better

our ga

ourse]

dgets,

Find essential family time in an age of

computers, cell phones, and sidelkicks.

by HOLLY RQBiNSQN

Dinner was on the table. I’d coaxed our daughter off her

cell phone and our son off his computer. I’d even lit

candles. Just as I started passing the bread basket,

though, my husband whipped out his Palm Pre. “I need

to look something up,” he said.

It was all I could do not to throw the bread basket

at him.

Like most families today, ours has so many electronic

gadgets buzzing and beeping that it’s hard to know

where to focus our attention. As parents, w e bring

BlackBerries to baseball games, and teens text through

dinner. Cell phones are fifth limbs, and it takes a

Herculean effort to pull ourselves away from the

computer’s magnetic attractions, from YouTube to

Facebook, from the World of Warcraft to

The New

York Times.

Granted, this techno wizardry has advantages—we

can Skype with our daughter, who’s studying abroad,

and it’s a sweet snow day when you can work at home

in pajamas. Plus, our kids can literally see the Sahara

Desert or Paris without leaving the living room.

But at what price? As our attention is fractured into

smaller bytes, we risk losing sight of those who matter

most. The percentage of people who say they spend less

time with family members since being connected to the

Internet skyrocketed from 11 percent in 2006 to 28

percent in 2008, according to researchers at the

University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center

for the Digital Future.

For the last decade, the Center has been following

more than 2 ,0 0 0 families’ use of technology in the

home. Senior fellow Michael Gilbert explains that the

latest report shows a precipitous drop-off in “face-to-

face family time,” from about 26 hours per week to less

than 18 hours since 2007. “The thing about the Internet

is that it’s a one-on-one interactive experience that

really does draw people into their own little worlds,” he

notes. “We’re enormous enthusiasts for technology here,

but w e realize that technology casts a huge shadow on

family life.”

“W

e ’r e e n o r m o u s e n t h u s i a s t s f o r t e c h n o l o g y , b u t w e r e a l i z e

i t c a s t s a h u g e s h a d o w o n f a m i l y l i f e

2 3 2

MARCH 2010

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS

PHOTO: VEER