Dear Editor:
I’m bored.
We hear this a lot in the present time. It wasn’t a comment voiced in the not so distant past. We have more technology and gadgetry than ever before. It can entertain us for hours on end. Binging on shows, playing games alone or within a global network, music flows freely, and searching the internet has become a hobby. Ask a question and you can find the answer. You can even have online books or lectures read to you so you no longer need to crack a book. But, “I’m bored” is heard more frequently than laughter.
The odd chuckle or sharing of a meme cannot replace the funny kid, the one that can tell a great story, the one that needs to know their friends are just a short walk away. The tutor that helps with homework, the “genius”, the “nerd”, and on and on. All of the rich tapestry of friendship that needs to be in our lives is very much gone.
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The technology has robbed us of a very human need. Family interaction is at a low. People live in their bedrooms. Each family member may have a device or two that keeps them apart from other activities such as eating a meal together. Even just one meal a day being shared in the home is unheard of in many households. Teaching children to cook when they are too young to reach so putting a chair for them to stand on beside a parent is a rare occurrence.
Children are left alone with a device to explore the internet exposing them to whatever someone else is posting. It’s like a drug. Rather, it is a drug. The same brain centres fire as when someone is hooked on a substance. Just watch the reaction that you get when you “take away” the tech. It is shocking and frightening to realize that we, as a society, have fed them their “drug” and created an addiction from the time they could hold a phone. And yet, “I’m bored” is what they will tell you.
Linda Mitchell
Lax Kw’alaams