Chronemics is the study of how people use time, and it’s a form of nonverbal communication. There are people who are always on time and earlier and in contrast there are always late comers as well. How we perceive them differs, if its consistent tardiness we start to assume that they will always be late. How we allocate time is part of nonverbal communication, when a student listens and pays attention to the teacher and participates in class we come to conclude that this student has a higher level of interest in comparison to another student who is on their phone. 

Similarly this cartoon illustrated the low level of interest in parents to their family. The entire family is distracted and busy entertaining themselves, this is the sad reality of today’s world. As the title of this cartoon suggests it’s an unending spiral of screen time. This family is nonverbally communicating to each other that their phones and ipads are more important than each other. 

I strongly agree with the message of this cartoon, there is a rule in my family that there are no phones during dinner and when we are having a conversation with our family. This act shows respect and signals that we are fully present. 

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a60287-rd