Phones vs family time

One of the greatest inventions of the century is mobile phones (specifically smartphones) and some of the other great inventions are blockchain, artificial intelligence, social media and so on but for me, smartphones give life to these other ones. You will agree with me that smartphones have a lot of benefits and have completely changed the way we do things. We now have a lot of people who are comfortably making money from the comfort of their homes just with their smartphones.

They make use of some of the other great inventions I mentioned earlier (social media, blockchain) to create a means of livelihood for themselves. Some of us also use our smartphones as a tool for learning via the internet. We can access any course or tutorial online and learn valuable skills that can change our lives. I haven't even mentioned the other things we can do with our phones such as communicating with people far and near, listening to music, watching videos and so on but these are all basic things that not only smartphones can do.

But as always, there's also the downside that comes with using a smartphone and one of them is addiction. The problem with phone addiction is that a person ends up using their phones all the time, even in situations that involve people connecting with one another and having deep conversations. This is even happening in my family right now because I remember that back in the day, we used to be closer than we are right now. Back then, all of us gather in the sitting room most of the time to watch soap operas and various TV shows.

But these days, we don't do that anymore as everyone now has a smartphone and is always in their rooms. It's only my dad that still uses the television as my siblings and I no longer have any use for it, considering we can just watch any movie we want on our phones. But this doesn't mean we don't interact with one another, we still bond from time to time but it is no longer as frequent as it used to be in the past. There are families where this is even worse and they barely talk to each other anymore. The siblings don't even know what is going on with each other and yet we wonder why depression is a prevalent issue these days.

This is why you see someone who is always surrounded by people but yet still feels lonely. This is why in my family, we don't use our phones during dinner. My siblings and I always eat dinner together and it's a tradition we have been carrying out since we were kids. Aside from that, we also spend some time with each other during the day without our phones, even though it's just for a few minutes sometimes. We also have a habit of talking with our parents when they come back from work, telling them about our day and also listening to their stories.

This is why I believe smartphones should be banned during family time because it doesn't even make sense to be using phones during such moments. It's even disrespectful when you're pressing your phone while among elders. I was in my hometown a few weeks ago for a funeral ceremony and I met a lot of relatives who I haven't seen for a very long time. Of course, there was a lot of catching up to do and whenever I was with them, my phone was always in my pocket or on a table. I don't even like it when I'm talking to someone and they are pressing their phone.

Immediately I see that, I stop talking and just assume they aren't interested in the conversation. But we see a lot of youngsters doing this, their parents are talking to them but their faces are glued to their phone's screen, and their parents won't even do anything about it, it's quite sad. Smartphones are great but a lot of people abuse them and that's led to a decrease in human interaction and families are no longer boning as they used to. On that note, I believe the best thing for families to do is to set up multiple times a week to bond and ban the use of phones.

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