Page 131 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

120 Reception of religion and media

Interviewer: You do have Internet access though, right?
Dale: Yes we do have Internet access. It’s Ethernet I think.
Interviewer: You say that you almost never go on the Internet?
Dale: Rarely. The only thing that I look for actually is Mapquest and
that’s it.
Bonnie: And I never go on [the Net]. I do not use it. I have no desire for
anything. If I want to talk to somebody, I don’t e-mail them, I pick up
the phone. I am an anti-computer individual.
Dale: The kids will play tank wars on the computer, but that’s like once a
month. They haven’t done it for a while.

So a picture develops of a household where there is Internet access and one
parent who does not use the computer while the other one reports using it
primarily for word processing and games. The interviewer is curious as to
whether the children also go online.

Interviewer: [to Carson and Don] Do you guys go on the Internet?
Dale: [answering for them] The whaaaat!? No, they never do. The only
thing they go on is, ahh, shockwave.com or tankbattle.
Bonnie: In fact, we have to sign a release tonight if we want our kids to go
on the Internet at school. And we’re not going to allow them to go on
the Internet at school.
Interviewer: Oh really? What are they going to be doing instead then?
Dale: I don’t know. . . .
Bonnie: Read, writing. . . .
Dale: They can do whatever. . . .
Dale: As far as the computer goes, there’s too many sites that they can get
on to. But you know, you can’t obviously shield them forever. . . .
Bonnie: Right.
Dale: But as far as school goes, they have no need for it. They have no
need for e-mail. They can’t read.

It is clear that Bonnie and Dale feel anxiety about the Internet and the
computer, and want to limit Don’s and Carson’s access to them. But, in
nearly the same sentence where Dale declares that they never use the
Internet, he reveals that, besides the computer game Tank Battle, 11 they
12
have also gone online to the commercial site shockwave.com enough that
Dale is aware of them having done so. The Interviewer is curious about
Dale and Bonnie not approving of the kids having Internet access at
school. “Not yet,” Dale says. When the Interviewer asks when it will be
appropriate, Dale responds,

That’s a good question. When it serves a purpose. That’s the big thing.
Because right now they’re five and six. They don’t know about the