Technology and family life
How much of family life happens through technology now?
We message each other from different rooms, check where someone is, share photos, organise the week and keep in touch when we're apart. Technology can make family life easier, but it can also become part of almost every moment we spend together.
I’m curious about what happens to our attention when technology becomes part of family life.
When everyone has a screen
There can be times when everyone in the house is doing something different on a screen.
Someone is watching something, someone else is playing a game, another person is messaging a friend, and someone might be scrolling through their phone. We're all at home, but our attention is somewhere else.
It doesn't necessarily feel like a problem. This is just how many of us spend our time now.
When we are trying to get someone's attention
Sometimes we need to say something twice.
We might be talking while someone is looking at their phone, or listening to someone while checking an email ourselves. We might hear the words but not quite take them in. It can happen to all of us.
Our attention is easily pulled towards whatever is happening on the screen.
When technology brings us together
Technology isn't only something that takes our attention away.
It can bring families together too.
We might watch a film together, play a game, look at old photographs or share something funny we've found online. We can stay connected to family members who live somewhere else and be part of each other's lives in ways that weren't always possible.
There can be something really good about that.
The moments in between
Family life is made up of ordinary moments that don't necessarily seem important at the time.
Someone telling us about their day. Sitting together after dinner. A conversation in the car. Hearing something funny from another room. These moments can happen while technology is around us, but they can also be easy to miss when our attention is elsewhere.
We don't always know which moments we'll remember.
What has our attention?
Technology is part of family life now, and it isn't going away.
Perhaps the question isn't whether we should use it less or put every screen away.
Maybe sometimes it's simply worth noticing where our attention is when we're together.
Are we listening? Are we noticing what's happening around us? Are we actually with each other?
I wonder what you might notice the next time you're with your family and realise that everyone's attention is somewhere different.