Spring is blossoming in Kentucky and school is almost out for spring semester. I will soon be an upperclassman. I’m going to Oxford England next semester to study abroad. I have so many promises and ideas for the future that it is hard sometimes to just sit back, relax, and bask in the sunlight of today. I’ve never felt this much change in my life, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t daunting. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I’m starting to think about life after college. The promise of adventure is on the wind, but so is the promise of hard work and hardship. If we think about it too long, we will go crazy, worried about everything that has to be done even in the next two months. Sometimes all that can be done or should be done is to take each day one hour at a time. Live in the moment. Embrace the possibilities. And don’t worry about the future. I’m talking to myself as much as I am talking to you. I know it’s cliché but, take the time to smell the roses. It’s worth it. In spring, I always get new ideas for books and writing. My writer’s block has finally left, and I am so excited to write again. Ideas for poems and novels keep popping up in my head whenever I walk anywhere. It is very true that spring brings new life. If you just remember to look at the little things, stay positive, and trust God, you can get through the changes life has in store for you.
Month: April 2015
Writing Updates
As of late, I have been very busy with my writing although this has mostly been poetry because of the class I am taking in college. I am, however, still writing everyday if I can. I have several new story ideas. One of them I am currently working on takes place in war torn America. I’m thinking it’s a kind of dystopian/Sci-Fi genre, but I’m not sure yet. I am still working on editing and rewriting parts of my novel Abduction. Unfortunately, because of all of my other projects in college, I’m not sure if I will be able to finish that novel and submit to publishers until after I’ve graduated. We shall see.
My novel series with Eiowing (I-O-Wing) is coming along slowly as well. I have not given up on that one either. I’m hopeful that once school lets out, I will be able to work more on my fiction. Although, I am still rather enjoying poetry. I just recently wrote a poem about the reburial of Richard III. Another set of poems I wrote were ekphrastic poems on art. I really enjoyed this last one on the art, and I think I will work on more of these to come.
Children and Technology
One day I happened to be watching a little girl, about three or four, taking pictures with a camera. When she was done taking the picture, she wanted to see it so she started touching the screen to get it to go back. The camera was not a touch screen, but she was acting like it was. She expected to be able to just touch it and, viola, it would show up. The children of the technology generation are being affected by all the technology around them. But they are not being affected positively. Technology is negatively affecting our youth. The current Technological Revolution is a negative change for society because it is negatively affecting the way children are maturing and acting.
Video Games and Computer Games are interfering with reading and exercise. Children play on the computer or video games more than they read or go outside and exercise. This affects the health of today’s children. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention: “Obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States – triple the rate from just one generation ago.” Much of this has to do with diet, true, but much of it also has to do with no exercise and sitting in front of a TV or computer for hours on end. The other health affect related to this is that children don’t talk to other children as often. This does not help the mind with social interactions or with intellectual pursuits. According to a quote from an article by the Institute of Education in the UK which quoted the Alliance of Childhood: “the damage being done by immersing children in electronic technologies is becoming clearer. Increasing numbers of them spend hours each day sitting in front of screens instead of playing outdoors, reading, and getting much-needed physical exercise and face-to-face social interaction — all of which, it turns out, also provide essential stimulation to the growing mind and intellect.” Children who read instead of playing video games tend to have a more active mind than children who play games all the time.
Inventions such as the tablet and iPhone are training young children to be dependent on technology all the time. Children are attached to their devices. Many young children, around the ages of three or four, already know how to work an iPhone better than some adults do. Children as young as five have cell phones, which in turn makes them act older than they are. You cannot go anywhere without seeing children playing on DS’s, phones, or tablets. They bring them everywhere and play on them all the time. They use technology to talk to their friends, to look up answers to questions they have about something at school, etc. Many children don’t even know what it is like to not have a computer, a phone, or a tablet.
Technology is not one hundred percent safe. A good example of this is a computer. You can do anything or look at anything on a computer. Children get in bad situations online due to online dating or meeting people who aren’t as they seem. This leads to increased kidnapping and raping. Information is so readily available that children find things they really shouldn’t be looking at.
The current Technological Revolution is negatively impacting our children in many ways that we do not see outright. Technology can be a good thing and has been used for good, but when things such as what are mentioned above are happening, then we have to ask ourselves, is it really worth the price?
Further links:
http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/
A Window Into My Mind 