It is another day of “inclement” weather here in Louisiana and by inclement weather I mean a tad bit below freezing and some light mist in the air.
It was with the most extreme precautions and after multiple discussions between the school superintendent, National Weather Service and Office of Homeland Security, that it was decided there would be no school.
Immediately following this decision, I received a phone call, a text message, DOJO message, Remind message and whatever other messages that the schools send out nowadays.
Do not get me wrong here, I was just as excited as the kids when I heard the news. No school means I do not have to fight with them to get them in bed at a decent hour, no rushing through supper and bath time, no 5:30 a.m. alarm clock in the morning.
But it just made me realize how easy these kids really have it.
They receive a text message notifying them of anything these days. When I was younger, we still had to wake up the next morning and get full-on ready for school just in case. Then we would tune in to watch the 6 o’clock news and wait to see if our school was on the list of closures that was scrolling across the bottom of the screen. If it was indeed on the list, it was back into pajamas and right back to sleep. If not, then at least we were ready to head to school.
It just does not seem that long ago that I was their age. It is crazy to think it was over 20 years ago and it is also crazy to think how much things have changed in those 20 years.
The Internet was a luxury in our home growing up. We had the ever so slow dial-up that made that awful noise every time you logged on. Since there were four people in the house at the time, we were only allowed to surf the web for about 30 minutes a day per person. You certainly could not stay on scrolling for too long because then you would not be reachable on your landline telephone.
God forbid a friend actually calls you to speak to you directly because then they would be forced to engage in small talk with your parents before they let you on the line. How embarrassing?!
Gone are the days of sneakily passing notes to your friends in class. Why would you waste effort on putting a pencil to paper when you can send whatever message you would like at the click of a button? I certainly wish this were an option while I was in school. If that were the case, I would not have to live with the memory of my fourth-grade teacher plastering a love note on the front door of her classroom that was intended for my boyfriend.
We had to hurry home from school every day to make sure we did not miss an episode of “Maury.” I am sure it is probably streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or Apple TV now. Who cares about “Maury” anyways when you can watch other kids unwrap and play with toys on YouTube instead of actually playing with them yourself.
Well at least there is no more fighting over the remote control. Some of the most gruesome brawls between my sister and I were over that thing.
Kids these days have the world at their literal fingertips. While this does make things a lot easier and more convenient sometimes, it comes with drawbacks.
Since it is so easy for children to have access to so many apps, channels and websites, it makes them more vulnerable to bullying, self- comparison, obsessing over followers and predators. It can cause a lack of social skills, exercise and sleep. Maybe it is not worth being constantly connected. Although most of this can be avoided if we as parents perform our due diligence and monitor their usage.
I am sure if I made them endure that excruciating dial-up tone every time they picked up their phone or iPad, they might try to entertain themselves for a while at least.
Now I have to go see if I can stream “Maury” somewhere.
(Paige Nash is a wife, mom, digital journalist for Webster Parish Journal and publisher for Bienville Parish Journal.)