Speaking to FMT, Hilwa Abdullah of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s School of Psychology and Human Development said it was distressing that so many parents could be seen fiddling with their mobile phones rather than bonding with their children during meals and outings.
She was commenting on concerns recently expressed by Yunus Pathi, founder of the Pengasih drug rehabilitation centre. Yunus said parents were not making enough time to talk to their children.
Hilwa said a lack of communication between parents and children would lead to a lack of emotional bonding, which could cause children to look elsewhere for attention. The likelihood of their mixing with the wrong crowd would then increase, she added.
She urged parents to prohibit the use of mobile phones and tablets during meals and other family activities.
She said the phones themselves were not a problem if people were not obsessed with social networking or checking out what’s happening on social media.
“Many people seem obsessed with social media and social networking. They spend a lot of time just checking the likes or comments they get for their pictures and posts.”
Lee Wee Min, executive director of Focus on the Family Malaysia, an NGO which promotes family development, also described playing with mobile phones during family gatherings as a bad habit.
“Worse still, some parents use their mobile phones or tablets as baby-sitting devices,” he said.
“In fact, we are so concerned about this that in May this year, we launched the ‘No Mobile During Dinner’ campaign, together with the National Population and Family Development Board.
“Some 100 participating restaurants gave discounts to families which put their phones aside during meals.”
Lee said parents should make the effort to engage their children in discussions, such as asking them how their day went or talking about the meals they were enjoying.
“Relationships are built on communication,” he said.
“Sometimes, people can be so short-sighted that they don’t see the long-term ramifications of their actions, like growing apart from their loved ones.”