Tech World: How Mobile Devices Impacted Your Family.

Let me paint a picture for you.

You arrive home, tired after a long day. Your primary goal is to enjoy some quality family time.

You parked your car in your garage, and took one last look at your mobile device, just in case, because, to quote Aerosmith, you don't want to miss a thing. Then…finally…you open the door to your castle and dinner’s sweet aromas envelop you like a warm hug. Ahhhh. Home.

You sit down in the den for some good conversation with your spouse, just as a smartwatch buzzes, causing you to momentarily lose your partner. Hey, you can’t miss a notification, right? So, you restart…but this time, you are interrupted by an important phone call. You stop the conversation and take the call out of the room.

A half-hour later, it’s dinnertime. Your teenage kids join you. Both constantly look at their devices. A moment later, you see your daughter posting on SnapChat. Soon after, your son shows her somebody else’s Twitter posts. Moments later, when the conversation finally begins, it’s about the fake news that no one recognizes as fake until you tell them.

Sound familiar? Chances are that you can quickly relate to the entire story.

I am not saying that mobile technology is bad. Technology has helped us tremendously to improve our lives. Cellular technology brought our ability to move and communicate concurrently to a whole new level, taking advantage of devices, gadgets, sensors, and much more.

Last year, the average mobile user spent 2 hours and 18 minutes "connected" while Millennial group users logged 3 hours and 6 minutes.

The number of apps installed on devices is growing exponentially as well: the average user has 89 apps, while the Millennial claims about 200.

So, where are we going? 

More and more, app stores offer new apps that divert our collective attention. Sure, we still have reigning apps like SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter and a few others. Called Top Apps, these apps take up an average of 53% of our connected time. Then there are the mobile games. Popular mobile games consume our time and money. They even can be dangerously addicting.

Last year, the average mobile user spent 2 hours and 18 minutes "connected" while Millennial group users logged 3 hours and 6 minutes

Not only are as dependent upon our devices or the Internet, as we are connected to them, causing us to disconnect from the important things: family, health, education, and even devoting our full attention to operating a motor vehicle. All of these may potentially result in tragic consequences.

We long for apps to help us. We aggressively install apps that support good mobile habits and help users to save time. We want apps that provide us with what we need when we need it.

The average user has 89 apps, while the Millennial claims about 200

This "ball" belongs to us. To the mobile startups. Our goal is to develop new apps that improve the mobile user experience and help to make our devices stop dominating our time and attention and give back some time to us.

So, what are YOU doing about it?

Rodrigo S. Martineli is the CEO & Chairman of MobileUX Technologies, Inc. www.mobileuxtech.com