Why Your Smartphone Isn’t Ruining Your Relationships

We live in some great times.

The potential we have for connectivity, relationships, and information is at an all time high. If we choose to be, we are connected to the outside world all of the time. Our smart phones have gotten so smart, that they’re seemingly smarter than us.

Any smart phone on the market today can search things on the web for us, provide us with weather and directions to anywhere we want to go, and even make hotel and restaurant reservations before we get there.

Another plus to a smartphone, it connects us with the world. Whether we’re riding down the road, sitting down to eat, or laying in the bed, we can be connected to people’s tweets, pictures, and videos from all over the world. It provides us an opportunity for conversation, networking, encouragement, and impact that no generation in the past has even dreamed of.

I understand how this can be a bad thing.

Like many of you, I’ve sat in the bed with my wife or in the living room with friends and found myself being absent from the real life situation because I was too present and involved in my iphone. Like you, I’ve completely ignored the people around me and failed to really hear my wife as she’s trying to talk to me because I’m thinking of a witty tweet.

However, It’s not my phone’s fault. We can’t ignore technology and it’s benefits because of the potential for distraction.

It’s up to me to have the conviction and the sensitivity to put my phone down when I need to.

We can’t eliminate every distraction that comes into our lives because we’re afraid it’s going to have a negative impact on us. If that were the case, none of us would have cars, TVs, or even newspapers. It’s not that we need to avoid these things or run from them, we just need to control them…

We need to control ourselves.

Take the time each day to think through what you’re doing and be present in whatever you do. Whether you’re at work, at dinner with friends, in a conversation with your spouse, tweeting on your phone, or taking an instagram shot with your family. Be present and be sensitive and aware of what’s controlling you. After all, anything that controls us apart from God is a very bad thing.

It’s not our phone’s fault, it’s ours.

So no, you don’t have to sell your iPhone and go back to your flip phone.
Your phone isn’t ruining your relationships.

You can stay connected, just make sure you’re courteous and present as well.