The Smartphone Monster
By Jayshree Sita, mom to 2 gorgeous, lively kids, Amishka 9yrs and Vishen 5yrs. She traded the glamorous life of a chartered accountant to become a teacher. She’s also an aspiring writer and artist who is passionate about self-development and keeping her family happy.
I am a stay at home mom with many interests and passions, but my primary focus is to keep my family balanced, happy and healthy. I have a Smartphone which I use all the time, and find very helpful but also very distracting. I love my calendar (since my husband’s and kid’s diaries are super complicated) and I love the camera – great for taking spontaneous pics all the time. My kids seem to love the games on it and I can actually get a quick response from my busy corporate husband on the Smartphone messenger when I need it. I can even update my Facebook whenever I like. So it is a very cool, fun and useful tool for me to have.
So at the beginning, I enjoyed the efficiency and diversity of applications that I had at my disposal 24/7. But then I realised that I was getting hooked into a world that always seemed in a hurry and always took my attention away from the present moment. I may have been watching my daughter’s netball match when an sms popped up. It really could wait, but the beep and the light caught my attention and before I knew it I was frantically typing my reply and missed a netball goal.
Between the e-mail and the sms’s, the actual phone and the Facebook alerts….I kept jumping between scenarios, which was draining my energy and certainly not allowing me to feel the reward of spending time focusing and concentrating on one goal/activity with a single mindedness that leads to excellence and peace and calm.
My kids complain when they want my attention and I’m absorbed in my Smartphone.
I told them it was a monster who had captured me in its long tentacles and they had to wrench me free…they laughed, enjoying the picture in their minds and imagining themselves real heroes who would save their Mummy.
So, are you a target of the Monster?
Read it and decide for yourself….that’s if you can put your Smartphone down for 5 minutes.
The Smartphone Monster
She’s smooth and she’s sleek
Robed in an elegant black dress
And jewelled in dazzling diamonds
She waits, she watches, she sings, she smiles
With hypnotic powers
That dazzle and delight
She draws you into her world
Be it daytime or night
She lures you, tempts you
catches you, grabs you
traps you & squeezes you,
You’re running in her world
your e-mails are climbing
Your messages ‘pinging’
Your calender’s buzzing
Your camera’s rolling
Your music’s pumping
Your facebook’s flashing
Your virtual world is rushing by
Alive and Exciting
But a little bit cold
And a little bit shallow
When she beckons your fingers get curled
Your back gets hunched
And like a lovesick fool
You’re unable to avert your eyes from her gaze
She plays the loyal servant
Who never leaves your side
Yet, bit by byte , she enslaves you
Till the ones you love, the ‘Real’ people
Need to ask her permission to access you
Sad, but true
The Smartphone Monster is out to get you
Can you Escape?
She clings to to your ear
Like a super sucky glue
Is that a new age earring?
Or are you tagged by the Smartphone Goddess
Who sits high up in the Universe
And controls little unsuspecting e-humans
With digital sounds and semi-words
Which have conquered and destroyed the beauty of the English language
And the simple pleasure of long deep conversations
Of course she’s fun, she’s fabulous, she’s smart, she’s sexy
And you think she’s a super helpful efficient friend
But is she waiting at your fingertips,
Or are you waiting at hers?
To Wii or not to Wii, that is the question…
Kerry Haggard is a writer, editor, wife and mother to the two most gorgeous boys that ever there were. One day when she grows up she hopes to be a real geek, but for now, she’s happy to sit and watch her husband excel at that…
Our home is blessed with more technology than most, thanks to my husband’s job as publisher of a consumer magazine (www.connect.co.za), and this has opened a Pandora’s box of sorts in our home. We are probably more exposed than most to different gaming consoles (yes, we have a PS3, a Wii and an Xbox 360), not to mention more computers per capita than most multinational corporations. And we have two boys (Daniel aged 4 and a half and Matthew, 20 months) whose eyes have lit up at the sight of anything with a whirring noise and a flashing light since they were old enough to sit up and take notice.
There are many who would say that there is time enough for technology when my boys are older – but then there’s that age-old thing of little boys wanting to do what their daddies do. Some people play sport, others read – my husband ‘does’ computers, whether that’s 
building them, rebuilding them, or playing various games on them. Daniel’s playschool offers computer classes, which are mostly around co-ordination and mouse-skills, and his reports from these have always come back with a string of ‘excellents’.
So, is there a difference between learning computer skills (which we all need – were you also one of those that mocked the boys that took typing lessons in the 80s?) and playing console games, which some may see as technology baby-sitters for the lazy parent?
I would say it depends on the console and the game. Matthew is too little to play still, but watches his brother’s every move when he plays on the Wii or on his PC – and Daniel is a sensitive soul who takes everything to heart. This is why we have no ‘first-person shooter’ games, or any game that has violence of any sort in it – apart from the fencing game in Wii Sports Island.
On the Wii, Daniel plays table tennis (and wins nearly every time, using strategic placement of the ball when he ‘hits’ it), 100 pin bowling (where he lines up the ball with the pins, and scores a strike nearly every time), and archery (which requires careful co-ordination, using both hands). He cannot read, but he can navigate his way around a set of Wii games better than I can – he has responded to its intuitiveness and has figured things out for himself.
On his PC, he plays a variety of games that teach him cognitive and recognition skills, and that throw in a bit of history and geography as well.
Yes, my child does have a lot of ‘screen’ time, but he also does (old fashioned ) puzzles quickly and accurately. His hand-eye co-ordination is such that he seldom misses a ball with his cricket bat, and he has a general knowledge that is well beyond his age.
Are computers and consoles a substitute for good parenting? No, they’re definitely not. But they’re a part of our (admittedly privileged) life, and will continue to be so, more and more, as our children grow up. Making them comfortable with technology, and giving them the confidence to navigate their way around it, is equipping them with skills our parents hadn’t even thought of when we were kids.
It is about striking a balance though – Daniel can only play one session of Wii in a day, and he can only play every second day. I think we’re getting the balance right. At bed time the other night, my heart melted when I was told, “Mom, I love you more than everything. I even love you more than Wii.”
