Compared to my friends, it always seemed as though I had very strict parents when I was younger. I always had a curfew, I was scolded and punished for refusing to abide by their rules, and they always pushed me to work as hard as I could for absolutely everything, even if my heart wasn’t truly in it. At the time, I was convinced that my parents were the strictest guardians known to man, and I was never going to be able to get out and have fun like the rest of my friends. Now I see that they weren’t strict; they were smart. When my brother and I were younger, my dad set one very important rule in place, and I will continue to enact that rule when I have children of my own: there are absolutely no electronics allowed at the dinner table.

It seems simple enough, right? Just refrain from bringing your phone or other electronic device with you to the dinner table. In this day and age, however, it appears as though there couldn’t be a harder rule put in place. Children and adults alike are glued to their devices, specifically their cell phones, and human interaction is becoming more and more scarce. From working in a restaurant, I can see firsthand that there is major damage being done to our society and the way they interact with each other.

I remember when I was young, my family would make it a point to sit down together at the end of every day and have dinner at the dining room table. Every night, my dad would ask everyone at the table what the best part of their day was. We would take turns going around the table, sharing stories and laughing together. I used to think about it while I was at school, trying to decide which moment of the day I would choose as the best. Some of my favorite memories happened around that dining room table.

By letting our children sit at the table with tablets or phones, we are robbing them of those priceless memories that they will never get back. It will be impossible to create significant bonds with our younger generations if we continue to allow them to converse with a friend through a screen as opposed to their family member who is sitting right across the table from them. While the electronic epidemic doesn’t seem as though it’s going to stop anytime soon, we can take a small step towards the direction of progress and enact that same rule that my dad did so many years ago.

Maybe one day, families will ask each other what the best part of their day was and maybe in the future, they’ll actually want to listen.