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Using Your Laptop In Bed
ryanaip writes "The New York Times has an article looking at the social implications of technology in the home. Specifically, the problems a spouse can face when their loved one is working in bed." From the article: "As electronic devices get smaller, people tote their technology around the house more than ever. And as the number of home wireless networks also grows, laptops — along with Treos, BlackBerries and other messaging devices — are migrating into the bedroom and onto the bed. The marital bed has survived his-and-her book lights and the sushi-laden bed tray. Can it also survive computers that tether their owners to the office or make the bed the workplace itself?"
Sleep Hygienests will argue that doing anything in the bed, outside of sexual activity or sleeping, is harmful to your sleep habits. It will "pollute" (for lack of a better word) your mind such that you are expecting to do something other than sleep in the bed, which will cause your mind to be stimulated each time you enter the bed in the same manner it was stimulated when you were doing whatever you were doing, be it reading, watching TV, or surfing the Internet.
I've got my wireless AP in the basement and I get Excellent coverage all over the house, but the second i move it over the bed the water blocks the signal completely.
It's probably better that way, but i'm just amazed how a relatively small amount of water can completely destroy the signal. I haven't tested it in the bath yet - how good is Dell Completecare?
Add a little Bliss (http://www.gamesforloving.com/), and the laptop becomes a welcome guest in the bed.
I grew up in Northern VA, and I can't say I see what you're saying. When I was younger, I lived in a $150k house in Vienna. When I went to college, I lived in a $1.3m house in Great Falls. I can't say the ratio of happy/unhappy people was any different in the two places.
In the real world, money has a lot of benefits. It's documented that a lot of marital strains are the result of financial issues. Sure, some of that is the result of a materialistic bent, but what the hell, humans are materialistic. Life is just a lot easier when the answer to "so, where should we eat tonight?" is based on "do we want Italian or Mexican?" rather than "gosh, that new Italian place is pretty expensive". As for working moms, its an almost universally good thing. Staying at home results in psychological pathologies, especially in our modern social structure where women don't congregate in the large social groups they do in more traditional societies. It's a loney, stressful, and largely unrewarding experience for many people, and results in an often contorted relationship between husband and wife.
Seaking from personal experience, I have to say that there is no conflict between modern values and tight family bonds. My parents and my brother and I are all very success-oriented type-A people, and more than a bit materialistic. Even though all of us spend most of our time working, we still have an extremely close bond. Creating that bond doesn't require changing your lifestyle, it just requires committment. When I still lived at home, we ate dinner together most every night. You have to eat dinner anyway, it's not a huge step to do it together. I spent a non-insubstantial amount of time as a kid talking with my dad while helping him with household work like fixing sinks or cleaning gutters. I'd spend a lot of time talking with my mom over breakfast before she left for work, or when I was on vacation, going out with her to lunch on her days off. To this day, even when I work 70 hour weeks, I still know everything my brother does, because I ping him now and then on AIM, or call him during lunch or dinner. All these things don't add up to a whole lot of time, but it doesn't take that much to stay involved in each others' lives.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
My physician told me that doing work in bed, eating in bed, watching TV in bed, etc is very bad for sleep patterns. Not only does it start to "teach" your body that the bed is not always used for sleeping, but it would eventually start to convince your spouse/significant other of that same thing. Just my experience with what not to do in bed.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I love technology, my wife is on the east coast (1700 miles, 28 hours by car) in training for the Army. About half of our communication is by email or cell phone when she gets passes on the weekends. I work from the house, so it will let me be closer to her next month when I take an extended trip.
Before she went into the army, I would fire up the laptop and work from bed while she snuggled up next to me until she was ready to get up. Pretty much the best working conditions I could imagine and when my days would be 18 hours long at times, the extra closeness to her was much appreicated.
It's also made the house seem that much more empty since she's been gone, I'll be glad for October to be here when she'll be home for a while before going active.
What i'm saying here is that technology and remote work doesn't have to be a bad thing for a relationship, it can be good for a relationship as well!
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.