A celebratory week that is likely to be hard to observe this year…
04 May 2020
Dear LPG,
It is quarter past four in the morning and I am feeling wide awake. I know that this is not uncommon during normal times but at this time, many of the friends that have kept me grounded as we have shared telephone conversations tell me that they have the same problem.
I say thank goodness for my tablet at times like this because as soon as I turn it on and connect with the internet something interesting will pop up to catch my interest and pass the time.
Today I learned about one of those national celebrations that made me think. Apparently National Screen Free Week starts today and lasts until the 8th of the month. It is aimed at families with younger children who spend so much time playing internet games and watching telly but, in reality don’t we all.
It is ironic, when most of us pensioners were really young we may have heard of television but I bet most of us had not actually seen one. It makes you wonder what we spent our time doing when we were little. Everything we did do took longer I suppose.
Do you remember looking up facts in books when you did your homework? I saw a programme on television recently where a twenty-year-old youngster was given an old copy of the yellow pages and timed as she tried to find the telephone number of a local plumber. She didn’t know where to start. Isn’t it funny how used we get to the gadgets around us and I dread to think what we would all have done during these days of self-isolation without the ‘companionship’ of our mobile phones that allow us to see who we are talking to as easily as hear them.
It is also fact that while most of us older citizens don’t have any video games to keep us company, my granddaughter tells me that she could not have got through having three pre-teens at home all day every day without the many video games that help them to pass the time.
There is also the television; it has to be said that looking forward to the start of a favourite programme has really helped to pass the day. During these last few weeks I have to admit to often not knowing what day of the week we are in, but I can work out what time of the day it is depending on the programme showing on my usual channel even if I am not really watching. The television has really kept so many of us company, and somewhat sane, especially during the past few weeks.
I am writing this message some two weeks before the beginning of this celebratory week and wonder if we will all be free to leave our homes in time to find something non-electronic to do when these five days start. We have been shut in for about a month, but I think that many will agree when I say it seems a lot longer, and who knows how much longer this will go on. Even though I was a child of an age where there were few screens around, I don’t think that I could managed to observe National Screen Free Week this year, regardless of if we are still locked down or not.
The irony is that not being able to sleep, and the screen on the tablet, inspired my writings today…
PM, Downham.
PM shares the links that inspired today’s message…
