The Real Reason You’re So Distracted (Spoiler: It’s Not Your Phone)
A “digital detox” probably won’t fix what’s broken. Here’s what will.
Not so long ago, I came to believe that I was prioritizing technology over the most important people in my life — including, most painfully, my daughter.
It hit me hard one day when the two of us were playing games from an activity book. The first activity involved naming each other’s favorite things. The next project was to build a paper airplane with one of the pages. The third was a question we both had to answer: “If you could have any superpower, what would it be?”
I wish I could tell you what my daughter said at that moment, but I can’t. I have no idea because I wasn’t really there. I was physically in the room, but my mind was elsewhere.
“Daddy?” she said. “What would your superpower be?”
“Huh?” I grunted. “Just a second. I just need to respond to this one thing.”
I dismissed her as I attended to something on my phone. My eyes were glued to my screen, fingers tapping away at something that seemed important at the time, but could definitely have waited. She went quiet. By the time I looked up, she was gone.
