Tag: iPad

What does it mean to spend "quality time " with your spouse? The answer may vary depending on who you ask. There is, however, one consistent comment that I routinely continue to hear, "Technology is killing the romance." Imagine curling up next to your spouse, wanting his or her full attention to talk about the day, vacation, weekend plans or life in general while he or she sits in front of the television and plays a lively game of Scrabble on the cell phone. Like the rest of society, couples are relying more on electronic messaging to convey their thoughts, but there should be some etiquette boundaries between you, your spouse and your technology.

Parents searching for elusive work-life balance may see smartphones and tablets as a way to escape the office in time to be home for dinner each night, but these gadgets can also be a huge distraction and source of stress, a recent study suggests.

When researchers asked a group of parents to slow down and answer detailed questions about how and when they use mobile technology, people revealed a lot of internal conflict about how the devices are changing their lives.

"Every time a new technology is introduced, it disrupts things a little, so in many ways this is no different from the anxieties that families and our culture felt with the introduction of the TV or telephone," said lead study author Dr. Jenny Radesky, a pediatrics researcher at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.