I love my iPhone and it's probably fair to say I may be somewhat, slightly addicted to my iPad. (To say nothing of the music on my iPod!) But lately I've noticed a trend that is heartbreaking and a bit disturbing.
Every Monday
night my husband I go to Culver's for dinner. We always marvel at the people
who use their devices while eating. The majority of the time it's within a
family at the table.
We've seen old
couples where one is playing on a phone. We've seen girlfriends in their early
20s sitting together, each texting. (Each other?!) But what really breaks my
heart is when I see a family where usually the dad is using his device while the
mom and kids eat.
Worse yet is
the dad and sons in the picture above.
We watched as
the three of them ate their entire meal without making eye contact or
conversation with each other. They hardly removed their eyes from their screen
long enough to even look at the next bite.
My comment to
my husband was that one day he'll finally look up and his boys will be waving
goodbye as they go off to college.
A few months
ago while eating at Panera I saw a mom with her two daughters. The mom had her
back to me and I could see she was playing games on her phone while her two
daughters, maybe 9 - 11-year-old range, sat across from her quietly eating.
We need to get our faces out of our screens and live
life!
There is so
much around us to enjoy and experience: relationships to be had, nature to
observe, colors to be seen, textures to be felt, birds to hear sing, food to
taste, flowers and coffee to smell. But we're missing that by having
our face glued to a glowing screen.
Make it a rule
that there will be no devices at mealtime. Whatever you need to do on your
phone can wait 30 minutes while you eat and engage with the people at your
table, whether little people or big people, or even if you're eating by
yourself.
Put down your
device and take a walk and notice nature: snow, leaves, rain, sunshine, birds,
dogs, whatever - notice it!
Eat outside
and watch the squirrels play in the trees, look at the blue sky, enjoy the
breeze.
There is
certainly a time and a place for all of this wonderful technology we have, but
please, make family time a priority and turn off the device! Nothing is that
important.
Psalm 3:3Do you think this will be hard or easy for you to do?
But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.
You may also enjoy:
