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Love to Tweet? Hate Instagram?: Finding the Middle Ground in Technology

If it weren’t for Facebook, Belle would have no idea what was happening with her grandchildren. Her oldest granddaughter just changed her status and, because she’d been reading Katherine’s posts and commenting, she knew who the new boyfriend was and that he was a healthy, positive choice.

Tommy and Felicity are working on improving their communication during arguments, They’ve discovered sitting in separate rooms and texting is an improvement over standing in the kitchen yelling at each other (their kids and dogs approve). Once they’ve both cooled off and communicated some feelings over text, they can come together and have civil, productive conversations.

Wilfred struggled with social skills his entire life and, when I met him, he had no friends and minimal contact with his family. Over time we were able to get him interested in some on-line gaming sites where he “had” to communicate with other players around the world. He now speaks regularly with teens and adults on-line, and he’s even convinced his dad to play every once in awhile. Both the school and his family notice that Wilfred appears more social.

Tamera, recently divorced, was ready to begin dating again. She was nervous and overwhelmed at the prospective of dating after twenty years of marriage, so we talked about signing up on an on-line dating site. Completing her profile and starting to look at other peoples’ information showed her what she was looking for, and going on multiple first dates helped her gain confidence in herself and the process.

It can be easy to be black and white about technology. Perhaps you can’t live without Snapchat or putting down your phone for dinner is “torture.” Maybe it feels like all of this is part of someone else’s generation, or even that Facebook is the downfall of civilization. This week, take some time to find more of a middle ground. Perhaps a technology fast is in order, or it’s time to figure out what tweeting is all about. Either way, have some fun! Technology, instead of being everything or nothing, can simply be a tool.