Scary Days

 

Years ago in one of the houses where  we lived, we had a "party line" telephone.  When the phone rang, you had to answer and listen to see for whom the call was.  There were several other phones associated with ours. If it was for you, you stayed on the line.  If it wasn't, you were supposed to hang up.

I should mention that the phone was attached to the wall and to hear you had to pick up the receiver part and place it near your ear.  If you called a number that was part of your party line, you could talk to them all at the same time if you really wanted.  We knew most of the people on our line.  They were neighbors.  My mother could ring the phone and talk to several other ladies at once.

It was kind of cool for a while.  Eventually we got our own line.  I don't remember when.  But for a long time, that was how it was.  Today phone's are just plain scary.  With one touch on the screen you can book flights, order groceries and send messages to a hundred friends all at once.  That's not the scary part though.

The scary part is seeing little children mesmerized by videos and games while their parents pay absolutely no attention to them.  I have been observing a little fellow who is about two years old for the past few months.  He has the swipe to the next video technique down pat.  He knows when to touch the screen for jumping past ads on videos, too.  He can easily be entertained for an hour with no assistance whatsoever.

But what is he learning?  He can count already.  He knows his colors.  He knows the names of many animals.  But does he know the word, "No."  As in, No, you can't have the phone right now.  No, you've watched enough for today.  No, maybe later.  Sadly, he does not.

He comes to children's church with either his father, mother or sister in tow.  He won't stay without one or the other.  He is a little small.  But you know what is the most scary of all.  He doesn't pay much attention even when we sing songs just like the videos he often watches, so his daddy pulls out the cell phone and lets him watch videos during the lesson time with the volume up so the kid can hear it.

That is just scary.  What is this old world coming to?  Maybe it's time to go back to party lines on wall phones and get devices out of the hands of two-year-olds and their parents.