An electronics moodling

My hubby is something of a computer geek, so I guess you could say I am, and our children are, by association. Some days, this is truly a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I love how our computer allows us to be in touch with people around the world with a click of a mouse, but on the other hand, I hate how, occasionally, we seem to have more screen time than face to face time. Of course, there is a solution -- limit those screens.

It's not easy, though, when school work now demands a computer, and everyone's friends are on Facebook, every Corner Gas episode is available on Youtube, Grandma and Grandpa can bridge a 500 km distance via Skype, and the computer stores all the girls' iTunes music files. But just as we've pretty much cut TV out of our lives, we can minimize the internet's influence on us too, by considering what kind of lives we really want to live and keeping time free for exercise, music making, and family time. We know that everything doesn't have to revolve around electronics and that living simply is better than being strangled by computer cords or numbed by wireless signals.

Speaking of which... here's another little video, newly released, from Annie Leonard, the Story of Stuff woman. She doesn't really talk about buying fewer electronics -- I guess our world will never go back to being Luddites -- but she does point out how toxic they can be if they aren't handled with care, and how we need to encourage companies to create computers that won't be obsolete every few minutes...

Love this computer age or not, it's here to stay. And if we all think about ways to reduce its impact on the planet, we'll all be better off.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! And don't forget... tomorrow is BUY NOTHING DAY!