We are happy to be part of the #BarbieProject, today we are setting the electronics aside for the promise of real play!
It has been 2 weeks since I decided to hide the electronics. This article’s intention is not to judge electronic lovers or parents who believe in electronics as an important resource. I truly understand that living in this techy era, we are all #electronicsensitive in some way or the other, but this is just an interesting experiment that I recommend you try at least once.
My kids get easily addicted to the iPad, and rapidly give up playing outside, talking, and even fighting with each other, which I don’t miss at all, but understand is natural and should not be avoided with an iPad. You know, negotiation skills come from brotherhood.
Since we started this exciting project, Ayelen has been learning to use a traditional camera, and I have to admit that it has been a great exercise for her. Rolling the film is such a great occupational therapy, listening to the click when the film is in the right place ready for her next photography is always fun for her, and even exciting.
She has been taking old fashioned selfies on the mirror by using her film roll camera. She’s cute!
These pictures remind me so much of myself when we didn’t have a clue yet, that one day cell phones will make this so easy, actually when we didn’t have an idea that one day we would have cell phones or social media.
The world has evolved thanks to technology, everything is fast and efficient, but there’s still something magic about non technological things, and it’s the connection we develop with our environment when we are able to watch things from a different perspective, it’s also the magic of discovering that there are different ways of doing things. Sometimes these ways go slower, are traditional, or even more complicated, but they are great for realizing how things worked before and how we were able to survive those times when nothing was instantaneous.
Using a manual camera, means this is the first time we have to wait a couple of hours to see our pictures on paper, something that rarely happens since we now store our photos in our phones or computers and a hard drive has become our family album. So far this has been an exciting experience for all of us, and even though we can’t assure the iPads are not going to jump out of their hidden places eventually, we are willing to go electronics free again in a couple of weeks.
