In the Casa Pologoda villa near Carvoeiro there was a 55 inch TV screen with instructions about how to access various extra channels. However, I am pleased to say that it was never turned on. Nobody wanted or needed that distraction - even Little Phoebe who is often in the habit of whining, "I want to watch something!"
Apart from not watching any television I also avoided being on the internet entirely. No blogging. No BBC News. No e-mails or Google. I was completely off-line. Of course the others all had their smartphones which they accessed every day but not me, nor Phoebe and the babies.
It felt good to detoxify. Most of us spend far too much of our lives looking at screens and I am not at all sure that this is good for our health - either mental or physical. Arguably, we become smaller, less significant beings when big chunks of our days and nights are devoted to screens. What is it doing to our brains?
A little Googling led me to some interesting numbers. The average American spends around seven hours a day looking at screens - TV screens, computer monitors and smartphones. That is forty nine hours a week which is the equivalent of two full days out of seven.
For children living in the western world this is all they have ever known. They think that it is all very normal but people of my generation can remember times when there were no screens apart from very occasional visits to cinemas.
There was more time for quiet thinking, family conversations, shared social activities and sports. Surely- all much healthier than immersing ourselves in the multifarious offerings we find on our screens.
It also occurs to me that every interface with a screen involves consumption of electricity. Smartphones are charged up day after day all over the world. Think of all of that electricity! Incredibly, it is estimated that there are 6.94 billion smartphones in the world. 1.5 billion of them are in China and India. Yes - huge amounts of electricity every single day so that users can check "Facebook", share memes, take photos, play games and message each other.
Screen detoxification would do us all some good once in a while. I think we would have clearer heads and more focus upon the world around us. And maybe we would start to rediscover some of the things we have lost because of screen time. After the positive experience at Casa Pogoda, I am going to actively try to reduce the amount of screen time I accrue each morning of the week.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/fz7FscW