A losing battle

I’m fixing to (yes, fixing to) start fighting a losing battle. I look around at society and I am appalled. No one has any manners anymore, and we have distanced ourselves further and further from people to a point where there really is not connection beyond Facebook or texting. It’s no wonder we are a nation filled with those with no value for human life. Why we are full of people who think that getting their own point across is more important than your safety. It’s not violent video games that teach children to shoot people, it’s the actual playing of any video game itself. You don’t connect with people when you can’t see their face, and you can’t see their face when you are logged in playing some stupid game. Yes, you can play a perfectly harmless racing game against someone in Japan and a third grader from Minnesota, but does that really give you the connection that riding your bike with the kid down the street gives you? I’m going to take a stand right here and now: NO, it does not.
I blame technology. Think about this, when you were younger and you first got call waiting, it was cool right? You could be talking on the phone and if someone else called you, you could answer it and talk to them! Now look again, you are on the phone, someone ‘clicks in’ and you basically tell the person you are deep in conversation with to hang on while I see if this person is more important than you or has something better to say. You are telling the new caller that don’t have to be patient, and wait their turn to talk, they can just interrupt your other conversation to say your own thing. Cut to twenty years later (ok thirty whatever) and we don’t even bother to have an actual conversation with people. We text, and can have two or three “conversations” at once or we get on facebook and post what we are thinking and feeling. That’s basically saying, ‘I don’t care what’s going on in your life, here’s what’s on my mind though’. Ironically, all this written communication as also lost the art of grammar and spelling. Drives me crazy.
So here is my battle, I want to keep my children in touch with humanity. I may be alone here, but it is unacceptable to me to raise children who can program a VCR (or whatever, I know I’m showing my age with that reference) but don’t know the rules of your basic board games. They will not sit next to each other on the sofa and play a game on their phones with each other or anyone else (I’ve seen people do this) when they can have a conversation face to face, break out a deck of cards, or even a monopoly board.
I want to go back to a time when schools were not dangerous places, you didn’t have to worry when you were in public that some nut job who wanted to get a point across was going to come in and shoot the place up. It’s a vicious cycle. These people are not being heard and have no connection to others, and thus no connection to reality, which forces us to constantly look over our shoulders and withdraw more so ourselves. I see this with myself. I’m not a shy person. Never once has someone told me to come out of my shell, but I am becoming more and more anti social because I don’t like people anymore. I did once, before they became a group of whiny, self-centered, narcissists.
Look, I run a blog, not well, but I do. I am the worst kind here. I have to get my opinions out there, but I encourage a conversation. I like feed back and posts on here. I want to know what others think, not for self validation, but for my own growth. If you agree or disagree, let me here it.
In the meantime, you might take a second and think of my poor kids who will be pushed into a life of minimal time spent on electronics, they will not use the self check out at the store, and they will know how to bond with others. It is not just important to teach my kids self respect, but to respect others. It is not just their opinions and feelings that matter, and they will not spend all day on line ever.
I’m on Facebook and instagram too, mostly for smarty pants posts, or I’m in the chiari groups, but even those I don’t do much anymore. People complain too much or feel like because they have a keyboard and an opinion, they are above everyone else, thus proving my points even more.
I will quite my 4am ramblings here and try to go back to sleep, but no matter what time of day it is, I will feel the same. I’ve kept this in for a while now, but I’m going to fight against technology and make my children go back to the values of the 80s, when Madonna rolling around on stage was risqué, and she didn’t have to kiss Brittany just to get people talking. We have always been inundated with images of sex and violence, but in pathetic attempts to be seen and heard, we push farther and farther into an area that no one wants. Everyone wants to be famous so they can be heard. Maybe we should start trying to better ourselves and set good examples for our children. That is a fresh and new idea no one’s heard. And maybe stop clicking over when someone calls, and let the person you’re talking to finish a sentence once in a while.