There are a couple of times each year that we've established traditions to bring families together whether they like it or not.
It's Thanksgiving this weekend, and that means families sitting down at one table and using their pocket technology to virtually spend time with the people they actually want to share their company with.
I have always been a big proponent of keeping phones away from the table unless it's just you and a glass of wine. Even though from time to time my fingers find their way to apps and my eyes diverted to the screen rather than the people I am sharing a good meal with, I still consider the dinner table a sacred place.
The Thanksgiving table may just be the most sacred. When it comes to dining occasions, the Thanksgiving dinner table is like Mecca or the Western Wall. If you don't want your Sexy Back ringtone going off while visiting the Western Wall, you should respect the dinner table enough to keep that thing on vibrate.
And you better have the self-control to keep it in your pants when it starts buzzing, if you know what I mean.
For many, these dinners are an obligation rather than something they look forward to. My family has some rifts here and there. I've sat through those dinners, all the while thinking these aren't the people I want to be breaking bread with.
With everyone carrying their own personal communication devices around all the time, it does provide us with an amazingly convenient distraction from some of the obligatory conversation. We're already so accustomed to using our phones to ignore people out in the real world anyway, like in checkout lines.
We have nothing else to do while waiting in line, but now that we have phones we can just ignore one another. That's fine. Checkout lines are great places to avoid eye contact and hold your phone up to your nose.
But, ideally, the dinner table is exactly the time and place to chat, to catch up and to show people you're actually interested in them.
The phones don't need to be completely separate from the dining experience. It's fine to share things. I've had family dinners where a meme comes up and someone whips out their phone, pulls up the meme of discussion and then everyone can see what all the fuss is about.
That's not the most heartwarming example, but that's what technology should be doing for us. If we're going to be so tied to our phones, at the very least use them to make connections with people you're spending time with.
Too often we misuse our technology. Our telecommunications networks are great for connecting and staying in touch with people on the other side of the country or globe, but our relationships with the people we are sharing real, physical space with shouldn't suffer because of our ties to people thousands of miles away or even people on the other side of town.
We can use our phones to make deeper connections and strengthen relationships with people we're sitting at the dinner table with. We have the technology.
But if we aren't using it for good, then let's be thankful for the people who shut their phones off before lifting themselves a large helping of turkey.
