It would be more in keeping with the general theme of my average post to report enthusiastically on the Shirred Eggs ($9) I ate for breakfast in a small black skillet at Sante. The Verdict: quite good (but eat fast if you like your eggs runny). The cast iron happily keeps cooking long after it arrives at the table. If you try to finish the story you started just before your skillet arrives, plan on those initially runny eggs becoming anything but within another minute or two.
But I digress. Instead of my typical food fixation, I’ve been musing on how my beloved computer seems to isolate me from those closest to me even as it provides some limited contact with people at a distance.
To set this in context I should note that I’ve taken pride in the fact that we have not installed television sets throughout our house. We have a single TV in the family room. Yet even as we have self-righteously looked down on the TV-in-every-bedroom crowd, we’ve been adding computers, phones, and IPods at a pace just behind that of the entire country of India.
Technically I can claim to watch very little TV, but “technically” is the key word. Rarely does a night go by when I’m not tempted to grab my laptop and pop in a movie or surf over to Hulu and (you guessed it) watch television shows over the internet. If I’m not self-involved with a movie or Hulu, I can easily chew up an hour or more working on clever Facebook posts or reading digital camera or cookbook reviews on Amazon.
And all of this is easiest alone. Even if the movie I’m interested in might be of interest to others in the family, my first instinct is to watch alone, and I find myself fighting irritation when Karen or one of our three truly wonderful children peeks in the door of my study and wants to talk.
Feel free to wade in with observations or suggestions, but my gut says this need to change. Too often our family (with me leading the charge) divide up the “screens” available and scatter to different corners of the house. Even books seem far less isolating. I’ve heard that books don’t make noise so it is quite possible to be in the same room reading (on the same couch even) and have some sense of connectedness even as you explore another world. Depending on your fellow readers, there might even be pauses for conversation.
Sarcasm aside, I’d very much appreciate any suggestions on ways to contain the isolating impact of technology or use tech to build community in the family rather than damage it.
But if you need a gander at the Shirred Eggs, here they are.
