I had to write an essay in english about how technology separeates our families. I never really gave it much thought but there really are some negative sides to techonology. Like I remember eight years ago every night my brothers and sisters and my parents would get together at the dining room table and play monopoly or clue and all those board games. Or we'd spend weeks trying to put together a 3000 piece puzzle that seemed endless. Even at dinner the TV was never on and we'd talk about everything. All these were like family bonding time and we'd turn to each other for entertainment when were bored.

Now its completely differen't. During dinner time all our attention is focused on the TV and no one says a word. When were bored, we go on the internet or play Xbox or watch TV. We dont go up to each other anymore and entertain each other. Everyones separated into their own worlds because of how much technology has taken over. Don't get me wrong I would never trade my phone or laptop for anything in the world and I couldn't live without technology but it has had a super big impact in our lives in ways we dont even know.

Yup, after a while, we get bored of our families, bored of games, bored of talking. Life becomes monotomous, and we turn to talking to new people online and new things as well. Before we know it, we prefer to be on the unlimited network than with families.

This is how it is in my house too, we are all in our different corners, talking to different people while wasting precious family time.  I wish now that we could go back to when we would all have dinner together and we wouldn't neglect each other that way.  I know my parents would prefer for us to get off our cell phones, computer/video games but it's probably not going to happen any time soon.  But now what we do is since my mom works every evening, my dad comes over every Thursday night to have dinner and after church on Sundays we get together for lunch and I love it!

Yeah, this is definitely one of the downsides of all the new technology. On the other hand though, if you have family that is a 1000 or more away, email, web cams, Skype, etc. are all cheap ways to still keep in touch.

This happened to mu family too, wow I never really noticed it. But now the only times that we actually sit and have family time is when we travel or go out to dinner.

I'm going to make a point of keeping my family together and remind my kids how important family time is.  Your family should be the most important thing when you're growing up, not video games and tv...

Wow this is really true. I never spend time with my family anymore and I've never realised that. I come home on holidays and weekends someitmes and I just spend the ride from the airport talking to my parents and a few minutes at dinner. Then attention is swerved to the TV and I go off with friends. I know I'll end up regretting this. I wanna go home this weekend now and change this scenario. Maybe go to the lake with my parents or something we can all do together.

It's sad when your parents live in the same town/house and you hardly ever see them.  But my family is very understanding, they like to see me busy.  But I always make sure to never miss a dinner, birthday, get together, and even when I see my dad/mom/brother I make sure to tell them I love them.