Don’t text, talk! For the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.

Remember the good old days when you were a kid? You’d be playing in one room and Mom would be in another. “MOOOOM!” you’d yell. Then mom would yell back,“If you need me, come and talk to me!”

So you’d trudge up the stairs for a quality conversation. Or maybe not. But at least you were talking.

Well, nowadays, according to the UK Daily Mail, nearly HALF of all families simply text each other—even when they’re in the house together! And four in ten parents complain that their kids aren’t communicative during dinner because they’re face down in their phones.

As one psychologist told the Daily Mail: “It is potentially catastrophic for the human relational values that underpin family life at its best, with real, face-to-face communication being increasingly displaced and sidelined by the machine.”

I don’t think there’s anything “potential” about it. So let’s take charge of your family time. No phones at the dinner table. Instead of texting at home: talk. It’s not that hard. But it is that important.