Put The Smart Phone Away! They’re Affecting Your Relationships

Smart phones are all the rage these days and make it easier for us to connect with friends and family quickly. But are they affecting our relationships?

It's pretty frustrating that when I go into a restaurant and see mom, dad and teens all on their cell phones when they probably should be engaging in conversation with one another. Constant using of cell phones, smart phones and social media are not healthy for a relationship.

Today on the Top 5 at 7:45 I'll highlight 5 ways that attention to smart phones in a family time environment are affecting these relationships.

1. Lack of Mindfulness - Our attention should be on our spouse, date or children when going out and not on social media, news and other stuff via the smart phone. Makes them feel cheap and what did you really get out of it?
2. Destabilizes Your Relationships - This increases our dependence on the virtual world rather than the real world. If we're more worried about how many likes our comments got on Facebook rather than if our date likes our conversation, then we're up a creek without a paddle. So go ahead and kiss your phone good night and see where that gets you.
3. It Causes Us To Prioritize The Wrong Model Of Communication - It's pretty sad how more and more young people are being hired into "management" positions and no more know how to deal with people than a cat with a mouse. Smart phones, emails and social media is how they "effectively" communicate and verbal face time is a thing of the past with them.
4. It's Addictive - Just like smokes, liquor or t.v., this also can cause an unhealthy addiction to something. The addiction should be to family and friends and time well spent with something other than our smart phones.
5. It Isolates People - People are more comfortable with a device rather than real people. That is really, really sad.

The Top 5 at 7:45 airs weekdays with me, Gary Freeman and sponsored by First Education Federal Credit Union.