It’s a nuisance. A distraction. A menace on the roads. A depressing sign of the times.
It’s also my window to the rest of the world. A handful of technological wonder in an otherwise menial and isolated day. A life, and sanity, saver.
Yes. I’m that mom. Smartphone never out of reach. The ubiquitous 5th child in my already busy brood. One more to keep track of, keep safe, keep an eye on at all times.
I’m not blind to the downsides of this strange love affair. I’ve debated each point ad nauseam, with the critic in my head. I can get downright philosophical about it.
Since humanity first harnessed the power of fire, split the atom and pioneered the worldwide web, we’ve shown an incredible capacity to use our fancy new tools for both good and evil. It’s in our nature. It’s in my nature.
This is Mommy’s security blanket. The smooth contours nestled perfectly in the palm of my hand. A solid, sure weight in a tumultuous world. A little piece of control safe in my pocket, in the place of honour at the top of my purse… if all else fails, tucked under a bra strap next to my skin, inches from my heart.
In the course of a day it is my trusted advisor, personal assistant, teacher, counsellor, biographer, court jester, emergency response system, flashlight, calculator, alarm clock and immediate connection to friends, family, help, encouragement, entertainment, poetry, news and much-needed-perspective.
Sometimes, it’s a hero. When our son choked on a cookie this weekend, it was my iPhone that I turned to; typing “foreign object aspiration” into the search engine to find out what to do now. I had weather forecasts, road conditions and a friendly GPS voice on hand to help me around heavy snowfall and road closures on the way to the ER. It kept an anxious Daddy and sisters in the loop, worried friends apprised of the situation and a miserable, scared little boy distracted with games and movie clips. I can’t imagine living through that day without it.
But, it can be overwhelming, so much information and connection hovering in the background. Reluctantly I pry my fingers off my friend from time to time. Pull the curtain. Focus on the here and now. Find silence and solitude again.
Until life and family intervene. The punishing momentum of needs and routines and our very own brand of chaos. A world within a world.
So I reach for Mommy’s best helper. 4.9 ounces of synthetic comfort for the modern woman.
This is my favourite thing.
So here’s my entry for the
Word Press Weekly Writing Challenge: Object.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/writing-challenge-object/
So Here's Us... 
February 26th, 2014 at 8:33 am
For me, it’s a love hate relationship. I can’t stand the fact that they steal the show in social settings, between family members and so many kids are addicted to them. But, I can’t deny that they are extremely handy for more things than I count. Rarely do I use it to make calls though. Go figure. 🙂
February 26th, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Love-Hate about sums it up. So helpful/fun/amazing, mixed with all kinds of rude/dangerous/obnoxious.
February 26th, 2014 at 2:52 pm
Yes! Sometimes I would like to return to life without it-but Alex called from work Monday telling me that there were airplanes over his work and that we were “at war”. I told him that no matter what happens God is with us and will take care of us. After I hung up, I checked the internet in case he knew something I didn’t know. (:
It turned out to be military helicopters and probably co-workers and him came up with this scenario! So glad he could call me!
March 1st, 2014 at 6:42 pm
So easy to see how a funny story could have been a serious trauma if you didn’t have that instant connection. I hope that we will figure out how to maximize the positive and eliminate the negative with this tech but I suspect we’ll just get used to a new reality.
February 27th, 2014 at 6:35 am
You coined it well – ‘a world within a world’. Great post!
March 1st, 2014 at 6:43 pm
Thanks! I think that’s definitely what a family becomes whether it’s 2 or 20 members.
March 1st, 2014 at 11:05 pm
Good context. I like it. A lot of meaning there.
Enjoy your Sunday.
March 1st, 2014 at 9:17 pm
gosh how I relate to this! My son loves playing on my phone and due to circumstances at the moment I struggle to say no…when he has it it’s fine…it’s as if I know the phone feels loved because it’s still in use lol. But it’s just SO useful isn’t it? That being said the novelty has worn off for me (slightly) after having it for a while…my husband however is an iphone newbie and I can already see the slippery slope of iphone-ism happening. I say we all put down the phones and have a nice game of monopoly…let me just google the rules on my phone first 😉
March 3rd, 2014 at 12:28 pm
We often play the app version of board games now, so nothing’s safe! It can really suck our lives away. Especially those newbies. We all have to find balance somehow, somewhere along the way. Me… I’m still looking.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:27 pm
ha ha I know, the wii has some great ‘old school’ board games which we play sometimes too… there’s less small parts to misplace lol
March 4th, 2014 at 6:00 am
[…] What writing I actually managed to post on the blog this month consists entirely of love letters: to my husband in Once Upon a Marriage, my littles In His Shoes and In Her Shoes, even to an object, the one nearest and dearest to my heart in My Favourite Thing. […]
May 6th, 2014 at 10:23 pm
[…] building new relationships and maintaining established ones. I am, admittedly, a technophile with my iPhone always close at hand. I feel the draw of easy, efficient, but ultimately superficial social media connections. […]
July 30th, 2014 at 7:29 pm
Hi from Us! This is a terrific post and that I loved studying it