By India McCarty
Tired of your real life always getting interrupted by notifications from your phone or computer? Turns out, there’s a word for that.
“Technoference refers to the interruptions in interpersonal communication caused by attention paid to personal technological devices,” Merriam-Webster’s website explained. “In other words, it’s that thing where you’re looking at your phone or tablet and don’t hear the question your kid or your friend or your mom or your boyfriend asked you. Even though you were totally listening.”
Other examples more specific to parenting include, “Taking a call while playing with your child, constant background noise of a TV show or podcast during meals or activities [and] excessively taking photos or videos of kids during activities,” per Bark.
While technoference might seem like a funny word to describe being a little scatter-brained, experts have warned against the effect it can have on your children.
Related: Screen Time Limits Aren’t Just for Kids — Parents Need Them Too
“Technoference often steals moments of eye contact, quick responses to emotional cues, or engagement in meaningful conversation,” Bark reported. “Research has found that the lack of these moments leads to kids with greater negative mood, greater anxiety or withdrawal, and greater acting out behaviors.”
There is also an impact on cognitive development. Research shows “a correlation between a parent’s poor tech use and delays in language development and reduced attention spans in young children.”
“Kids often learn these skills the most by observing and mimicking their parents. So when parents are distracted by their tech use, it limits these teaching moments for kids,” Bark explained.
A study conducted by researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia had similar findings. The researchers found that repeated interruptions and distractions caused by tech could lead to children feeling “ignored” or that “they must compete for their parents’ attention,” according to a statement.
“Such intrusions may disrupt the natural flow of interactions, which is particularly important as young children are acquiring critical social and language skills (and in parallel, motor, psychosocial, and cognitive skills) and establishing their movement behavior patterns (e.g., physical activity, sedentary screen time, and sleep),” they continued.
Parents’ obsessive technology use may have serious long-term effects on babies and toddlers: study https://t.co/VKoLnIYzn4 pic.twitter.com/Rx17YvbGMu
— New York Post (@nypost) May 6, 2025
The researchers added that, while some might “dismiss these findings as insignificant,” their findings “suggest that millions of parent-child interactions may be disrupted daily and are associated with negative child outcomes.”
The new term of “technoference” is an indicator that, even when your child isn’t actively looking at screens, they can still feel the effects of your online activity.
Read Next: Parental Screen Use Can Harm Adolescents
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