Facing Forward by ID OGUFERE
The bible says ‘to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven… a time to keep and a time to throw away…’ In the past, I had always thought that particular bit just meant that there was a time you held on to some personal property and then threw them away later. Today I see that very differently; I see it as speaking of an evolution of the seasons in which we live our lives – as seasons change, what do I keep? What do I throw away? We are currently living at the precipice of incredible, inexorable change. This change will affect every aspect of our lives – who we are, what we believe and how we do things. This change is the inevitability of the World Wide Web (www) and its attendant effect on our lifestyles.
The www has been here for a long time now, so why am I only just writing about it? I guess because everywhere I turned this weekend, I heard something about how it affects our children’s lives and being a parent I can no longer ignore it. This weekend alone, I’ve been bombarded with talks and thoughts of the effect of the internet on children; on Saturday a professor in college talked about our inability to communicate with our children because we lack understanding of the communicative tools that are available to them, while we want to pull them back into the traditional methods of learning we are used to, they are desperately leaning ahead to grasp everything the www can offer.
On Sunday, every parent in church was at the edge of their seats as we watched an ex Satanist priest explain how they use the internet and music to capture the hearts and influence lives of very young children. One good, one bad – two sides of the www. This definitely should make us think how we are parenting in the e-world.
This whole e-world thing is scary; there’s an entirely new virtual world out there that mirrors the world I can see and touch. I’m definitely not the only parent who came out of church hushed, afraid even. This world of e-mails, e-learning, e-books, e-chats, e-friends… perhaps e-parents? Where did the simplicity of the life I grew up in go? Remember when there were no debit cards? When you paid cash for everything you bought or wrote a credit note? Not a plastic card in your wallet that can at the touch of a button produce money in different currencies depending on your location. Or how when you took pictures, you had to wait 2 weeks for the films to be processed? Not the instant images waxed and polished to make you look like your dream and not your reality. Pictures you can show off to the public just by uploading, or downloading?
Do you remember that the only way to see loved ones was to travel miles? Or queue at NITEL for hours to book a phone call? Now SIM cards are free, handsets are affordable, there’s also webcams and Skype. Business meetings where huge deals and alliances are concluded are held in virtual offices – with parties miles and miles away from each other.
First we rejoiced when we got the desk tops, then laptops, then notebooks – now there are netbooks, notepads, ipads, kindles, blackberries, androids… each one getting smaller, better, cheaper, more available, more there! Charles Darwin I think was the one who said “it is not the strongest nor the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”
So as a concerned mum, having seen both sides of the www – how do I manage this change? How can I raise my children in the face of such change and yet protect them from the negatives of the same change? Here are my options: 1. Ban them from it 2. Expose them to it I really do not think there is a middle ground. I think that each decision has far reaching consequences and you know what?, I think what I really need to do is find strategies to manage the effect of the consequences of whatever route I go.
So if I ban them I fear that they may not function effectively in tomorrow’s world, no matter how expensive an education I can afford to buy them. Who would use a surgeon that cannot utilise modern methods of surgery and attendant surgical tools? So if I expose them I fear that they may be professionally equipped but spiritually and morally bereft. This to me is a fate worse than death, but one I can counteract perhaps? Despite my fears, I’m thinking this is the better route and I’m coming up with strategies to deal with the consequences:
• First, I wake myself up. There’s no point swimming against the tide. This ‘new way of life’ is here to stay. So I’m going to stop resisting its pull and plunge in.
• Secondly, I’m getting educated. I want to know what it’s all about; I’m going to learn as much as I can, I’m not going to have a glazed look anymore when I hear ‘gigabytes’ or ‘cloud computing’ or any such thing. I’m going to find out for myself
• I’m going to teach my children as much of it as I can. Luckily they are at the age where I can still be teacher. Age appropriately, I’m going to show them the coin – the good, the bad and I’m going to teach them the consequences of each side
•I’m also going to pray very hard. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10: 4 – 6).
• I’m going to consistently teach them God’s word – we will read it, memorise it, study it and let it reproduce itself in our decisions and actions. I believe that the word is more spirit than letter and I trust the spirit of the word to bring transformation in their lives and to lead then ultimately to God’s plan for them.
• Finally, I’m going to be a parent! I’m going to stand guard over what goes into their lives from school, friends and the www! I’m going to keep a pulse on whatever is going on in their lives – this is my primary call. Allaying my fears and inhibitions, I’m embracing change facing forward.
Good morning! ID OGUFERE visit idscolumn
