Is dinner time quiet at your house or when you are out to eat? Even when the whole family is actually seated together?
Well, either the food is really that good, no one is in the mood to carry a conversation, or everyone is using their mobile devices to distract themselves from each other.
If you are old enough to remember a time without smartphones, this is probably not all that surprising a phenomenon. Perhaps in your household you watch television while eating. If the show was good enough, there would not be that much conversation taking place. That is understandable based on the period, but there was probably some back and forth about the plot, commercials (good, bad, or awful), or about how an aspect of the day matches up with a detail in the story.
Why is this different than now? Well, how is that crink in your neck? Smartphone devotees during meals are looking at their device at an angle that does not promote eye contact with the participants in the family meal tradition. They are not a focus and interactions area an afterthought. This is a technicality because there are distractions involved in both cases. A healthier alternative to the present day situation, if this accurately describes your meal arrangements, is for everyone to talk to one another about what their distractions are and why are they entertaining. For example, while enjoying a multi-generational outing, the kids discussed memes and funny videos on the Youtube channel they were following. The adult males and some of the women discussed the scores and upcoming sporting events and interesting stats that were online or in an app. Another participant shared something on social media.
Technology can impact productivity and change our lives. The hope and goal is that it is for the better. Some people regardless if they had a television or mobile devices would read a book or the paper or simply not talke while eating. This a personal preference that is a choice not a symptom of mobile device use behavior. Quiet or lack of conversation may be standard operating procedure. Either way, hopefully the convenience of mobile devices and streaming are not giving you the wrong kind of quiet at meal time.
