Somewhere between the first thousand miles and the second, I realized tech could ruin our togetherness. While it didn’t qualify as “vacation,” our travel across America was much needed time with our son before he spread his wings in college. We mapped out our route, activities, and low-budget accommodations, but failed to anticipate one hazard of family travel today: technology. What do we do with summer trips and technology when we travel?
Whether you use iPads for little travelers or iPods for bigger riders, technology can be dangerous. If we let it take us for a ride instead of managing it intentionally, its very presence can mean we’re “not together” even if we’re together.
Technology and Travel
- Tech can draw us from the journey and what we’re meant to experience.
- Tech can distract us from growing closer to those we’re with.
- Tech can destroy the good conversations of car travel.
- Tech can dominate our desires and willingness to engage in opportunities.
- Tech can dictate our attention so we miss the discoveries God has for us.
So how does a family manage technology when we travel?
- Choose tech that’s shared. One danger of technology is that it isolates. It can separate us from one another, though we’re in the same space and experiencing the same setting. Isolation is the quality that draws many teenagers (and adults?) to withdraw via ear buds and YouTube. Instead of making tech individual, share it. Listen to music together. Watch a video together. Search for information together. Use tech to bring you together.
- Declare no-tech times. We’re teaching kids patterns for life. We want them to learn skills of solitude, comfort with silence, and appreciation for simplicity. Because it’s good for them and us, we have to declare tech-less times. Is this a Sabbath? Perhaps. Family vacations and travel provide opportunities to re-connect, find refreshment, and remember each other. Announce a “tech-less” evening, day, weekend or week, and your family will be better for it.
- Model healthy tech habits. Kids resent our guidelines if we don’t model what we teach. It’s easy to do a quick Google search or snap a picture, only to be sucked into checking Instagram, Facebook, and email. Without intending to, we’re swallowed in the vortex of our technical tools, and our kids watch it happen. From the back seat a voice calls out, only to be answered with a familiar, “Just wait a minute, honey.” Who wants her kid to draw a family picture showing mom with a cell phone in her hand? Then we have to put the phone down.
- Demonstrate obedience. It’s never been easier to be an addict and a law breaker. Addiction is not only accessible; it’s acceptable. But this time, it’s not a bottle of alcohol; it’s an iPhone. Adults and kids compulsively pick up phones out of habit. Like many addictions, we say we can stop … but we don’t. Laws are in place preventing drivers from texting or even talking on the phone while driving. If we want children to obey family rules concerning technology use, we have to provide an example of obedience to laws for grown ups, too.
- Remember you’re the parent. Some of us feel like our kids have to use their tech like they have to use an inhaler, toothbrush or jacket. They don’t. Technology is not a right or necessity for a happy family vacation. If technology is a regular source of conflict, then it’s too important in the heart of your child. Unfortunately, that applies to most of us and our kids. We have to get a grip on our tech before it ruins our family trips and, worse, our families.
“He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them.” (2 Kings 21:21)
Without even noticing, technology has become an idol in many homes. It doesn’t have to. The first step is being aware of the danger. Next, ask for God’s help to put tech in its proper place. After that, ask for God’s help out loud when you’re together as a family at the dinner table, at the bedside, or at the roadside rest stop. Talk about boundaries and why you need and want them. Before you throw that iPod out the window at 70 mph, ask God to help you learn and teach healthy tech habits in your home.
What is your family doing to put tech in its proper place?
Other resources you might check out:
- Technology & your child’s brain development
- Taming Your Toddler’s TV
- Kids & Cell Phones – the WHAT and WHERE
- Get Back to Baseline as a Family
- What did I do before Facebook?
- 10 Safety Precautions for New Parents
- Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future by Tim Elmore
- Logged On and Tuned Out: A nontechie’s guide to parenting a tech-savvy generation by Vicki Courtney
- Plugged-In Parenting: How to Raise Media-Savvy Kids with Love, Not War by Bob Waliszewski, Director of Plugged In
- Election Day and empowering, enduring truths for moms - November 8, 2016
- Loving People: How Moms can Make Life a Lesson in Loving - October 11, 2016
- A Child’s Heart and the Hidden Treasure of Talking Back - September 13, 2016
