Talk over dinner? But I’ve just got to check my smartphone

FOR many families, mealtimes are the only occasions when they will gather together to talk.

But this cornerstone of family life appears to be in danger because more and more young people are hooked on their smartphones as they sit round the table.

According to research commissioned by Halifax, nearly a fifth of Britons aged between 16 and 34 spend family dinners checking their mobiles instead of talking to their nearest and dearest.

Whether they are checking social media sites, looking at emails or sending text messages, it seems to be a generational habit. Only 1 per cent of those aged over 55 – ‘silver surfers’ – look at their smartphones during family dinners, the study of 2003 Britons claimed.

Alarmingly, more than a quarter of young people also use smartphones to communicate with their family members while they are in the same house.

Martyn Foulds, of Halifax, said: ‘Those who didn’t grow up as “digital natives” seem eager to keep up with technology and can learn a lot from the younger generation about the latest platforms and devices, but the digital natives could take a leaf out of their older counterparts’ book by switching off from time to time.’

Another study found that 24 per cent of 13 to 17- year- olds are ‘almost constantly’ online as their lives are swallowed up ever more by their mobile phones. They checked their devices all the time.

The study by the Pew Research Centre was carried out on 1,060 American teenagers but the situation is likely to be worse in the UK because a higher proportion of British youngsters own smartphones.