I thought I’d posted this song before but looking back, perhaps I didn’t. It’s more like an essay than a song, because it’s on the subject of screen time, something I can get very verbose about. In a shrill way. Perhaps setting it to music wasn’t such a good choice. No one likes a preachy, shrill song. But dammit I seem to be fighting the screentime battle more and more so shrill I will be. My twelve year olds have to have laptops for school. My son very rarely uses his for schoolwork but instead watches God knows what on youtube whenever my back is turned. They don’t have phones or tablets because I’m terrified of the extra battles, and frankly if they need immediate assistance with something I’d rather they reach for the general community than their phone. Is that harsh? Apparently they are THE ONLY ONES without these devices. Are they? Am I doing the wrong thing? Everyone says that we must listen to our guts and my gut is rumbling strongly against the tide of device dependence. No one talks to anyone anymore. No one looks out the window. Look out the fucking window people!
Anyway, I won’t add a lecture to the song-essay. And if looking at me on your screen turns you off looking at it again for the rest of the day, then yay, my work here is done.
PS Full disclosure – I will be watching the bachelor tonight, but only after I’ve eaten my dinner, done all my homework and the chores.
PPS Essay transcript (lyrics) below.
Look Up
I’m really afraid of what screens and devices will do to our brains.
I have to despair, all our little children might grow into people with nothing upstairs, they’re so unaware…
…That trees, are not trees but they’re storage for stories and places for hiding and homes for the bees.
And bees are not stinging insects, they’re vectors for life and they’re sweet for your tea.
And T is no boring letter it’s vital for words like ‘terrific’ and ‘theatre’ and ‘trifle’ and ‘trumpet’ and ‘tenacity’…Just look and see…
That poetry is in the air, it’s everywhere, just look up look up look up,
Look up look up look up, there is so much to gain,
If you just wake up your brain.
(You’ll see)
What’s going wrong – that we don’t see the birds and we can’t hear their song.
How can we be, human without putting our skin outdoors into vitamin D?
Our feet in the sea?
This sand, is not sand it is tiny wee fragments of rare precious treasures and play for your hands.
And hands, are not there for swiping on screens they’re for growing green beans and for greeting your friends.
And friends, are not things on snapchat, they’re people you know that will laugh with your cry with you share half their pie with you, never pretend.
You can always depend…
That love and life is everywhere, if you’d just care to look up look up look up,
Look up look up look up – you will reap the rewards,
If you just let yourself get bored.
(go on get bored)
Boredom’s essential to reach your potential, it leads to invention and new comprehension, forgive this impassioned oration but you have a fixation, a pathological, technological, far from logical infatuation and I fear the demise of imagination.
Imagination…
Without it I fear,
The world will be boring and beige and austere.
But it’s full to the brim, with beautiful sights, it’s a buffet of wondrous delights,
You just have to bog in, You don’t need to log in.
Please try, say hello to your Mum, maybe give her a hug, come on pull out the plug, it will be alright,
Just try, give the selfies a miss they’re unhealthy, selfish and they’re dumb don’t succumb to this need for likes.
Your likes have got to be real, go and walk up a hill, learn guitar, gaze at stars, try the parallel bars go and ride your bike, and just don’t lose sight…
Of all the wonders in this life, unlimited bytes, just look up look up look up, look up look up look up, look up looooooook up.
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megoracle.com 
Ah the nail hit tunefully on the head! Have shown this to my kids !