IMHO

 

"Put your phone down, look with both eyes" - David Hockney

Although he was eighty eight when he died, David Hockney did not customarily shun modern technology. In many ways he embraced it and seriously explored the potential of i-pads and art software. He pushed boundaries proving that he was not some old fuddy duddy stuck in his old ways.

And yet like many of us he noted with some disdain how slavishly many people seemed glued to the little screens on their smartphones. He wanted them to look up and see the world around them - perhaps drink in different lights, different shades and the endlessly changing scenes around them. If you are forever looking at your little screen you miss so much.

Today as I was coming back from the hospital, I saw a young father pushing his baby son along Ecclesall Road. The little lad was sitting upright in his buggy, taking in the world around him. In contrast, his father was pushing the pushchair with one hand. In the other hand was his active smartphone and very sadly it appeared that whatever he was looking at on that phone seemed infinitely more interesting than the baby boy who surely deserved his father's undivided attention.

I see this kind of thing very often and as I am walking along I will often stare at these parents who are usually so absorbed in their phone's hypnotic magic that they don't even see me staring in my well-practised condemnatory fashion - using non-verbal signals that shout loud and clear, "That is wrong! Get off your bloody phone!"

Loving a small child requires full commitment. Your smiles and subtle messaging show that you are fully alert to what your youngster is doing. You are meant to be together - parent and child - so please - no Facebook scrolling, no Snapchat, no "X" posts. See your child and be with him or her - in the moment.

Constant smartphone diversion means you are sending out this message to your child: "I do kind of love you but you are rather boring and somewhat irrelevant compared with what is on my phone". In the long run thoughtless phone use when in charge of children could easily cause psychological harm.

Of course the tech companies who developed smartphones and interconnected app and software developers cynically designed their systems to be addictive, to hook users in a manner that has  many parallels with actual drug addiction. So in some respects I have sympathy with users. It is not entirely their fault but they need to be bigger, more self-critical and exercise better control over their phone habits.

In short, I am in full agreement with David Hockney: "Put down your phone and see with both eyes!" IMHO* it is a good message.

* In my honest opinion - pub quiz question at "The Hammer and Pincers" on Sunday night.