The following is an excerpt from the book Indestractable by Nir Eyal and Julie Li.
’One particular day, the two of us were playing games from an activity book designed to bring dads and daughters closer together.
The first activity involved naming each other’s favorite things.
The next project was to build a paper airplane with one of the pages.
The third was a question we both had to answer…’if you could have any superpower, what would it be?’
I wish I could tell you what my daughter said at that moment but I can’t. I have no idea because I really wasn’t there. I was physically in the room, but my mind was elsewhere.
Daddy, she said, what would your superpower be?
Huh?, I grunted. Just a second. I just need to respond to this one thing.
I dismissed her as I attended to something on my phone. My eyes were still glued to my screen, fingers tapping away at something that seemed important at the time but could definitely have waited.
She went quiet. By the time I looked up, she was gone.
I had just blown a magical moment with my daughter because something on my phone had grabbed my attention. On it’s own, it was no big deal. But, if I told you this was an isolated incident, I’d be lying.
This same scene had played out countless times before.
I wasn’t the only one putting distractions before people. An early reader of this book told me that when he asked his 8 year old daughter what her superpower would be, she said she wanted to talk with animals. When asked why, the child said, “So that I have someone to talk to when you and mom are too busy working on your computers.”
What You’re Saying