17 Mar 2017
Who Controls your Life, you or your Phone?
I love my iPhone and the multitude of things that it does. However, I have noticed that smart phones can be pretty addicting and all-consuming. Have you noticed:
- people walking down the street and driving (yikes!) looking at their phones
- your child/teen/spouse keeping his or her face glued to the phone while you are trying to have a conversation
- increased addiction to social media and news that may be real or fake due to the easy proximity of the phone
- family dinners that consist of phone engagement rather that family engagement
- procrastination of homework and chores due to the endless fascination with the phone
- forfeiting of real life activities and events in favor of just sitting around with the phone
- that your child texts all night instead of sleeping
The list goes on. Let’s think about setting limits. Perhaps phones should get down time so conversations and real human interactions can flow. We don’t need phones at meal time. We can put away phones before bed, possibly in a separate room if the phone is too irresistible. We can even declare a day or part of a day as phone free, and put all the phones in a basket, and maybe play a board game or go for a walk.
If you think perhaps your phone controls your life, and maybe your kids’ lives, take pause and re-take control of your life. Set a good example for your kids and nudge them into activities that are so much fun, they won’t miss their phones.
