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Turn that thing off! Setting rules for family tech use
How do you spend time with family without electronics getting in the way?
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Marketplace Tech etiquette guru Janell Burley Hofmann is a Cape Cod Mother of five with strong opinions about how to behave with technology. Today's topic: Family tech policy.
How do you set aside electronics in order to better spend time with family? And, maybe even thornier: How do you set rules for setting aside electronics that everyone can still live with?
Hofmann has two recommendations to tackle this issue with tact:
1. Agree on guidelines ahead of time. Before that big family get together, Hoffman suggests sending out a group email asking for "screen-free" day.
2. Suggest a "screen-free" activity such as playing a board game, hiking, or another outdoor activity.
How do you manage your family's tech use? Tell us in a comment below.
I love the idea of making family technology rules. In our house we have certain hours during the afternoon where everything must be turned off. And certain rooms of the house that are screen free - like the kitchen and the kitchen table. It's all so new it's crazy to think we would all just know how to navigate it. We get to make the rules that work for our family.
Thanks for reminding people to talk face to face. Observe people and the world around them. Would people remember their grandmother/father, their aunt/uncle, cousins, sisters and brothers by their expressions, eye contact, smiles, stories if they are constantly looking down at 3x5 rectangles of technology? If their ears are plugged into song, radio or movies - do they miss what the wind sounds like, or a creek or lightening? What about a hello from a neighbor or even a stranger on the street? What about the song grandpa whistles while he's watering the flowers in the back yard?
