Name ways in which the smartphone has negatively impacted family life?

[Just_Me_D]

As great as a smartphone can be in regard to enhancing our situation, it can also negatively impact it. For example, when you see families walking around, whether at a park or inside a mall, a majority of them are looking down at their smartphone screen

With that in mind, how has the smartphone, regardless of brand, negatively impacted family life?

 

[Ledsteplin]

Kids don't play outside like they used to. And often when they do, it looks like this:

Relationships often go south.

Many lose sleep.

Thanksgiving dinner just isn't the same.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Kids don't play outside like they used to. ...

You got that right, sir...

 

[kataran]

Smartphones can also do good to some extent. During conversations we don’t guess what the correct answer is a few in the group look up a different query till we come up with the best explanation

But it’s true everything in excess is harmful!

 

[ksassy]

It use to be more face to face conversation and phone calls when I was growing up and now it seems the main forms of communication are texting, chat message, and social media apps.

 

[Wotchered]

Smartphones are the only way I communicate with my family (Sparingly !) negatives, none really, to do with family life !

 

[xtremeled]

While I do carry the phone with me almost all the time I do have a few rules I follow. When I am with friends or clients, whether its a formal meeting, having a drink or an organized dinner type function, the phone is silent and upside down. I personally think people should prioritize. Rarely is something more important than the people you agreed to meet with. I find that most people lack manners and common courtesy today. Just because you have a notification doesn't mean you need to acknowledge it instantly

 

[Rob Phillips]

All of the things @Ledsteplin listed above. This is exactly why my kids have limited screen time every day and we disallow iPhones and iPads at the kitchen table. I mostly stay off of my phone from the time I get home from work until my kids are in bed.
Life is too short and kids grow up fast. It drives me insane when I see entire families sitting at a table at a restaurant and literally everyone is on their phone. Such valuable time being wasted.

 

[Annie_M]

Some family members don't know how to put their phones down when visiting family members. For example, my nieces are very bad about this, as are their parents. Whenever they would come to visit my Mother in law, most of them would have their noses buried in their phones. My Mother inlaw complained bitterly about it. I used to be guilty too, but after seeing how hurtful it was (and rude), my phone stays in my pocket, or upside down on the table.

At another family gathering, my cousin's husband chides anyone for having their phones out. I pointed out that I use the camera, and that appeased him. He's right though, it's rude, and anyone who buries their nose into their phone is missing out on interacting with family and friends.

I once read a story once where a group of friends gathered once a month at a restaurant to catch up and reconnect. They discovered that they were all guilty of looking at their phones rather than interacting with each other. So they made a pact: they stacked their phones in the middle of the table, and the first person to reach for their phone was then obligated to pick up the entire check!

 

[Sherry_B]

People seem to have their phone's attached to either their hand or the side of their heads. I hate them at the dinner table. I hate them while trying to watch tv. I hate them in a restaurant.

It's one thing to mutually decide to look up an actor or a band, but it's something else when you're trying to spend quality time with someone and they can't put down their damn phone. I'm old school. Put the damn thing down or out the window it goes. This is a bone of contention with me.

 

[Annie_M]

People seem to have their phone's attached to either their hand or the side of their heads.

This is so true! Working on a college campus, it's interesting to watch students pouring out of buildings after a class. I would say that the majority of them have headphones in, and are busy texting or reading something on their devices. I am amazed that they don't walk into walls or each other!

 

[mumfoau]

I am amazed that they don't walk into walls or each other!

That would be very entertaining!

 

[Annie_M]

That would be very entertaining!

Yes, it would!