Blair and Morgan McMillan are the young parents of two children who are five and two years old. Both have designed a plan to 'move' the family to the year 1986 (year in which both were born), with the intention of temporarily distancing their children from current technology. The experiment will last only until April 2014, and has been motivated by the reluctance that the big boy showed to play outside with his father, while he was using the smartphone.
This Canadian couple has not wanted to postpone the experience, because many of the devices they will be using until the end of the chosen period, may have disappeared completely in a few years (now they are obsolete but can still be achieved). Among them the radio cassette or disk phone.
Blair perceives that today children develop 'tied' to technology, and this is a thought that many other parents around the world have. Because one thing is to take advantage of the advances to learn, develop skills and fill small leisure gaps, and another is that children's hours revolve around the application of dad's mobile, the fighting on the portable Nintendo, and home games of the neighbor playing Play.
Without having the videos they access from the computer, and the amount of time they are sitting in front of the TV.
Anyone can set limits on their family, and at this point I think many of us have been too lax on occasion, I think that the key is to be clear about our objectives to act according to them. For example, I am interested that my children know about technology, and I understand that the future without it is hard to imagine, but technology is not just games or applications to interact online, because for them they are tremendously addictive (and I know what I mean). That is why I also look for them to learn to relate in different real environments, and to personally know the environment in which they develop.
For many children the relationship with the devices does not go beyond, and they lose a lot of time
That's why I exercise my ability as a mother, so that maintain a good level of play and social relations in the street, or (for example) to continue to appreciate the value of reading and board games as sources of fun.
My experience tells me that when the limits of the healthy use of technology are crossed, Children lose the ability to appreciate other possibilities, it is something I frequently observe.
It is very difficult to re-direct the interests, but I think it is a very healthy exercise, in which we must involve other parents from our closest environment.
For a few months, this family wears and combs their hair like in the 80s, they spend a good part of the day in the garden playing, listen to music on the cassette tape player, call frequently by landline to be interested in their loved ones, and watch an old television that is usually locked in a closet.
They also read a lot, consult the encyclopedia and use paper maps instead of GPS. But in the basics they are still a family with very young children very normal: they care about them, take care of them, take them on a trip, help them understand the world, ...
I wanted to share the McMillan initiative, which at least it's curious, and since the experiment will last a year, I hardly find the negative aspects. Apparently they have used the letters again to communicate with relatives and distant friends, visit more the houses of acquaintances, and have given up having profiles on social networks, a fact (the latter) that has caused some anger in people around them.
I suppose that many of us also partially avoid technology for the benefit of real life (for example, I really like to fill the house with friends of children and our acquaintances, to reinforce social networks, and they also bore me a lot - to Although I have several profiles created - virtual social networks), and we can all reflect on how to achieve balance.
I hope that when the period that has been imposed ends, they tell us all the results. If it were a permanent situation, it would be hard for children to grow up, feel so different from their friends, and probably try to transgress family norms by becoming teenagers, but it is only temporary.
And by the way, I also use paper maps (except in very specific moments that we turn on the GPS): I find them extremely attractive and full of possibilities for children and adults
