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JMO Cell Phone Addictions

JMO Cell Phones have gotten completely out of control! It amazes me how something like a phone can change people so much, consume them and create such an addiction. Our family is not much better than most even though we set limits and try not to let them take over. It is a hard battle. I feel like it is satan's trap and we are fighting him. He has a stronghold on those and we are consumed by them. Mark has an iphone for obvious reasons, he needs to have one for farm and business reasons. I see him on it more and more. Not making calls, but checking markets, reading forums, looking at random information. I still think a person should just answer phone calls from an answering machine and not pick up their phone during the day. Jayden and I got our cell phones November 2014. Cell phones had been a hot item for several years before I finally "gave in" and got one. Jayden talked me into it after dragging my feet for a long time. Since then I have noticed how often I pull that phone out and check it. I have never liked texting and now it seems that is one of the main ways people contact me. I hate texting, it takes me so long as my fingers always want to tap the wrong letters. It is also so impersonal. I dont like getting texts, however it is handy when you dont want to interrupt someone in a meeting or doing something important. When I am bored, waiting at an appointment, or trying to kill some time waiting somewhere, I go to my phone. I dont like that I do that. It is handy when you need to look up a phone number, directions, or in school for information. However it is such a distraction! I know we are better without them! I do not answer my cell phone or my home phone during homeschool hours. For the most part everyone knows that and doesn't call me until after lunch. It is still so distracting. I have watched Jayden over the past year use it more and more all the time. She is on barrel racing forums, checking instagram and facebook often, and snapchats her friends all day long. It is getting bad and I don't know what to do. You can't just unplug. The boys thankfully dont have an iphone, even though they beg to see our phones. Jake has a flip phone that he can make calls on and Luke found his Grandma's old phone which he can only listen to ring tones on. I put checkers on my phone as the only game the boys can play. There are thousands of free mind numbing games that most have on their phones. I don't want the boys playing games on my phone. They also like to search google for pictures and videos. At home they want to be on the computer and beg to. They are only allowed one hour of video games/electronics a day and I still think that seems to much. It is like a strong drug that they crave and just want more. It is sad to see how much they crave it.
Today on the radio I heard that Chk Fil A is going to start a thing where you put your phone in a coop at the table so that you can sit with your family and eat without being on your phone. That is so sad, we really do have a problem. I also watched a tv show about a small town that does not allow cell phones.People were interviewed and it was so foreign  that you could be somewhere without a phone and actually carry on conversations face to face. Wow, we have really got a problem. I see in the future lots of camps and rehab centers where people will sign up to go to get away from their phone as a form of therapy. I am thinking we need to create a getaway where people come to visit the farm and horses to get away from their phone. Really I think there will be a need for it. Anyone going anywhere without a cell phone is already considered unheard of. Not only do people rely on it so much, they go through withdraws without it. That is just wrong. It really wasn't very long ago that iphones AKA smart phones existed and now we cannot live without them. I hate to rely so much on a n electronic. I worry about the generations to come. They will not be able to think for themselves, they will google all the answers, they will use phones to do math, to carry on conversations with one another. They will be socially awkward because they wont know how to talk face to face. It makes me sad. Even I have to practice self control by keeping it in my pocket when I am waiting and just read a magazine, look out the window, or people watch. I think people are missing out on so much when they tune the world out and focus on the electronic. There is one word for an iphone- convenient, but are we better because of it??
What to do for our family? I keep setting limits, but it makes me feel like a controlling mother. I am so torn as to how to handle this I know when I look at our family compared to most kids and people I think we are doing pretty well. That is kind of like saying well, well at least we aren't as bad as them...  We are still guilty. I am thinking about disconnecting the internet on my phone. That would keep me off my phone. As for Mark and Jayden, not sure. I am not proud of this photo, but this is reality of US.

photo from new years with phones.

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