posted on Facebook so that everyone else can ooh and ahh over his cuteness as well.  But I try not to live with my phone in front of my face, and I hope to consciously keep that at bay in the future as well.  And maybe this will be something that my kids can help decide on in the future - whether they want me to record any of what they're doing or whether they want me to leave my phone alone.  I don't know how it will all go down.  I will just have to wait and see what life is like when the time comes!

myphonemd.net posted this.....is that like WebMD?

Another internet-related issue regarding children that I've been reading a lot about lately is the fact that the photos/videos you post of your child could end up ANYWHERE.  In this blog post, one mom talks about how a potty-training picture of her child ended up on a child pornography website.  And another article was floating around a few months ago about how people can use the GPS tracking system attached to (some) photos to find out exactly where the picture was taken......as in, find out where you live, where you work, where your child plays, etc.  THE BAD GUYS CAN FIND YOU. 

I don't know anything about tracking a photo to its location, but I do know that when I use Google Images to find quirky things for my blog, I come across everything from commercialized photos to funny memes to personal photos linked to other websites/blogs that happen to mention whatever keyword I typed in.  For me (NOT a bad guy), this is often an awesome perk because I get to stumble across other mom blogs that I would have never known existed before.  And it's fun to think that maybe other moms out there stumble across mine and like it as well.  YAY FOLLOWERS!!  But on the negative side, this is really scary.  I want to share my photos and videos with my family, friends and followers, but in NO WAY do I want to put my family in danger all because of the convenience of the internet.  Some parents have opted out of posting pictures of their kids altogether.  And I get it, I understand it, but I also think that may be placing things in the "too paranoid" category.  Those children probably aren't allowed to do ANYTHING for fear that something bad could happen.  And I don't want to be like that.  I want to protect my children (which at times WILL require me watching them like a hawk), but I also want them to live life and I want my friends and family to be involved in our lives and feel like they KNOW us, even if they've never met us.  So I just have to be careful.

My next blog post will be more upbeat - I promise!  Back to pregnant bellies and babies.  The fun stuff.  :)

Which reminds me that I am 3 days late in taking my 27 week belly photo of Baby #2!  I'll go do that now.  Otherwise I will continue to forget!!