I will admit that I’m guilty. I’m guilty at looking at my phone too much! I’m guilty of spending too much time at night on my iPad. I’m guilty! The other day Val of Corn, Beans, Pigs, & Kids wrote a post about committing to spending less time on her smartphone. She referenced an article that said more than 50% of kids think their parents are disctracted by their phone. That dug at me a little and then I saw this video that a friend shared on Facebook.
http://themetapicture.com/if-this-video-doesnt-convince-you/
That added to my guilty feeling. I thought back to the other night when we were “watching” TV and M left and went down to his room. I put watching in quotation marks because the TV was on, but T & I were both on our iPads. I didn’t really think a lot about it until all of these videos and articles surfaced and then I felt like a failure as a step-mom. I knew without even asking why M went downstairs. I brought it up the other night to T and he agreed completely with me. We spend too much time on our smartphones and iPads. We are too distracted by them. We were out shopping & having dinner when we were discussing it and I was proud of us because for the first time, we sat through an entire meal in a restaurant and neither of us pulled out our phones. It sounds like we don’t like each other and that’s why we do it, but we both agreed that it’s become such a habit that it’s just a reaction anymore. I think it’s also a tell-tale sign of our times…no longer are we just content to watch the world go by…we need to be “up to the moment” at all times. But, do we really?
We both agreed that we are going to make a commitment to spend less time focused on our phones and social media than each other and our boys. There is a balance that we can find. Our world will not end if we miss a couple Facebook status updates, or if I miss a Tweet from Fred Hoiberg. Life will go on, but we can’t get back the time with each other and our boys. So, I’m guilty, but I’m making a dedication to my family and to you, my readers, to change. It’s one of those things that constantly proves I don’t have it all figured out and I’m Learning As I Go!
I totally get this and am raising my hand high saying “I’m guilty!”. Chris and I are always checking our phones—he for work email and me for the ever changing status messages! You make a very good point—-time with each other is very important and I need to just put the phone down……thanks for the reminder!!!
Ugh! It’s so hard, isn’t it? We’ve been so connected and have been told for awhile now how important it is for us to be connected that finding that balance can be difficult! It’s still a struggle every day!
Great video and I’m happy that you’re on the quest to limiting your screen time. The part of the video that really struck me was the information about the attention span of adults. I think social media has made our attention span dwindle expediently. We think kids have a short attention span… I think many adults are worse!
Absolutely! Ive found that its hardernthan i anticipated too!