At any point when our house is waking up or shutting down, there can be up to four electronic devices connected to the internet in play. This sometimes freaks me out, but then I think about how connectivity is a gift and how lucky we are to live in such an amazing age. Besides, our  kids aren’t constantly on their devices. Probably 30 minutes a day. So it’s not epidemic in our house, but it could be. We could be people who obsess over connectivity, gaming, information and entertainment consumption, etc., like so many others. But we’re not. We like being away from screens and outside on little adventures. We enjoy engaging each other in dialogue. The devices aren’t in control of us. But they could be. Today’s technology is so pervasive because it’s so simple and so accessible.

Which got me thinking about the word device, and how the word viceis just sitting right in there. And that led me to:

de: a prefix occurring in loanwords from Latin (decide); also used to indicate privation, removal and separation (dehumidify), negation (demerit; derange), descent (degrade; deduce), reversal (detract), intensity (decompound).

vice: an immoral or evil habit or practice. Synonyms: fault, failing, foible, weakness. Antonyms: virtue.

device: a thing made for a particular purpose; an invention or contrivance.

So simple. So pervasive. So ironic. Nothing is insignificant.

Be careful out there, kids.

***

Jim Mitchem

A Taste of Evil
No One Said It Would Be This Way

Jim Mitchem

Writer. Father to daughters. Husband. Ad man. Raised by wolves. @jmitchem on twitter. First novel, Minor King, out now.

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