Family time has become more and more based upon technology. What used to be game nights and nights spent enjoying time with family members, has now become nights spent solely focused on technology. People lay on the couch with their phones glaring back at them with false information and perceptions about daily life, the TV playing some crime show in the background and the occasional conversation between the people scattered around the room. Technology has taken over the lives of millions of families worldwide, left children ignoring their parents and the parents ignoring their children.

Numerous teens are completely obsessed with their phones and making sure they have the newest models in order to fit in with the “cool kids” or the “popular kids”. There are many teenagers who can’t stand not having their phone in their hand 24/7. But all it does is make them believe the nonsense that they read on social media and start believing the false perceptions that social media is drilling into them. By being so obsessed with social media, students stay up late at night to watch videos or chat with their online friends. They therefore become sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation can lead to numerous things, it could cause grades to drop or cause people to become extremely rude.

Television has prevented communications between family members. People can sit for hours a day simply watching some random show just to have something to do. But for all those hours spent watching TV not a word is spoken.The ability to have a meaningful and lasting conversation has been lost. People have started to adapt the way people in cheesy TV shows speak. Many conversations are now short without much meaning behind them. Most communication is based on asking questions about dinner as well as other daily household chores.

Numerous people are seen walking through busy streets on the phone with an ear piece,  texting somebody, or responding to some email. Many jobs, especially involving business, now fully rely on modern technology. In some cases, you can’t even get a job without having the newest model of some phone or laptop. By constantly having to check your phone, computer, laptop, etc, many people have changed the way they think. They become completely obsessed and paranoid with wanting to check their emails constantly in case they miss some important work meeting or something else. In some schools, textbooks have been replaced by laptops, tablets and computers. But overall technology has started changing the way humans think.

Many conversations between friends are done over the internet and countless hours are spent typing away at some electronic device, spreading rumors, gossiping or just having pointless conversations for absolutely no reason. Fortunately, serious conversations are still held in person. Researchers have found that even though so much time is spent messaging friends, teenagers still choose to hold serious and important conversations in person.

There is not much that can be done to stop the evolution of technology as well as that of families worldwide, but despite the ever changing technology, in the end it is the parents or guardians role to decide how much time they allow their kids to spend on the internet daily. Parents and guardians have to choose how valuable family communication is to them and how many rules and barriers they want to set in order for that communication to be present. Technology does not have to affect family communications as long as it is monitored and controlled.