To think we should all be together in the same room occasionally?

[Peterbear]

Does anyone else’s family just live separately in their own rooms all staring at screens? Myself and hubby both workI got at home - I.e staring at screens all day.2 teenage girls at school all day then literally come home and gawp at phones all night . We sit round the table for tea for approx 10 mins have. A quick chat then everyone’s back to bloody cyber space.obviously it doesn’t help being winter and lockdown but this has been a problem for a long time. is this normal family life for anyone else? Just seems a bit sad to me. If I suggest a walk/board game or something I feel like I’m literally rallying them into action. It’s very boring and very lonely. Any one else? Am I doing something wrong? Is this normal?

Pretty standard here 2 teenage ds

Two teen boys, same problem. We eat together and have enforced family time a few times a week (usually tv based but occasionally a board game or a walk). I will occasionally ask them nicely to bring their screen /book to the same room as me for company.

OP our family life changed to this during lockdown 1. Its like both teens have checked out of family life and moved into their bedrooms. DS 16 isn’t quite as bad and did come on a dog walk on Friday and Saturday and he does spend the odd half hour or hour downstairs with us.
We got a takeaway pizza on Friday night. DD 15 picks at hers eats very quickly to ensure that she has finished before everyone else then disappears upstairs again very quickly any attempts to get her to watch a film or come and sit with us results in a shouting match from her. She does have mocks next week and isn’t seeing friends outside of school at the minute but think she would rather pull her finger nails out than spend a minute with us.

I think the Covid restrictions makes things harder, you don't have as much to say. I've not been anywhere or done anything interesting today, I WFH and walked around the block at lunchtime. So it is tempting to retreat into technology (as I'm doing right now!)
We aren't doing sports so can't discuss that. All the fun stuff we usually do away from each other is off limits. Someone said they garden, but depending on what time we finish work, it is dark!
We like card-based game and also spend time staring at the same screen, which isn't much better but gives a shared set of references.

What about an interactive game on TV? We have jackbox.tv games via the xbox and it's great. You play from your phone, so you can't browse other stuffs. Could be a starting point. However as you have your phone in hands, it's really easy to lost your way to social media