I love this forum. I have my own business as an educator and consultant in this field. I work specifically with families and schools to help them find balance in this new digital landscape. In terms of making a family digital media use contract that everyone is held accountable to (including mom and dad!)is a great way to lessen the struggles over screen use and start and ongoing conversation about tech. This site was created by PTA and is a wonderful resource for generating your own family contract: https://thesmarttalk.org/#/
If anyone is interested in chatting more with me or needs advice please do reach out - it’s my mission to help!
Hi Carmen,
Love this idea. I have been working on this idea in Chicago. Where are you located? Maybe we can discuss ideas/What this would look like?
Thanks,
Diane
Hi Max,
So appreciate finding this discussion group. As a California Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and as a former 30 public school teacher, I am deeply concerned about and invested into “our relationship with technology” and its ensuing consequences. For the past 12 years, I have been researching, writing, and speaking on cyber bullying and more recently on screen dependence.
In my workshops with parents and guardians, I approach the topic with a “family friendly”’ voice (so that folks don’t feel judged) with suggestions such as “It’s not about banning technology. It’s about finding balance.” As I provide audiences with specific guidelines for working towards balance, one of my favorite tools is a “tailor-made family media plan” provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics." It is resonating with folks as it empowers them to create a plan of action for their family!
There is so much to do,especially with creating awareness! I’m here to help!
I relate to what you are saying and would love to take part in the council initiative proposed by @Carmen. Also - thanks for the link to resources, @mattscully, the whole project sounds very interesting!
I’m currently based in Switzerland - as this is a global issue, thinking of an international group acting individually online or in their local communities would make sense from the very outset. @Carmen, let’s connect!
Both my husband and I work in tech, but it was with our kids that we started seroiusly thinking about its role in our lives. Parenting 2 pre-schoolers, we are putting a lot of efforts to integrate technology into their lives in a meaningful, intentional and balanced way.
To give you an hint of one small initiative I recently took, have a look at an open letter I recently wrote to Netflix against default auto-playng in kids profiles.
It is great to see this communuity finally getting active, have a great day y’all
My son is 6 years old and he goes to a public kindergarten in Switzerland where he spends fridays in the woods, largely unsupervised with his class. We are quite an outdoorsy family, but we all are hightech too. All of us are coders and my father-in-law even runs a computer museum.
With these three generations of geeky family I perceive the differences between us GenX parents and younger kids who don’t get the opportunity to tinker about with technology as much as we did. We cracked games, tampered with high scores and created cheat sheets. Today it’s all on the internet, so why bother wrecking your own brain.
The big challenge is to foster creativity in children to use technology to work on applications in the real world. Not to be consumers, but creators.
I have a vegetable and fruit garden and my son has been our gardening pro since he was 2. He has his own patch and raises veg and fruit. Working with the soil or also woodworking gives you a very tactile understanding on how things work. This then translates to the workings of the human body in biotech or in the inner workings of coding when you write long sequences of code. It requires discipline, dedication and patience.
What is missing in todays education is relaxation, taking a step back, true dedication, vocation and love for the mundane tasks. Something that Zen Buddhism is very good at. We are all very easily distracted. These distractions lead to lack of concentration with the kids. They need to get the ability to experience flow.
Flow can only be experienced without time stressors. If you can fully immerse yourself in one task, such as painting or working on a piece of wood. The same dedication and patience you need to code. It is long and tedious work, you wreck your head, sometimes you’re stuck for a day. One needs resilience, patience and calm to manoever through this.
I am very happy to see people dedicated to this topic !
As @HolliKenley said maybe it is about finding a balance and alternatives that aim to increase human (kids/aprents) interaction ?
We have created an audio storyteller that aim to sparkle kid’s Imagination and creativity.
Kids can create up to 48 different stories and adventures to instantly listen to. They choose their hero, location, key object, and supporting character. Lunii automatically crafts the story and delivers it
We are launching our crowdfunding campaign in June in the US, and I would love to get feedbacks of kids and parents using our Lunii. If some of you are interested I’ll be in NY this week (I can send samples as well).
I love your line…“Not to be consumers, but creators.”
In Thomas Kersting’s book, “Disconnected”, he stresses that “boredom is the fertilizer for creativity.” He talks about how kids are “wired and tired” and do not have enough quiet and still time to settle their brains and allow for the flow of creative ideas.
Where I come from in India, we don’t buy smartphones for children below the age of 16. Schools don’t allow phones either. Note: it’s not the same everywhere in India.
Jaski, there is a similar parent-led movement in the United States called Wait Until 8th. [https://www.waituntil8th.org/]
Parents in Texas came together to try to encourage parents to wait until at least 8th grade before giving their child a Smart Phone. People can still sign the pledge if they want to give their child a phone that only calls and texts.
Your ideas are fantastic. We need researchers to help construct the graphs. I think that if we set up a flow chart on what’s needed it would be central group with chartered local groups that filter information up / down and down / up to help track progress. Each group gets assigned equal areas to filter all their learnings back up to central. That way we can collect data and develop resources.
I’d like to see how the center of humane technology can provide resources. They may have this in their development. I’ll reach out to Travis and find out.
In my opinion 8 is too young for a child to have a phone. I mean really, what is the logic in it? A parent would obviously know where their 8 year old is and who is supervising them…presumably another adult if the not a parent themselves, and said adult would have a cell phone for any needed contacts. My daughter is 10 and still does not have her own phone as the need for it has not shown itself…and when she does get one it will likely be a flip phone for necessary phone calls only. A child does not need free, unsupervised access to the internet from a smart phone. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m a content designer passionate about furthering humanity.
My name is Cheyenne Noelle. I’m a full-time wordbender writing b2b AI content for SaaS and startups.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my son lately and his place in future world. My anxiety and genuine need to raise awareness for humane tech resulted in a piece about the rise of a new generation driven entirely by digital means.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this article. Tear it apart. Tell me what sucks, what you like about it, and if it made you think. That’s all I could ever ask for.
I am really sad reading this… I have 4 kinds from 1 to 7 and already know that it is not about to keed my children screen-free because the environment outside our family (peers, other parents who do not see any problem) is out of my control.
Thanks for your advice!
