Stick Horse Cowgirls

This video has so much to say.... Technology .  It is supposed to ease our workload--it makes me accessible to clients 7 days a week unless I use restraint.  Call that "easier?"  Nope. Technology .  It is supposed to "connect" us.  I think this video makes a strong case for the opposite.  Handwritten letters and mailed invitations have gone by the wayside to be replaced by emails and evites.  Timelines for Facebook have taken the place of check-in or report phone calls.  Facebook posts have all the transparency and sincerity of Christmas newsletters.  We are robbing ourselves of community. I think technology is great...if we have the smarts and the discipline to tame it and make it work FOR our good, not against it. --C

Some time back in one of my family-science journals I saw an article on “community.”  The gist of the article was that we have, basically, lost community through “busyness of life” and through mobility.  One thing the article said that gave me thought was that air conditioning was one problem, compounded by television, and lack of porches and sidewalks another.  Oh, they did not pin the biggest blame on these elements, but I certainly sat up and paid attention that they were mentioned. According to the authors, there was a day in America when the routine was to come in, have supper, clean up, and go sit on the porch for a while if the weather was good.  If you were in the city, you went out to sit on the stoop.  Some folks might stroll the sidewalks, visiting with those sitting on their porches as they went. Some might  even join their neighbors for a “sit a spell” chat, and everyone could see up and down the street as to what the kids were doing. I...