Dad Hates That His Kids Like Video Games So He Makes Everyone Live Like It's 1986
DM – A father has ordered his family to spend a year living like it was 1986 by banning all modern technology after fearing gadgets were spoiling his children. Blair McMillan made the call to carry out his ‘social experiment’ after his son Trey, five, said he preferred to stay indoors and play games on an iPad rather than go outside on a hot summer day. So Blair, remembering when he was a child and how it was impossible to keep children sitting quietly indoors, decided to go back in time and give his kids a taste of life in the year he was born. Since April, the McMillans, from Guelph in Ontario, Canada, have given up all modern technology with Blair even growing a mullet. The family have no internet or 24-hour news channels. Instead they have an old 1980’s TV set encased in a wooden cabinet and a ‘ghetto blaster’ cassette player blaring 80’s classics. They have thrown out their mobile phones, post real letters instead of sending emails, and knock on people’s front doors instead of following them on Facebook. When travelling they use a map to navigate instead of using a GPS navigation system and use film-based cameras to capture special moments. Most of their friends have been supportive of their experiment but Blair, 26, revealed some simply can’t give up technology even when visiting the 1986 household. He said: ‘It feels weird – it feels like we have really gone back in time. The strangest thing without having a cell phone is that I could almost feel my pocket vibrating and wanted to check my pocket. ‘At the same time the experience has brought the family closer and given us an opportunity to talk to each other a lot more. ‘I’d like to think I’ve been touching a lot of lives just through the people that I’ve met when they see me and the way I look. Some won’t catch on though. I even have a ‘cell phone box’ inside the front door of our house and whoever wants to enter has to leave it there for the duration of their visit.’
How nuts would you go if you were these kids? What would it be, a day before you tried to kill your father? I remember my dad took away my Sega for a day once and I spent the day plotting Home Alone-style boobie traps for him. Put thumbtacks in his recliner and shit. If I were these kids it wouldn’t even be 48 hours before I was like, “You want me to do what? Go outside and play with the fucking WHEELBARROW again?! I already did that for 4 hours today! And turn off Thriller in that stupid boombox, that song fucking sucks!” It would be total anarchy in the house.
And while in theory it must be nice for the dad. I’m older now, so I can appreciate no technology. I love going on vacation and being totally disconnected. But the fact of the matter is that I cannot live without technology. I still need to use a GPS to get around certain parts of the city. My penmanship is an abortion. I can’t sit at dinner without checking my Twitter every 10 seconds for some stimulation. Technology just is the way of the world now. Ignoring it is idiotic. It’s like cavemen pretending the wheel didn’t exist because walking everywhere kept you in better shape. Keep up or be left behind.
Advertisement
PS – Imagine you were his friend and he tried to get you to put your cellphone in a lockbox before you went in his house? OK, Blair. How ’bout you leave me alone and go play Kick the Bucket with your technologically retarded kids.