Seen Your Family Lately?

Is social media, Internet time and laptop addictions (the web kind!) cutting into your family life? The Annenberg School for Communication put out a report last week that showed growing movement in that direction.

(From a Forbes article...)

"American kids and their parents are now spending more hours huddled alone around computer screens and cell phone displays, seriously eroding the amount of time families spend together.

In a new survey from the center, researchers found that in 2008, 28 percent of people said that being wired has resulted in them spending less time with family members, a threefold increase from the 11 percent reported just two years ago, in 2006.

This is certainly not the first time researchers have sounded an alarm about Internet use and even "Internet addiction." Other studies have suggested that online usage has significantly disrupted the lives of millions of Americans."

I suppose Americans are looking at their glass screens a bit more - I mean, that's where all the fun and action and adventure are these days, right? But parents certainly need to carve out their kid time. I do. I make time to throw the ball to the kids, swim with them and hang out and talk about Bakugan Vestroia or Barbie Diamond Castle. It's all relative. We don't watch much TV in my house, but we do a lot of creative online and offline activities.