Mark Spatz works with the legal team of South Florida Injury Law PA as a case manager. With over three decades of legal practice, he handles personal injury lawsuits, including automobile accidents and slips and falls. Outside of the courtroom, Mark Spatz sits on the board of Golden Parents, Inc., a non-profit organization in Delray Beach, FL, dedicated to raising healthy families through community-centered family events, counseling, and parent-education classes.
While mobile digital technology has positively impacted the world in many ways, it has also ushered in a culture of distraction from intimate relationships, especially within the family. Several studies have shown that mobile phones and other digital devices have created rifts in how family members relate with one another. This divide has led to health and social challenges like a lack of social bonding skills and increased loneliness and depression. As such, there is a need to drastically reduce the amount of screen-time within the home, and to promote more interaction.
One way to increase bonding in the family amidst digital devices is to encourage screen-free family traditions. During these rituals, family members could turn off all smartphones and digital devices and engage in group activities such as board games, outdoor exploration, story circles or group exercise or meditation. Parents could also set time-limits on all movie devices in the home. Fortunately, smartphones today allow users to decide their preferred amount of screen-time. Another tactic is for parents to schedule some weekly or biweekly alone time with each family member to perform routine checks on their wellbeing.
Mark Spatz 