It’s cold here in the house. We lost power last night around 9:00 p.m. and while it’s not terribly cold outside – hovering around zero – the winds are still gusting to 90/100 km/h. The house, like myself, is not young. The wind whistles through the cracks and I am chilled to the bone though wrapped in several blankets and wearing snow pants and a heavy winter jacket.
I’ve been for a drive around town to see what damage the wind and the surf have inflicted. Heated seats in the car and sufficient gas for a couple more rides should I feel so inclined. Places I can go where there’s a wood stove and warmth.
No electricity. No cell service. No internet. Not even a battery powered radio. Disconnected. It’s not so bad. Not as of yet.
I’ve been reading: Reset Your Child’s Brain by Victoria L. Dunckley, MD. It’s incredibly interesting – looks at the impact of electronic screen time on the human nervous system. While the focus of the book is primarily on children, the information easily transfers to older youth and yes, even adults.
Not just interesting, but scary as well. What are we doing to our children? To the developing brain? To behaviour, mood and social skills? To cognitive ability? Are we really compromising natural development and growth; creating moody, exhausted, dysfunctional children who are fast losing control and becoming increasingly at risk for stress, isolation, anxiety and depression?
I will finish the book. And I’ve already decided to monitor more closely my own screen time. Can I do that I wonder? Can I limit myself to an hour a day? What about Netflix? Who would have thought that even Netflix could be harmful? Come on now, “This is us” – harmful? really? Social media, I get. Pure poison at its worst; huge time sucker at its best. Gaming, I get. Overstimulation and difficulty both physically and psychologically “gearing down” – but Netflix? Yep. Netflix too has its dangers. Read the book!
That’s what I’m going to do now – read a little more. And it is a hard copy, not the online version!
It’s 4:00 p.m. The latest update on the power being restored says 8:00 p.m. at the earliest. It gets dark at 5:00. Going to be a long day.
By the way, I am writing this in my notebook, I will type to my blog later.
Paper and pencil now; digital version later.
Twice loved!
…
Twice-Loved 