It's been nearly 10 years since I last watched VeggieTales. (Except for Jonah. That movie was the bomb). In fact, it's been a looooooong time since I last watched any VHS tapes at all.
Welllll, this summer my siblings decided to take up a new pastime. Each night around 9, one of us rifles through the box of video tapes, selects one, and runs upstairs to my room where we have a chunky but tiny TV & VCR.
It's a lot of fun. So far we've the movies we've watched have included Dumbo, The Jungle Book, The Princess Bride, Madeline Lost in Paris and The Prince of Egypt. Gems. All of them. Of course I've seen 'em all before, and I loved watching them again.
sorta.
I mean, I loved watching them....but I didn't really watch them. My brother and I were still glued to our tablets, on Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, BuzzFeed....anything. Anything but the movie. We missed...I missed, SO much. We got a stern yelling from our sister.
"Are you even watching?!"
"Humm? Oh! Yeah totally!" I said, looking up and then promptly back down at the highly informative article I was reading on "19 Unintentionally Disturbing Moments from Coloring Books". Good stuff.
"Idiot! I put down Instagram so you can too. I'm going to go turn off the WiFi if you keep that up. These are our childhood memories right here!"
"Right," I said, guiltily sliding my tablet underneath my pillow. "I'll watch".
For 5 minutes. Then my phone buzzed.
Then I got a snapchat.
Then someone messaged me on Facebook.
WHY do we do this? Don't deny it! You have too! Why do we feel the need to have our attention pulled every which way. Imagine if that was the norm at work, or in a conversation. You'd be annoyed and stressed out, right?
Customer 1: Hi, so I just have the--
Customer 2: Excuse me, ma'am, your mello yellow is out
You : Right I'll get right to--er are you waiting on something?
Customer 3: Um, yep, I had an online order
Customer 4:Do you have any more Tabasco sauce?
You: Um, yes. I'll be right with uh...oh yeah your burrito is $6.97.
Customer 1: and a drink. Did you get the drink?
Customer 2: Pst the Mello Yellow is out
Customer 1: oh I don't want a drink
Customer 5: Um, your'e out of toilet paper in the bathroom.
Customer 2: Can I get a refund?
Oh wait. That's me every day at Chipotle. Trust me, it's not fun. It's so hard to pay attention to everything. So why do we split our attention between life and our screens constantly. Whether it be texting and driving, scrolling through our newsfeed while talking to a friend (etc.) It's...it's not right. I'm not really sure how to change, but I think to start, one has to want to change. To make a conscious choice to put down the electronic device, look up, and LIVE.
It's worth it. :)
It's worth it. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment