Time dwindler

Back home in India, my family is accustomed to sitting together on the floor and eating dinner. Every single day, my job would be to sweep the floor where we gather together, bring the plates, cups, water and all the vessels containing the food to be eaten. May it be roti and dhal; rice, dhal and sides with home made yogurt; or a simple tiffin dinner, I am to make sure that everything is set in the center of the floor. Then my family members along with guests (if any are visiting or just stopping by) would sit around the food forming a circle, plates would be passed along and everyone would help themselves to their food. The next hour would go by eating the food along with talking about how the day went by for each of us, what plans would unfold the following day or anything else that needs to be discussed with mom and dad.

I am sure many who read this would say that they do the same thing here in the US except they sit on a dining table. But do they forget that the television is running in the background or many have their cell phones or Blackberry texting? With the advent of new technology tools, people want to stay connected or rather update their status to others every minute of their lives. It is not just dinner time that I am talking about but in general family members tend to spend less time personally with each other and spend a great deal of time on internet surfing or watching TV or playing on xbox (or on similar machines) or texting and twittering. Recently, studies at the University of Southern California reported that 28 percent of Americans said they were spending less time with their household family members, reason being that they spend time on social networking sites or on internet. But even before this study, people spent time watching TV or on internet; then why the jump in the rate of families not spending time together? It is because of texting and twittering (or facebook-ing - made that word up!)

Nowadays even kids have cell phones and they have texting capabilities enabled and they could be texting to their friends who are next doors asking whether they want to meet up to play, when they could just holler. If they are not playing outside, they want to be playing video games or watching television. If nothing else, they would be on the internet, playing games. But this is true even for adults. They spend a lot of time on their cell phones and blackberries, trying to keep up with their work at any given time. Years back, work was done at the office and when you left the office, the work remained at the office. Now with laptops that are hauled everywhere one goes, blackberries and cell phones that can receive mail, one gets to work at all waking times that they forget to interact with the family members at home. Another advantage of having access at all times is that one can fib about their whereabouts to their counterparts or parents.

Oprah Winfrey’s show had featured “What Can You Live Without?” challenge on television earlier, to see if families can live without computers, cell phones, television, iPods, or video games for a week. The idea was to get families closer to each other and to make them understand others' interest and to have something in common that everyone can be involved in doing, thus spending time with each other. Was Oprah forgetting that this was aired on television and one would have to be watching television to begin with to get this idea? Technology was made by man to ease our job in every aspect. But when one becomes an addict to the technology, then who is the boss? Take a break from hanging on to your cell phones even while working out at the gym or taking a stroll in the park. See if you can be without watching television for one day in a week (did someone get a heart attack?) and instead go out and do something as a family. Maybe by the end of this summer, we will end up with more closely knitted family than couch-potatoes.