Media Meditation #7 Take a Breath, Relax and Look Around

My brother, Ned and his wife, Kristen came up for Thanksgiving this past week. They live in Foxboro, MA and are socialites to the extreme. Kristen commented more than once how much she enjoyed spending a few days away from the city, in the quiet country. My brother found it boring most days. Despite the lack of commotion, we had a very enjoyable holiday visit.

During our few days together Ned was connected to the television and his laptop. Whether it was sports, a TV show, the news or a movie the television never seemed to get shut off until it was time for bed. Often, he would sit there with the TV on and his laptop on his lap, surfing the web at the same time. Even during the Thanksgiving dinner, my father found a music station on the satellite and played it through the TV while we were eating. For the most part I found myself joining the rest of the family in the living room, surrounded by the media. We watched two different movies this week, Star Trek and Public Enemies. Neither of which I found very interesting, yet I stayed for both because I was with my family.

One of the conversations that came up during their stay was the different media available now. We discussed how you can now connect to the internet through your gaming consoles like the Xbox, the PS3 and the Wii and you can stream things like Netflix and the like straight to your television.
My parents have yet to switch over to the newer Hi-Def TVs and still have one of the older Tube TVs. My brother explained which brand and type of television they should get when they do switch. We also talked about other media such as cell phones, black berries and Macs vs PCs. At one point Ned and Kristen were playing a game on the Wii while my father watched. I was able to keep up with the pace of the conversations we were having and participate, however I was watching my parents and during many of them they would nod and smile but really not understand the new technological world.

At one point my brother and I discussed the Kindle and argued on the pros and cons of having one. While my brother thinks they are great and innovative, he couldn’t understand how I didn’t want one and preferred an actual book instead. Another topic came up as well, when I went to purchase a newspaper to get the Black Friday ads. Ned told me it was a waste of money and I could look at all the deals online at each website. I explained to him that I spend way too much time on the computer as it is and there are some things that would rather step away from technology for and do the old fashioned way. I do enjoy the ease and access the internet, computers, gaming consoles, cell phones and television give me. I keep up with many of the different devices, even if I don’t own them personally. However, I still like stopping every once in a while and looking around. I enjoy the view that my parents have of the mountain. I take pleasure in living away from the city and the constant noise of it. My parents house has no cell phone reception and I find that a nice break from being constantly attached to it. My brother doesn’t understand the relaxed pace my parents’ house and setting offers, which is fine. But every now and then it’s nice to be unconnected.