Happy Birthday, America! Look Up!

Bake the cake.  Light the candles.  Happy 237^th birthday, America!  Let freedom ring! Ring?  Maybe I should say let freedom download, upload, post, tweet, blog, text, buzz or vibrate!  Who knows?  Not me!

Technology continues to morph at warp speed, leaving me spinning like a wobbly top on a playground littered with gotta-have-devices, each touted to make our lives easier, more productive, less stressed, and more connected.  Uh-huh. 

While I celebrate the many gifts and advantages technology can bring us, I’m concerned.  I’m concerned that more time and more attention seem to be directed downward to phones, pods, pads and screens in our palms, on our laps, in our vehicles and on our desks than up and into each other’s eyes and out into the natural world. 

And I am not the only one concerned.  Research shows a hefty percentage of folks now prefer texting to talking face to face or even on the phone.   Studies also point to a great increase in accidents – both while driving and walking – because we’re focused down and not up and out.  Author Richard Louv of the book, Last Child in the Woods writes about the real need to save our children from nature-deficit disorder.  That’s his term for what is happening to our children because they’re so wired into a world that is not the natural world.  And study after study shows that direct exposure to nature is absolutely essential for children to grow emotionally and physically.  It is important for us grown up folks as well.     

It is our responsibility as adults to model, share, listen, talk, touch, and be there – not be there electronically, but be there physically and emotionally.  Be there.  It’s time to ask ourselves some tough questions.  Do the children in our care know more about creatures who really fly or more about angry birds?  What are we and our kids connecting to and with?  To our devices or to people – real people – our children, our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our neighbors, our co-workers – to each other?   What are we and our kids actually holding and touching more on a daily basis – our devices or those we love?  And what do we feel more automatically compelled to respond to – our devices’ electronic siren calls or to the real voices of those around us?   We know the answers that will support our children, our families, our communities, our country, and our world.  Are we willing to live those answers?

Maybe we can take heart in the words of Brene Brown who says, “Technology is like fire-- you can keep yourself warm [with it] or you can burn down the barn. It’s all in how you use it or let it use you.”   For America’s birthday, I propose we give ourselves and each other a present.  Let’s not burn down the barn.  Let’s warm ourselves by putting people first and devices second.  No matter what.  No excuses.   And let’s start right now. Let’s look up and around and connect.  Really, truly connect.  Happy Birthday, America!  Happy Birthday to us all!

Kathleen Ahern, 

Youth Service Librarian

published in Moscow Pullman Daily News, July 6, 2013.