As the summer ticks on and an increasing number of my friends, relatives and girls-I-went-to-school-with-who-I-haven’t-seen-in-years-but-still-follow-on-Instagram jet off for their family holidays, I’ve begun to notice an alarming new trend. Whether you’re on a walking holiday in Switzerland, a weekend by the British seaside or a luxury getaway in the Maldives, the family-wide tech ban has taken hold of the summer and, much like flamingo pool floats or Aperol spritzes on ice, it may be here to stay. “We’ve decided to go screen-free this holiday” is the new meat-free Monday — except it’s almost guaranteed to go down worse with teenagers than vegetarian chilli.
The burning need of so many middle-class mothers to inflict a family-wide screen ban speaks to a larger issue of technological etiquette.
