I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY
Warning! Digital media is ruining our people! I will be specific.
http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/kids-playing-video-games21.jpg?w=550&h=416
Situations observed:
1.) 2 brothers fighting as they get on the bus from school to go home, "I get the computer!" "No, it's my game, I get to go first".
2.) Where are all the children? 1995 there were 30 kids on our street playing kickball, riding big wheels and swinging on our front porch. When we moved in 2009-0 kids.
3.) 2 teenagers standing right next to each other holding their cell phones and laughing. They were texting each other!
4.) Question posed to elementary students- "How was your vacation?" "Did you go outside?" Answer- "No I didn't go outside, I was playing my DS all vacation."
5.) Husband playing game late into night while wife goes to bed alone.
6.) Families get together. Women talk. Men play. Children?
A devastating social disease is happening right now!
Be Aware! Be warned!
Look at yourself, your spouse and your children and take the necessary precautions.
Smashing of gadgets SHOULD be considered!
I have 7 sons and 3 grandsons. With my decades of experience with male children I am qualified to be especially concerned for our male gender.
Statistics on boys:
30% more likely than girls to drop or flunk out of school. In Canada, 5 boys drop out for every 3 girls.
Girls outperform boys at all levels from elementary to graduate school.
Boys less likely to get BA's (44%vs.56%) and graduate degrees (45% vs. 55%)
Make up 2/3 of special ed classes
5X's more likely to have ADHD
On our trip to Utah this last Christmas I was amazed by the age of children being entertained by gadgets in the airport. 2 and 3 year olds (not to mention all the teenagers and adults) were not looking out the windows and watching the planes, talking to the people sitting right next to them, but instead consumed by some ignorant game.
Digital Distraction Devices
Distraction from what? LIFE --distracted from REAL life. Seeing, feeling, discovering, touching, experiencing, hearing, smelling, exercising, solving problems, physical--- LIFE.
I support everything you are saying without limitation. There is not a drastic enough solution to this legitimate, eternal dilemma. Those who covet these objects are "bound" to disagree, think this way of thinking is unreasonable and wrong. But it is not wrong, and those many of us call Church leaders and prophets have been warning us for many years. How will deaf ears be made to hear?
ReplyDeleteI think the Old Testament has a lot of good examples of how the Lord softens hard hearts. But I think also The Book of Mormon is the best example, as it shows how merciful the Lord is unto the children of men, as He fulfills his mission still to free us from that which binds us.
I grew up with video games and television all the time. When I went to college I was absorbed in video games for the majority of each day. When I was married, I was the husband who was up late playing video games while my wife went to bed alone.
I knew it was all wrong - I knew that I was bound and it was wrong. Eventually I became sick and tired of being bound, and through the Atonement I exercised faith. Now I am free.
I did not realize how chained down I was until I had eyes to see and ears to hear. I am a better listener now, with a lot to learn.