Parents and Phone Distraction

Ever since the smartphone debuted back in 2007, I have encountered a growing number of parents who lament how much time our kids are spending on their smartphones, and the way that time has undermined their teenager’s well-being. There’s a growing amount of data that supports these concerns, and which should cause us to wake up and pay attention so that we are more diligent in setting screen time limits, along with monitoring where are kids are spending their online time. But we’re now learning that’s it’s not just parents who are complaining about the effects of smartphones on our family relationships. The Pew Research Center’s late 2023 survey of teenagers found that nearly half of today’s thirteen to seventeen year-olds say they have a parents who is at least sometimes distracted by their phone when they’re trying to talk to them. Too much time looking at our screens takes away from the time we should be spending with each other. Are you spending too much time on your phone?