I’ve been thinking about how we spend our time. How many hours do we spend reading about other people’s lives on Facebook? How many tweets do we read regardless of how mind-numbingly unimportant they are? Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Bubble Mania, oh my! I’m not passing judgment here; I’m guilty as well.

I wish I could get back that time I’ve lost, but more importantly not have been affected by the frustration I felt when I couldn’t check in on what others were doing! My kids have seen me model that frustration. Not good. Not to mention that social comparisons, that is, making comparisons between our most humdrum moments and our friends “highlight reels” – the vacation montages and cute baby pics – links Facebook time and depressive symptoms together, according to a study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Enter . . . board games! Digital social media is the anesthetic of loneliness, paraphrasing David Foster Wallace, which is why I really like the physical interaction with folks across a table. There’s communication, there’s laughing, there’s intellectual endeavor, and there’s just plain fun. Imagine that: talking to your kids, challenging your friends, working together to win not only the game, but the battle with bandwidth and begrudgery too.