Should Phones Ever Be a Part of Family Gatherings?

     Gatherings, especially those with your family, are a time for socializing and catching up. There are often a lot of people who you only get to see during these gatherings, and you need to make the most of your time with them. However, among newer generations, distant family members meet and simply greet each other before directing all of their attention back at their phones and forgetting about each other. This is a significant problem in today's society, and most people are quite unaware of it. Involving phones in family gatherings can waste precious time together and strain relationships between people.

    Involving phones in family gatherings can waste precious time you have with your family. A study by World Economic Forum says that Americans only spend about 1 hour of quality time a day with their families. Family gatherings are a great way to reconnect with your family that you don't get to meet much during the rest of the year. People should be taking advantage of this scenario! Only, people seem to be a lot more interested in picking up their phone and scrolling through their social media or playing video games. This might provide a sense of momentary bliss, but in the future, people will regret the time they could have spent with friends and family that was spent on such trivial entertainment as a handheld device. Phones might be nice while you are using them, but the time spent on your phones is time that could be much better spent with your family.

    Looking at your phone in scenarios where you could be talking to someone can strain what might have already been a distant relationship. Reconnecting during gatherings is one of the only ways that people are able to interact with distant family members or friends from far away. Imagine you are going to a family reunion and you are going to meet a distant family member who is also attending the meeting. It's not likely you know much about this family member, so the gathering will be a nice time to catch up. But when you get there, that family member is on their phone, and suddenly you see a message, and become engrossed in your phone. When you leave, you realize you never got to talk to that family member. Next time you meet that family member, they will be even more distant because you didn't take the chance to catch up with them. And all because of your phone. Family gatherings can help maintain distant relationships, but bringing phones into the picture can ruin gatherings.

    Family gatherings are commonly portrayed as joyous and lively, with all the family members laughing and chatting. But these days, a more accurate picture would be a bunch of adults and kids staring down at their phone and laughing at whatever shows up on the screen. A survey by Statista reports that 50% of people surveyed spend 5-6 hours on their phones a day: almost 5 times the amount that families spend together per day. Even bringing your phone to a family reunion tempts you to give your attention to it instead of your family, which is much more important than any notification you have. So the next time you find yourself at a family reunion, leave your phone in the car and enjoy some quality time with your family!

Bibliography

Ceci, L. "How much time on average do you spend on your phone on a daily basis?" Statista, 14 June 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1224510/time-spent-per-day-on-smartphone-us/. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.

Coop, Avery. "This infographic shows who Americans spend most of their time with." World Economic Forum, 8 Nov. 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/americans-spend-time-infographic-survey-age/. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.