Phones Are Ruining Family Conversations… and It’s Not Just the Kids

Trying to have a heart-to-heart with your kid these days is damn-near impossible, since you’re competing with TikTok, Snapchat, and whatever’s trending on YouTube.

A new survey found that kids under 18 are holding a phone 52% of the time their parents are trying to talk to them. That’s right… half your valuable wisdom is probably getting drowned out by memes and cat videos.

And before you roll your eyes at “these kids today,” let’s be real: parents aren’t much better. The same survey says partners are glued to their phones 58% of the time during conversations. So basically, everyone’s ignoring everyone.

But at least we’re ignoring each other together.

Only 74% of parents could say they’d had a real, device-free conversation with their kid in the past week. Which means a quarter of families haven’t gone even seven days without someone scrolling mid-sentence. No wonder 78% of parents are worried about losing face-to-face time with their kids.

Some households are trying to fight back with “no phone zones” during dinner, family outings, or movie night. You know, those rare times when you actually want to see each other’s faces instead of the glow of a screen. But enforcing those rules is easier said than done.

So yes, the internet is winning. But the silver lining? At least when your teen pretends to listen while glued to their phone, they can say they “learned it from watching you!” (Gen X’ers will get that reference, if they’re even listening to me.)