Get With It on Technology, Dr. Laura

As I’ve written before, although Dr. Laura is usually right-on, she’s off on her contempt for certain technologies, such as interactive games, social networking sites, instant messaging, and blogs. Yeah, I know there is a lot of pure dung out there about her on blogs, but blogging should not be dismissed with a broad brush. She even has her own blog. Kind of. It’s really more just columns stacked on top of one another. Kind of like right here.

Anyway, there was a caller on today’s show who was complaining that her husband spent a lot of time on games, MySpace, and instant messaging with his friends, and without finding out exactly how much time or exactly what he was using the technologies for, Dr. Laura immediately dismissed him as a “15 year-old” and advised that the woman tell her husband that it was time to put away childish things.

I’m not going to rehash everything from my previous post. But just because the youth is quickest to adapt to new technologies, doesn’t mean using them should be equated with immaturity. I realize that Dr. Laura long ago “made it” and is very successful and got through much of life without these things, but many successful, mature adults with balanced lives find social networking and instant messaging to be a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, work jointly on projects, develop professional contacts, and share experiences with other people in the same situation (expecting mothers in the same month of pregnancy, for one example, or people losing extra weight, for another). In some industries, if you don’t have an online presence you simply don’t exist.

I also fail to see how playing games should be automatically any different than watching TV or reading a magazine, activities during with most people don’t interact with other people in the room.

Dr. Laura understands that men have a need for sex. That drive is there at 15. But she doesn’t accuse horny husbands of being 15. Likewise, some men enjoy playing games. Me? I gave them up when I was a teen, but I know others my age who still play them.

So while some things, like moral rights and wrongs, don’t change and Dr. Laura should stick to her guns, other things, like technology, move on, and change should be embraced, as long as it isn’t illegal, immoral, or fattening.

As for the caller – if that’s the way her man was before they married, she should have discussed what her expectations would be in the marriage BEFORE she ordered the wedding cake. There are very few things about a man that should or will automatically change because he went through a wedding ceremony. I'm sure there are things she does that he doesn't understand.