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Dissent of man
14 March 2010 By Stephen Price
The digital age was supposed to liberate us - so why don’t I feel liberated? Something is badly wrong here.
I have all the gear - the mobile phones, laptops, home PCs, iPods, broadband and high definition TV. So why am I not free to bounce around on a space-hopper all day, like those beautiful people in the Sony Ericsson ads? Or to go snowboarding, or wallow in foam, or to Be Who I Am - any time, anywhere?
Why is the world not my playground? Why do I still slave in drudgery? I bought all the flipping gadgets, so why don’t I look like one of those blissed-out Google employees?
The answer is, I have children. When you have kids, the digital age is not liberating, but insidiously enslaving. Perhaps if you are young, free and single, the planet really can be your office - provided you still have a job.
But try indulging in what used to be called a ‘home life’, and you’ll soon realise you’re stuck inside the Matrix.
In theory, flexible working was meant to be great. In practice, it sucks, because the work never stops. Thanks to the digital age, you are open for business 24/7.
When they can’t reach you on your landline, they’ll ring your mobile. Or send a text, then rattle off an e-mail just to make sure.
Because the planet is your office, whether you’re speeding down a motorway or pushing a trolley around Tesco, they can find you.
Thanks to the digital age, we are no longer allowed to come home from work and close the front door. We are no longer free to compartmentalise our lives. And where are the kiddies while Mummy and Daddy buzz around like good digital worker bees? Why, they are plonked in front of a television, a computer or a games console. Then we complain when the little angels turn surly and won’t speak to us.
Both my BetterHalf and I were avid readers as kids, so it has taken us a long time to understand why our own children aren’t so keen on books. Blaming the television, their computers or games consoles is a pure cop-out. It’s our fault, because the same flickering screens that keep them out of our hair, also keep us working all the hours God sends.
Last year, a survey by the British charity Booktrust, which promotes reading, showed that far from encouraging a healthy work/life balance, flexible working is causing children to lose out. Six out of ten households admitted that their children spend more time looking at a screen than reading.
Four out of ten households said their shelves contained more DVDs than books. Yet, six out of ten children said they liked their parents reading to them - because it meant spending time together.
When I read that (online, inevitably), something inside me snapped. I felt like such a bad person, because in our household, we had relegated the bedtime story to the status of an optional extra, to be delivered only when Mummy or Daddy had a moment to spare. Which mostly, we didn’t.
So every night now, come hell, high water or the most pressing deadline, the kids get a bedtime story. We’re working our way through the collected adventures of Tintin, because he bridges the age gap. The kids love it, and are being noticeably nicer to one another, as well as to us.
Even though they’ve started calling me Captain Haddock, after Tintin’s foulmouthed, hard-drinking sidekick. Which is strange, because Haddock has a beard, and I don’t.
stephen.price@sbpost.ie
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