Recently, Betty’s husband bought himself an iPod to ease the number of CDs he has to stock due to his love for music. We had gone to visit them and Steve proudly gave us a lesson of how the gadget works and you could tell he was happy with himself. Well, last week I met Betty over coffee and she is looking for ways to make the iPod disappear.
“What’s the matter then?” I asked.
“Since Steve got the iPod, it seems that all he ever does when he arrives home is to wear his headphones and he is lost in a world of his own with his music. He will not hear me when I talk and I have to literally shake him out of his musical stupor for him to very reluctantly stop the music and listen to me. And even when he does, he wants me to speak quickly, he replies even faster and the plugs are back. No disturbance,” she miserably explained.
“I always look forward to going home in the evening to catch up with Steve,” she moaned. “But now, he is looking forward to coming home to catch up with his iPod!”
That got me thinking about seemingly innocent gadgets that seem to get in the way of a husband and wife. For my husband and I, the computer remains a big challenge. We are both keen on reading and writing and so once either of us gets on the computer, it can be hours unending of reading, writing, browsing for all sorts of things and before we know it, we have not been in touch for a whole evening. We have tried to agree to limit our computer time at home to a maximum of two evenings a week.
Need I say that the mobile phone is another gadget that has intruded rather disconcertingly on marriages? Hardly do couples keep away from their phones and business owners seem to be the worst as they are constantly carrying ‘our’ business on phone throughout the day.
And then of course there are the corporate guys who have ‘company’ phones that are expected to be on all the time and who have to field calls from ‘the boss’ any time of the day and night. Nobody seems to remember that there should be time out to focus on one’s personal life outside business or work.
I will throw in the latest fitness programmes like the Wii and the Exbox that are meant for one to be able to keep fit from the comfort and confines of his/her sitting room. Whereas it is a good thing and more importantly, is cheaper than the gym, the problem is when one spouse becomes completely addicted to the gadget; the other hardly has any space to put in a word.
What are the gadgets in your marriage?
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