As I browsing the internet, this picture immediately captured my attention: Seven children and their parents are sitting together at the dining table, each using their Apple computer. It seems that they weren't even able to see each other’s face with these giant screens setting in front of them.
The family were staying together but were they having real communications? Shouldn’t dining room be a place for family dinner. Shouldn’t dining table be a place where family members can comfort and support each other after a long day? These question bumped into my mind and it reminded me exactly what we were talking about in the past two weeks. The technology, the internet and the social media are actually creating barriers for people’s interaction.
On the other hand, when I continued reading the article, my view changed somehow. Designer Cortney Novogratz’s idea was to turn the dining room in to a central station. The 9-foot-long mahogany serves not only as a Grand Central Terminal of the couple’s design business but also a place where the family can gather and do their own work together. “I’m the mother of seven. To me, I’m better and I’m more creative when I’m able to balance that all together, and this room allows me to do that.” It’s different, when one works as a designer and has to look after seven children. “With my younger kids, I like sitting next to them when they do their homework. It keeps them on track and focused,” she said. That made me think of that a lot of working parents are too busy to care about their family and as a result, they are really apart from their children. These children just go into their rooms and lock the doors every time they go home. Parents don't know they are doing so that they fail to give the right advice to them. At least, Novogratz’s family are really close. And children can get the connection with technology by sharing office with parents which is useful as they get older. Moreover, they dine together outdoors. Isn't that wonderful?
Maybe we have blamed technology and social media too much?
If the space is there, this seems like a good idea: we have separate kitchen and diningroom tables. As it is right now, the kitchen table is pretty much given over to my daughter's homework, and we eat around her stuff at mealtimes, or push it to the side. Maybe it would be better if we designated the (pretty much unused) diningroom as a "work station" area, and we all put our laptops and homework stuff in there. Then on the rare occasions we use it for family dinners or guests, we can just clean off that room. Leave the kitchen for actual family time together.
ReplyDeleteTechnology sometimes means we have to reassess how we live our lives. People get very upset about that, but it's not always a bad thing, right?