I found myself reaching for the phone whenever there was an opportunity or brief pause in parenting responsibilities. I had been on my phone for hours a day for the past several weeks. On a warm Saturday afternoon this past spring, I reached a breaking point. A majority of married couples report that their partner’s divided attention has caused strife in their relationship. Studies have shown that the mere presence of a smartphone can reduce our cognitive ability by taking attention away from other tasks-even if the phone is turned off. Constant distraction makes us less productive and can impair our ability to concentrate. Such easy and constant access to distraction is having an impact: Overuse harms our sleep and mental health. Almost all of us keep our smartphones within arm’s reach during waking hours, Gallup found, and most of us do so when we sleep.Īrthur C. American adults spend an average of four and a half hours on their phones each day, the research firm Insider Intelligence reported this summer. Nearly 60 percent of American adults told Gallup last year that they use their phones too often. Most of us find that smartphones have made our lives better, but we struggle to use them in healthy ways. When it comes to having an unhealthy relationship with technology, I’m in good company. “When you look at your phone,” she told me, “it’s as though you disappear.” My wife, Cristina, felt abandoned in the isolation of new motherhood and complained of my near-constant phone use. I spent up to four hours a day looking at my phone while right in front of me was this new, beautiful life, a baby we had dreamed about for years. I developed a bizarre interest in forums about personal finance and vintage hats. I fell into some embarrassing middle-aged-dad stereotypes. In those sleep-deprived early days, I found myself resorting to my phone as a refuge from the chaos. The reality, after our son was born, was quite different. We wanted our child to watch us paying attention to each other and to him. We vowed to be present with one another, at home and in public. We saw children paw at their parents, desperate to interact, only to be handed an iPad to keep quiet. We watched families at restaurants sitting in silence, glued to their phones, barely taking their eyes off the screens between bites. īefore our first child was born last year, my wife and I often deliberated about the kind of parents we wanted to be-and the kind we didn’t. This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |