What’s wrong with this image, aside that it’s a dithered low-fi crappy snapshot off my phone?
Riiiiight… being in bed with a gadget! No, not the little boy – that’s my baby nephew and his name is not “Gadget”. I’m referring to the iPad that we were both so engrossed with when we were supposed to be getting ready to sleep. Funnily enough, not many of us think it’s all that bad or strange to be in bed with either a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. It’s a daily habit (if you can even call it ‘habit’ since it’s regarded to be so ‘normal’ nowadays).
My nephew’s intense expression cracks me up. :D :D :D
Anyhoo, I came across this infographic not long ago about how our technology is keeping us awake. I was drawn to the stats and I thought it’s interesting enough to share the infographic here. It’s also quite funny. “1 in 3 smartphone owners would rather give up sex than their phones.” Haha!
So here are my gadgets. :X
Admittedly I do keep my iPad and phone next to me every night, charging on my side table. Sometimes I read my digital magazine or e-book, other times I check my Instagram status and read my Twitter feed for a bit before sleeping. I like to keep my phone on silent mode because it’s difficult enough for me to fall asleep, and I’m a light sleeper, so I’m super possessive of my continuous undisturbed sleep. I can’t say the same about my partner’s phone though, it often wakes me up and I get ultra grouchy because of it. :[
While we’re on the topic of technology, I used to silently tsk at parents who use their iPhones or iPads to distract and indulge little kids. I think it’s way over-stimulation for young children and I always worry they will grow up to have a short attention span, lack of imagination, zero creativity, bad eyesight and ADDs. What happened to good ole’ playing with dirt, finger painting, Rubik’s Cube, etc? And then… as the first two photos above have shown, I am already totally guilty of distracting and indulging my baby nephew with an iPad.
D’OH!!!!!!!!! O_O
(In my wimpy defense though, we were playing with a drawing app. I was teaching him about colors and shapes and I got him to doodle.)
My nephew is 4 years old and getting really savvy with the iPad. He even asked me lately whether my iPad’s battery has been charged; because weeks prior when he asked to play with it, I said no and lied that it was out of battery. And then I hurriedly ushered him to the mini whiteboard that I bought as his birthday present and asked him to draw me a fish. Gosh. I’ve created a monster. :p
What do you think about technology and little kids? Yay or nay?
What’s your relationship with technology before bedtime? Do you check your messages, reply to emails, read your Twitter feed, browse the web, do your social media thingie, blog (!!?!) right before you sleep?
-MB.
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