Four Tech Habits to Take into the New Year
From remote learning to telework, many families have had to make changes on how they approach connection and communication, as well as take stock of how technology fits in their homes this year.
Fortunately, some changes may have been for the better. If any of your family’s tech adjustments have made for greater opportunities for communication, try turning those habits into resolutions. Consider these four changes you may want to keep for the new year.
Keep dinner time special
Dinner time took on a special role as a remaining constant among many of life’s disruptions. That’s great news. In addition to building kids’ communication — speech, language, and social — skills and providing an unmatched, consistent opportunity for family bonding and connection, a host of other benefits are linked to regular family dinners. Keep dinner a time for connection and communication, rather than tech distraction, into the new year.
Stick to your plans
Months at home have led many families to plan more group activities. From movie nights to board games, planned activities keep the lines of communication open and provide a chance to talk and bond. And when it comes to tech, it also allows parents to evaluate the quality of their child’s usage. Whatever the coming year brings, it’s a good idea to continue planning times to come together and talk.
Preserve your taste in tech time
With remote work and schooling, and virtual get-togethers necessitating keeping eyes on a screen for hours, families learned first-hand how to determine the quality of the time they spent with tech. Spending time learning, creating, and connecting is entirely different than time spent being distracted, no matter the tool. Try taking that understanding of how tech can bring you together with others, and how it can get in the way of connection, into the new year and beyond.
Maintain your healthy habits
Above all, try to stick with any healthy habits you picked up over the year. Anything your family has done that lead to better connection and communication is something to continue for years to come.
