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| Am I Glad That I Met Earl? (continued) |
| My teenagers are becoming sophisticated followers of Earl. Earl’s knowledge is extraordinary, and provides vast data…my sons get so much great information from Earl that they really don’t need or want to go to the library anymore. They have book-marked pages. They have subscribed to online gaming. The older one has a web page; his is truly a growing addiction. I try to limit his involvement with Earl, to just school related use. But other Earls seep in…Playstation cheat sites, sports related sites, online games, the list goes on. Cookies track my son’s every move, but he doesn’t care, he can’t stop. He sits in his room and feels private and safe. But Earl isn’t private, and can be dangerous. Liaisons can be arranged, identities masked. Rules about “strangers pulling up alongside you in cars” becomes rules about “strangers found in Earl’s world.” Scary. There needs to be instructions on what can be downloaded, what can’t. Viruses. Tracking mechanisms. Privacy rules. Instant Messaging came along and there was just too much, too fast, too often. The plug for that got pulled real quick…but quietly came back with new rules, but old concerns. My son continues to long for greater access to Earl’s world. Many of his friends now carry Earl around on their cell phones…and those cell phones allow digital photos to now come into play, Earl greedily posting the photos real-time on the internet…Earl is just too accommodating, too tempting…and Earl is clever, using the latest and greatest technology to further invade our everyday lives. So, am I glad that I met Earl? Am I glad that Earl is a part of my daily life, part of my two sons’ lives? Hmmmm. I can honestly say that Earl has been a wonder. Earl has allowed me to work from home, to keep in touch with so much in the world that a mom at home would otherwise potentially miss out on. And Earl is part of my kids’ lives, quite frankly, whether they use the PC at home or not. Earl is at school, Earl is at the library, Earl is just part of their world. I know that we can’t and won’t ever walk away from Earl. We need Earl in our lives. Earl helps us in so many ways…but we need to be careful. And I do know that it is healthiest for all of us to unplug Earl once in awhile and go curl up with a good book, or go play basketball with a friend, or go do something…anything…with another real person. But before I disconnect for the day, there is just one more Earl I really wanted to visit… By Diane Blum copyrighted |
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