[EF #3] A (Young) Mother and Her Gadgets

To be honest, I am not a social media junkie.

Not the kind who feel comfortable to share my personal life to some strangers in social media. Not the one who updated where I have been or what I have done, every-single-hour.

Having been living in Penang for almost 3 years now, far away from hometown, has inevitably changed the way I interact with people. The existence of social media has definitely helped me a lot. Thanks to my smartphone, tablet, and notebook 🙂

(Smart)phone is doing more than it used to years ago. Making a call is only its basic. Nowadays, everything is just one click or tap away.

My daily interaction with my long-time friends in my hometown have been done through the social media: Whatsapp, Facebook, and Path. There’s no way I could connect with them without this advancement in technology.

My smartphone has also helped me a lot in doing banking transaction. Mobile banking it is.

I have some reliable online-shops on my list where I usually buy some stuff, especially baby and toddler needs and nursing wardrobe. Thanks to the mobile banking application, I have been able to conduct the payment without even going out of the house.

I also have the ‘Period Tracker’ application on my phone. I am used to mark the dates of my period ‘manually’ on the calendar hence I’m so thankful for the application 😁 Not only it saves the dates of the period, but also counts the average cycle length hence it provides projected dates of the (next) period. How cool is that? 😉

In addition, it also features period’s symptom, today’s mood, and fertility calculator. It even illustrates them on charts. Simple application with great benefit 🙂

Having (smart)phone in hands has also made my ‘life in the kitchen’ easier. Exploring some recipes or simply peeking into cooking tip and the ‘how to’ has been as easy as tapping and scrolling – all done while cooking.

I only have to be more careful not to misplace the phone otherwise it might end-up covered in some flours or even droplets of water. LOL

Thanks to the fine internet connection, Skype-ing through tablet or notebook has been my weekly activity. Video call-ing with family and relatives far away in Bandung has been the best way to connect. Although most of the time, it was Alma they were missing, not me or my husband 😅

The tablet and (of course) notebook play major role in my blogging life. As I, unexpectedly, started to (kind of) actively write my thoughts, experience, and recipes in a blog earlier last April, I could not survive a day without peeking into my WordPress account 🙂

This advancement in technology is not without drawbacks. Despite my confession earlier, I do enjoy my time scrolling Facebook news feed to check ‘What’s on their mind’ 😉

It’s kind of a refreshment in the middle of the day after I delivered my little sunshine, Alma, to her restful nap. Until I realized that it has been more-than-an-hour-scrolls while a pile of dishes remains untouched. And by the time I have just done half of the dishes, my sunshine’s up already 😅

With Alma’s up and I haven’t completely done my dishes (and other house chores), it’s her time to play some favourite games of hers on the phone or tablet. The games help a lot to prevent her not to interrupt me with my dishes, which in some parts is good but as soon as I finished with the dishes, she has the strongest will of not giving me back my phone or tablet.

Her hands are some sort of ‘glued’ to the gadgets and her eyes don’t barely blink. It’s terrible and one of the worst views for me as a mother 😦

Thinking about the radiation, the addiction, the lack of social interaction, not to mention the bad habit it creates: moving less. Less moving means less stimulation on (both gross and fine) motor skills. Definitely not good 😦

I myself have experienced the ‘side effects’. Alma experienced speech and language delay last year as the cause of my this overly-used gadget and technology advancement. Fortunately, it is found at the early stage hence she is now an enthusiastic singer and a lively story teller 😀

Come to think of it, learning from experiences and living in a world where almost anything is possible at our fingertips, neither is about the gadgets nor the technology. It is more about ourselves, the user.

I personally learn how to gain benefit and ease from using it, but not letting myself being overwhelmed hence I have been trying to manage my time in using it, wisely. Still trying my best to be  a ‘smarter’ (and wiser) user 😁

Starting from putting away all the gadgets at dining table and on the weekend, to being able to read my little sunshine’s more books and to spend more time accompanying her pedaling in the afternoon instead of staring at my phone, tablet, or notebook. Hopefully 🙂

***

Anyway, here’s a worth to watch video. It has been watched for nearly 49 million times.

Some of you may have seen the video, some of you may not. Some of you might end up liking it, some of you might against it.

Well, I think it’s a nice reminder though 😉

“We’re surrounded by children, who since they were born,
Have watched us living like robots, who now think it’s the norm.
It’s not very likely you’ll make world’s greatest dad,
If you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad.”

“Where we type as we talk, and we read as we chat
Where we spend hours together without making eye contact..

So look up from your phone, shut down the display
Take in your surroundings, make the most of today
Just one real connection is all it can take
To show you the difference that being there can make.”

“The time you don’t have to tell hundreds of what you’ve just done
Because you want to share this moment with just this one – FAMILY” 🙂

P.S: This post is submitted as a part of weekly blog challenge in BEC (Blog English Club). It’s the third week already and still having fun! 😉 This week theme is “How gadgets affect our life?”. Any of you interested in joining the challenge? Find further details by clicking the club’s official site: englishfriday.wordpress.com 🙂