8 Practical Family Guidelines for Technology Use -Part 2

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Each Monday in our current series, we discuss faith and technology in a practical manner.  Last week I gave the first four points to provide some practical family guidelines for technology use so that the family is media happy AND healthy. When the family is media happy and healthy, we will be RELIABLE for each other and others.

Last week we covered:

1. R- Reach for the salt and pepper, not the phones or remotes, at the dinner table.

2. E- Encourage each other to discuss the day.

3. L- Look each other in the eyes, not at the tops of your heads.

4. I- Incorporate technology in family time together.

Let’s move on to the last four letters of the acrostic, RELIABLE:

5. A- Adjust your schedule as needed.

If we will set times when using media is acceptable and times when it is not a good family practice, then our children will know what to expect. Maybe you drive your children to school or music lessons or ball practice, and during that ride, using technology is completely acceptable.  But maybe the last hour of the day before bedtime is a time when you’ve decided to ignore media of all kinds and soak up a good book. Much of family schedule adjustments depend on the ages and stages of your children. Setting the guidelines provides a level of expectation, which in turn, provides security.

6. B- Be all present ( as much as possible.)

There is no replacement for spending time with your family. We either choose to prioritize our family or we don’t. While each of us have limitations, my encouragement to you with this point is to focus on truly being present when you ARE with your family or friends. Drop the phone and play an old-fashioned board game when you get the chance.

7. L- Love technology, but don’t lose touch. 

If the technology is financially costing us more than we can afford, then there’s no doubt it will make us lose touch. If we are so focused on the media resource that we lose the ability to focus on anything else, then we’ve left our relationships behind. Relationships should always outweigh resources.

8. E- Enable each other to keep the family guidelines you decide upon. 

Each family is unique and to blanket a set of media guidelines on families in general would be a mistake. Once your family has agreed to a set of family media guidelines, then keep each other in check.

Why is all this talk about technology so important?

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. Prov. 15:17

A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate. Prov. 15:17 NLT

I’m thinking we could apply these verses to our current state of technology usage. Perhaps it would read something like:

Better to ditch the device for a few minutes each day, than to wish for an eternity that you would have.

Last week we had some great suggestions on family guidelines in the comments and I’d love to hear from you today. Bloggers, you can find your link-up below- thanks so much for linking up!

What ideas do you have for family guidelines to plug in to technology without tuning out each other?

PS: Don’t forget to stop by Tommy Nelson today- I have such a GREAT story of encouragement over there today! Live at 10 am EST! 😉