I bought a Movie for family movie night this weekend that really forced a guys movie night because as soon as the girls found out it was about gaming, they took off. Sorry girls, we’re up for the chic flick next time.

The movie was called Ready Player One and it’s about this guy who creates an incredible virtual world called The Oasis. In the Oasis you can be who or what you want, dress how you want, all just to escape your Reality and have a little fun. Harmless right? Not really because in this movie, Virtual Reality (VR), is a little too good and people become totally lost in the game. They go to their job every day, but come home and live a different life as someone else in VR giving all of their time and attention to what’s happening online and less to what’s around them in real life. Thank goodness this is just a movie right?

You have dinner in a restaurant and as you look around everybody has their Phone out barely engaged with the people at their table. My daughter and her friends sit in the pit group NEXT TO EACH OTHER, and are staring at their phones talking about friends who just posted to their “story”. My son’s body and mind have officially been taken over by Fortnite. For those of you who don’t have teenage kids this is the latest gaming sensation that is sort of like a cross between Hunger Games, Mindecraft, and a first-person shooter game. He puts on his headset, connects with his buddies, and loses himself for hours in search of that big win. Let’s not take aim solely at the younger generation, how are you when it comes to your own digital diversions? How much time are you spending on your social media platforms? How about shopping on your favorite retail app? My point here is that people today have so many things fighting for their time and attention that if you want to break through all of this noise you need to really think about your approach.

Are you meeting people where they are? Is your message strong enough to capture the hearts and minds of your audience? As a follow-up comment to my post last week, do you think for a second that ads screaming promotion are going to break through? It’s all just a bunch of noise unless you hit people with things that genuinely impact their lives and the great news is, we have products that can do that. Technology is only going to get better, games more interesting, and apps more engaging, so the need to figure this space out only grows by the day.

This research says that we spend 90 minutes a day or 23 days a year on our mobile devices. What could you do with an additional 23 days a year? Do you have phone rules at home during dinner time, or when you go on vacation as a family? Do you make people shut off phones in your meetings? Tell us in the comments section!

Ever get tripped up because you were on your phone? These people did.