How Dumb Are Smart Phones At The Dinner Table?

Chances are good that you may be too distracted to read this.

On the off chance that you’re able to focus for a few minutes, I’d like to share some findings from the Common Sense Census. Did you know that 42% of young children have their own tablet device, up from 1 percent in 2011? It’s a growing problem, and not just for kids.

“It’s no fun to show someone disciplining a kid, but disciplining a parent who happens to be played by a famous comedian? Major fun,” says Jeff Goodby, founder and chairman, GS&P, the agency behind the ads.

“We know that kids who have dinners at the table without devices get better grades, have healthier eating habits and are more socialized than kids who have devices at the table,” says Margaret Johnson, partner and CCO, GS&P. “So we enlisted some celebrity help to show the importance of having device-free dinners.”

An additional study from Comcast, which is donating air time to the Common Sense campaign, found that 42 percent of U.S. parents don’t recall their last device-free family meal.

In related news, just last year, 5,987 pedestrians were killed by cars in the U.S. That is almost 1,100 more than in 2014—that’s a 22 percent increase in just two years. Do we need to wonder why?

Put the phone down! Your brain will survive the temporary delay in dopamine.