"See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil." It is a saying we have heard many times. I love this updated version. It nails where we are in this season of society.
"Finally the fourth ape! He is the sum of the first three: He sees nobody, hears nobody, and speaks to nobody."
Our school district has a podcast for parents and caregivers. It is called Care-U and you can find it on Apple or Spotify. This year's book study was "Anxious Generation." The impact continues to ripple. Our wonderful Morton Public Library has it in the audio version, too. It is a worthy summer read. It talks about many things... and it heavily addresses the dangers and health issues coming from modern technology.
Most of us have a love/hate relationship with technology. We see the good. We see the evils. We cannot ignore the impact. Children struggle to play with toys that require imagination. They want their parents' phones. I love GPS, but most youth today cannot read and use a paper map. "Stop the insanity!" is a line from an old infomercial. (My Earworm often shouts that inside my head when things get crazy.)
Research is showing the negative impacts of screentime. Overprotecting our children in this modern world has become the norm. There are consequences. When we visited our friends in town, we ran all over town. We found friends at the park or pool. We made friends we might not have talked to at school because they lived in the same neighborhood. Our relationships were more diverse because we knew our neighbors. Our parents let us climb trees, too.
Because I am of the generation that "walked to school uphill both ways in 3 feet of snow" as the saying goes, our parents were not overly concerned with our discomfort. They called it character building. I did not like it as a child, but they were not wrong. We were loved children, but we were not the "center of the universe." God was. Technology was something we used, but it did not use us.
As usual, if this resonates with you, collides with my new phone arriving today. I loathe learning a new phone. I rarely do it. But, this weekend I know it will take some of my time. I am as guilty as anyone of getting sucked into screens. I am trying to be more intentional. I am not a phone addict, but once I go down the rabbit hole, I can lose hours like everyone else. We must be intentional.
As I prayed about a scripture for this post, here is what came to mind, "“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” -Ecclesiastes 1:2
King Solomon spoke those words after experiencing the gift of Godly wisdom. Wisdom leads to riches. The riches led to... nothing meaningful. The older I get, the more I understand what he said and felt. I have always been a relationship person, but relationships truly are what matter most. With God, with family, with friends, with neighbors, with strangers.
Technology is a thief of relationships... except when it allows us quick and easy connections with far away loved ones. Beware the fourth ape.
Today, I am grateful for a reminder to check technology.
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