Family is family, phone is phone. The difference is clear.

I have lived with people outside my immediate family, made friends with some, and also listened to stories from other people. I have been among couples and also experienced living under guardianship with other kids. We all have different ways of living.

There is a family where I lived that whenever any of the family members are eating, no matter who called him/her, they won't respond to the call. They would rather eat their food. And then the caller would know they are eating and that's why they couldn’t respond.

But in my immediate family, if anyone older than you calls you, even if you are eating, you will still have to respond to the call, then you can make an excuse that you are eating and then return to your meal.

So the same thing could apply to phone usage in different families too. We all have our differences and this depends on the type of morals we execute in our day-to-day activities.

For example, a friend of mine, no matter how much pepper is added to the food he is about to eat, doesn’t drink water until he's done with the food. But as for me, I will drink water with almost every spoon I take.

Family time vs. phone time.

This happened to me today. I visited my parents after some time, then we had a lot to discuss. I am the type that is always active on my phone 24/7 unless when my phone is off. Then you might see me do other things or when I am at work on the farm.

On getting home today, after greeting everyone I was welcomed and then the conversations kicked in so quickly. I had some things I needed to quickly finish up on my device which I couldn’t complete before I left home.

The conversation cornered me and didn’t even give me the chance to hold my phone anymore. So I had to drop it somewhere and focus on the conversation that we held for hours. I realized that if I decided not to drop my phone, then I would be losing in two ways.

The first way I would be losing is that I wouldn't be able to focus and pay attention to whatever I am doing on the phone. The distraction would be there since I want to listen to the conversation at the same time.

The other way I would be losing is that the conversation I missed wouldn't give me the chance to get a clearer understanding of what exactly the discussion was all about and I would keep asking questions upon question.

In conclusion

So as for me, I think phone time should not be mixed up with family time. To get the best out of both, it’s better to focus on one and leave the other.

If we are about to attend a meeting then we should just let our phones be, and focus on the meeting, and if it's time to use our phones then we can give time to that especially and not interfere with other things.

---

This is my response to the hive learners community weekly featured content on Hive for the week 113 edition 1 and the topic to be discussed is FAMILY TIME, NO PHONES

---