Nobody was counting time spent outside the home as time spent ignoring your kids. Of course people were counting that! I recall a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon wher

Nobody was counting time spent outside the home as time spent ignoring your kids. Of course people were counting that! I recall a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon where Calvin phones up his dad at work and asks him what he's doing. "Don't you think a game of Calvinball would be more fun?" (It would be, of course, so Calvin's dad heads home to play.) Or just think about the cliche of a politician retiring "to spend more time with his/her family." Your examples sound great and noble but not really very realistic. Realistic is parents checking Facebook and Instagram at otherwise idle moments -- "idle" when they could be paying attention to their kids. You are probably right that historically, many fathers were absent a lot of the time. That has definitely changed a lot but I don't think smartphones are the cause. Even if everything you said is correct, there could still be a significant difference between "my dad isn't here a lot of the time" and "my dad ignores me a lot of the time" (smartphones greatly enabling the latter). Neither is great, but the latter in particular risks setting a dangerous example to kids when it comes to them learning how to socialize with others.