Quite a few years ago, I decided that hovering over social media feeds, was probably not a healthy habit to cultivate. I went off Facebook…or, what I have called for years, the new “MySpace” for adults…Snapchat, Instagram, etc. There were three main reasons for this:

1. Obnoxious political banter and the very weird assocciated behaviors by what I had assumed were normal people.
2. A plethora of absolutely insane posts that purported to be little factoids. I had an associate once – a former Eastern European communist security force guy – who once told me, “David, I do tell you the truth! I am just selective about what part of the truth I tell you.” These factoids have enough truth to seem credible, and if you don’t have a skeptical – prove it to me – I’m from Missouri mindset, you fall for some real unhealthy gibberish.
3. It is a sinkhole. It is the most anti-social, anti-human, anti-friendship, anti-know thy neighbor tool ever. It is an addiction of narcissism of a dimension that simply staggers my mind. Flip through feeds and reels, and if that doesn’t jump out at you, then you’re probably already sucked in.

When I go out for dinner, which isn’t often because I love to cook, it still shocks me to see people of all ages – from Boomers down – out on a “date,” with their partner, and they both spend the whole meal with their face in their respective phone. 45 minutes of sitting, first drink, appetizer, dinner, check…staring and scrolling at a screen. They don’t even look at the forkful they’re shoving in their mouth! I think to myself, “really? you can’t peel off 45 minutes or so of your so ‘busy-busy’ life and have a conversation with someone? Look them in the eye – actually care about what they’re saying – listen, respond, etc? At the end of your life, are you going to be laying there wishing you had had enough thumb strength for just a few more hours of flipping through YouTube reels? By the way people act, you would think they know the days of their lives and feel pretty confident that they’ll be surrounded in the end by everyone they love, or thinks loves them. Go back and refresh on number 3 above…

As a child, I was part of the beginning of kids who were “babysat” by the TV. My parents kept a single TV in the home most of my time with them, and for my first 10 years or so, it was in their bedroom, and we watched “by invitation.” So I never developed the habit. Also, though both my parents worked during that time, my Mother always had evening work at places like The Broadway, J.C. Penny, Montgomery Ward’s, and she had dinner ready, fed my Dad when he walked in, probably said “I had it, you got it!” and went to work. So, she was home all day for us. We were not “latch key” kids until we were teenagers and could fend for ourselves easy enough and had after-school athletics to keep us occupied most of the day. I grew up reading a lot, talking a lot, and watching T.V. on Sunday evenings in my parents room – all 8 of us – to watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, the Disney show, and Lawrence Welk show…although in which order, I don’t recall.

Today, my own children included, it seems many young parents have defaulted to “Tablet Time.” I see kids, very young, plopped down with an iPad in front of them, scrolling YouTube. Take it away – and the tantrum starts. I don’t see kids reading, I don’t see parents reading to kids, and unless only one kid has the tablet, you don’t even see a lot of siblings playing around together. Is this a good thing? I don’t know. I always thought reading helped create imagination – formed a basis for writing well – and expanded your mental library. I don’t know if your 9 year old son, watching a 35 year old man play MineCraft and act like he is 8, is setting up this generation for the rigors of running the world.

Time will tell.