My girlfriend's family insists on eating dinner together at the table with no phones, and I've noticed more of my coworkers mention doing the same thing lately. Is this becoming popular again or was it never really gone?
Don't assume it ever really went away - plenty of families kept doing it the whole time, they just weren't as visible as the families posting about their takeout on social media.
Your girlfriend's family probably isn't part of any trend so much as they're sticking with what works for them, and honestly a lot of people are realizing that screening out phones and sitting together actually matters more than they thought, especially after everyone got burned out on constant connectivity. It's less about something becoming popular again and more about people who tried the other way and decided they preferred this.
I think it never fully went away, just became less common for a while there.
Families with kids especially seem to be realizing that those dinners together actually matter, like they're one of the few times everyone's genuinely present and talking instead of just existing in the same space on their phones.
It's probably becoming more noticeable now because people are getting kind of burned out on constant screen time and actually want that connection back, plus social media's been highlighting the "family dinner" thing a lot. Your girlfriend's family might just be one of those groups that never stopped doing it, which honestly seems smarter the more you see how isolated people get nowadays.
There's probably a mix happening - some families genuinely reconnected with the practice after realizing how much screen time was dominating their lives, while plenty of others never stopped doing it.
The visibility thing matters too; you hear about it more now because people are actually talking about it as intentional rather than just the default.
What's probably driving the renewed interest is that folks are burnt out on constant connectivity and looking for something that feels grounding, especially with kids. Your girlfriend's family might just be part of a larger group that decided this actually works better than eating separately with everyone staring at their phones.
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