Is Social Media Taking Over Family Time?

Modern technology is amazing. I mean think about it for a minute. At no other time in history have people been so connected with one another. Information travels from one person to the next at record breaking speed.

When I was first married cell phones were the coolest thing. Not the kind we have now, the kind that were mounted on the inside of your vehicle. When my oldest son was born, cell phones had evolved somewhat and were something that you could carry with you. They were HUGE but you could carry them with you. Email was a neat way to contact friends and family to stay updated on the latest family news.

Today, just a few short years later we live in the age of self portraits, likes and status updates. Many of us live out our lives day by day to our readers, followers, family and friends. There are Blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine and I am sure many more. Many people use these to stay in contact with family that live far away, many people use them as a way to voice opinions or gripes about others, while some are just fascinated with the daily goings on of other peoples lives.

But I am concerned about our families. Don’t get me wrong I love modern technology. I love reading blogs and being able to comment and make friends from what seems like worlds away. I do love sharing my pictures with family and friends and keeping up to date on the latest happenings but I am concerned that we are so connected with the world that we are becoming disconnected from our own family. You know the little people that live with us and call us mommy. I see people (men and women alike) everywhere all the time that pay more attention to their cell phone than to their own children. We sit at ball practices and surf the web or write blog posts. We can barely have a real conversation with a living breathing human because if that phone rings or alarms we have to quickly answer it because we all know the world would stop turning if we ignored it.

I am afraid that the digital age is wreaking havoc on our families. What used to be a fun family game or movie night now also involves 500 + friends knowing exactly what we are doing, where we are at and is accompanied by cell phones, ipods, ipads, laptops and more. When did just hanging out with our family stop being enough? I know we are all busy but come on people when did family meal time cease to be important? When did talking with our children about their day become a thing of the past?

I encourage you dear reader, to step back and examine how often you ignore, put off or barely pay attention to your children or husband because you are too concerned about what is happening on social media sites. And while I am not asking you to stop using it, I am asking you to put your priorities in order and allow your family to be your main area of focus. I am not going to stop using social media (unless God tells me to) but I am going to be more aware of how much time I am using my computer or Ipod and how much time I spend talking on the phone when my sweet family is around. The simple truth is, my blog will still be here (or maybe it won’t), my Facebook and Instagram more than likely aren’t going to disappear but there will come a day much sooner than I would like that my babies are going to be all grown up and have a family of their own. I don’t want them to look back at their child hood and think that I never had time to fully pay attention to them or that their life events were less important than surfing the web, talking on the phone or checking social media.

In Luke 12:34 Jesus says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I ask you today, what do you treasure? What is of most importance to you? Are you willing to focus more on building lasting relationships with your family than keeping up to date on the latest Facebook status and Blog post?

Jen is a Christian, Submitted-Wife in training, Stay-At-Home Mom  and Homemaker striving daily to be who God has called her to be. She is married to her best friend, a maintenance man that can build or fix anything.  Together they have 2 amazing teenage sons they are training to be mighty men of God.  While she doesn’t claim to be an expert or have it all together Jennifer blogs about all things near and dear to her heart at “A Heart For My Home” including Christian life, marriage, parenting, finances, organization, recipes and more.

 Proverbs 14:1 says The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.    www.aheartformyhome.blogspot.com

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