Getting back to basics....

I am beginning to think that everything that is wrong with our country is everything that we are so proud of.  All the technology.  America, where we can send a man to the moon, talk on our cell phones and drive, and text each other from across the SAME room!!  Am I the only one who sees an issue here?  We are raising a generation of children who won't have lived without a cell phone.  I worked with a girl who was constantly texting and checking her phone.  When I asked her to turn it off, she said it would cause her an anxiety attack.  Seriously.  Checking your phone while doing patient care, if I was the patient I would be pretty disgusted.  When did we become so dependent on these things?  Used to be if you called someone and they didn't answer you left a message, or assumed they weren't home and decided you'd try again later.  God forbid you don't answer your phone or a text now within 30 seconds, people are ready to send out a search party.  Sometimes, I don't even know where my phone is and sometimes I turn it off (gasp).  Sometimes, I don't want to talk to you. 
We are raising our kids to be socially retarded.  How about actually talking to each other, in full sentences?  Not all this text speak.  How about sitting down to a family meal and discussing our days rather than texting your kids from the McDonald's drive through asking what they want for dinner?  Maybe I am old fashioned but I really miss the simple way life used to be.  When I was growing up, there was one fat kid in your class.  Now there is one skinny kid......coincidence?  When you sit on your butt playing video games eating junk 3 meals a day what do you propose would happen?  On summer days when I was a kid my mom literally locked us out of the house.  She fed us, send us out, let us in for lunch, then back out till supper.  And guess what, it encouraged us to be creative.  We built villages of acorn people, made potions of mud and grass, played in the sandbox, jumped rope, rode bikes, went for walks.  We played all day long and had fun.  Now you send kids outside to play they look at you like you have horns growing out of your head.  We need to get back to the basics of family.  When you knew what your kids were doing in school, who their friends were, where they were at all times.  When you sat down to dinner, baked cookies together, went for bike rides.  I feel so close to my family, because I really know them.  I was raised with them, I have spent hours and hours talking and playing and praying with them.  We always knew what each other were feeling, good or bad.  We need to end this disconnect we have and start caring for each other as human beings again, as friends.  So put down the phone, and come on over, sit on my deck with me and let's have a burger.