Fahrenheit 451

Have you noticed the changing societal landscape? Our world is increasingly technological.  You get fired if you say you hate your job on Facebook.  We need laws to tell us not to text while we drive.  People know more about their favorite actor than their president.  There are programs set up to help people recover from online addiction.  Parents have had their children removed because they were neglecting them in order to play a MMORPG.   Hulu lets us watch any show any time online.  We never have to leave our living rooms to connect with friends and family via  Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  Where ever we go we can have our favorite tunes on our MP3 players blocking out all other sound and distractions.  We have problems for things that 15 years ago hadn't even been invented.  How fast society latches on and spirals down hill.  We have become Bradbury-esque.

Perhaps it was reading the news or the fact that my oldest dd hadn't noticed her fathers hair cut for a day and half since she was busy with her own MMORPG or maybe it was because I couldn't get Facebook to work, but whatever it was I had this sudden realization that we were living Fahrenheit 451.  Ok, its not THAT bad, but its bad.  We can still identify drugs by their name and we haven't taken to burning books yet, but I think the over all tone, the concept, we are pretty darn near close to that.

That realization sent me running...for the computer.  No, not to facebook, but to look up things for us to do outside the home.  I decided we need to leave the house more than once a week.  Suddenly I was all steam ahead for Soccer, Basketball, Hip Hop.  What?  Hip Hop, sure, whatever, if its outside the house and requires interaction with others.  Don't care.  Whatever I can get the kids involved in its a good thing.  Then it was grandma to the rescue.  She had heard from a friend there was a Lego event at the library.  Perfect!  There are some distinct advantages to having siblings the same age as your children. This is one of those times.  While there I asked my mother to pick up a schedule for city sports.  They have these great short term programs and they aren't expensive.  We're thinking keyboarding and basketball might be just what Bradbury ordered.