The home of "Tech Talk Tuesdays"
“Having calm, consistent conversations has greatly improved screen balance in my home and I have written hundreds of articles to help others through my weekly Tech Talk Tuesdays newsletter and blog.”— Delaney Ruston, MD Physician/Filmmaker"
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Are you failing with screen rules? You are not alone. I have several suggestions to help you get back on track.
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Parents share their summertime screen rules. What’s working, what’s not working. Parents helping parents.
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Summertime brings a couple of long cars rides with my family, and when we have one coming up I curate podcasts that will resonate with my teenagers.
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eSports, defined as competitive tournaments of video gaming, often by professionals, is popping up in arenas and gaming stadiums around the country.
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I am really excited to write this week’s Tech Talk Tuesday because it is on a subject I care deeply about--documentaries.
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My team and I have been surveying teenagers, boys and girls, about how, when, and why they choose to communicate via their many apps. Here’s the inside scoop from a 16-year-old girl.
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Not only do jobs help prevent screen time overload during the summer, they can have many upsides.
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I have heard from parents all over the country about their concerns that Fortnite will consume their kids’ time this summer. I recently interviewed a former gaming addict about his advice for parents around Fortnite and game addiction.
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Summer break is a time for youth to breathe and explore their interests beyond school, but so often downtime becomes screen time. Summer’s wide open time spans can heighten battles over technology use. I have tips to help manage screen time.
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Finally! Apple is releasing a software update to include several much needed ways for parents to easily program which apps can be used at specific times of the day, and much more. It will be a screen time control in the phone itself.
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As this school year winds down, we are hearing from teachers, parents and principals from all over the country about how many have already or are in the process of changing their school’s cell phone policies.
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30% of adults and the same percentage of youth report that they argue daily about screen time at home. I have suggestions about how to put more joy into parenting given the added stress that comes with the tech revolution.
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“13 Reasons Why” is premiering this week. The first season raised alarms with many parents, teachers and principals. To get you ready we provide resources and conversation starters to prepare you ahead of the upcoming series.
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Do our kids think we are good screen time role models? When I ask audiences of students if they think their parents are on their devices too much, generally two-thirds of the kids raise their hands. I have some tips to help you work on better modeling.
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Let’s have a conversation about non-cellphone computers in schools—all the computers, iPads, Chromebooks and such. The question is not should computers be in schools but for what use and how often, and how much.
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Focusing on homework with all the technological distractions is hard. I have 5 strategies to help you support your kids be more effective and stay on task.
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What happens when you have an active, involved kid with good grades, who wants to play video games for three straight hours a day, every day? 3 experts weigh in.
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How to talk to your teen about sexting... “What if their picture is shared without consent? What if their picture ends up in the wrong hands or the authorities find out?” These are questions we want our kids to ask themselves when presented with the decision to sext.
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Are you a Parent Activist? Do you want to be? Read more about how to get involved with the "Away For The Day" movement.
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Today, the Screenagers’ team and I are officially launching a website-based initiative to promote middle schools to adopt policies where phones are put away for the day in places like lockers.
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Many influencers have been calling on technology companies to redesign their products to make them easier for parents to parent around. Industry insiders are finally publicly requesting that tech companies make changes.
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Fortnite is the latest video game grabbing youth’s attention. Today I offer some ways to help open a conversation with your kid about it and how to figure out how much time playing this game is too much.
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When a family with 4 kids take all screen time limits away for the weekend, it becomes clear how important limit setting is. Making and enforcing rules around tech time can be taxing, but for most, it is essential.
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How do we get our kids and students to talk with us and think more deeply about the content of the “TV shows” they watch? In today's Tech Talk Tuesday I share 2 strategies I use with my own teens.
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Do your kids spend too much time on social media? Today we explore ways to intentionally help our youth increase face-to-face connections with others.
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Do your kids know digital etiquette? Today I share some of my family rules and 3 tips to help your kids build good digital manners.
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Homework Hygiene is a term I coined and is about helping kids develop effective practices around homework such as writing to-do lists, developing the habit of prioritizing the list and checking things off.
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Do your kids sneak and lie about tech time? Today we explore why kids lie and offer tips to manage this dishonesty.
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Shopping has never been easier. Deals inundate inboxes and social media feeds. This temptation is hard to resist, especially if your self-control muscles are still developing like they are in our kids’ brains.
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Tools, tips, and resources to open a conversation about cyberbullying with your teen. First, try using the words “online aggression” or “social cruelty” to avoid the teenage eyeroll.
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Meditation, mindfulness and attention—and how they all relate to screen time. I've got some great apps for you and your kids to kickstart start a practice.
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The main finding is alarming: The majority of middle schools (55%) allow students to carry a cell phone on them all day. Only 45% of middle schools require students put their phones away for the day. Yet, our survey found parents want something different.
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Family time during the holiday is great….and complicated. It's easy to retreat into personal devices to soothe tense feelings. Instead, consider reaching for a board game whenever possible. I've got some suggestions
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I find the holidays are a great time to slow down and enjoy some non-tech family fun. I’ve put together a list of some engaging, non-tech toys for your Screenagers.
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The big buzz word these days is AI—Artificial Intelligence. Some of these home devices are very helpful, especially for the elderly. But, I do have concerns about their affect on the very young.
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Not all screen time is created equal. There are small things we can do online to support the endeavors of our friends, families, and people in communities. I have suggestions.
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Do you have a long car ride ahead or just looking for activities to do with your kids off screens? How about a podcast? Read about some of my favorites.
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Children take in all kinds of media and messaging with little skill on how to make sense of it. Media literacy can be taught and I have some tools to help.
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We can play a big role to play in teaching our children to be critical, and skeptical, and learning to identify trustworthy sources. It’s easy to perpetuate lies about personal things and inaccurate facts by blindly sharing and retweeting.
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Does your kid freak out when screen time is up? Intense reactions to turning off video games are becoming too common. I have some suggestions on how to handle these situations.
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The results of a new study found almost half of kids 8-years old and under have their own mobile device. What are the concerns of this new mobile reality?
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I am a big believer that communication is a teachable skill. We can all learn more productive ways to handle in-person interactions. I have a fun way for you to work on communication skills with your kids.
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TBH (To Be Honest) is an app meant to share positive vibes where users anonymously send and receive superlatives like “Best person to get a cup of coffee with." Ranking people has been around long before social media, but tech adds a new dimension.
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Many kids were sleeping when the news of the Las Vegas shooting was first reported. But, when they woke up and looked at their phones they quickly found out. How do we help our kids with scary and tragic news?
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In an app development class, kids came up with a voice-recognition app that would temporarily freeze their parents’ phones whenever the child’s voice is detected.
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Have you ever considered making the car a screen-free zone? Two years ago my family decided to make the car a screen-free zone and great conversations have emerged because of this rule.
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What if all pediatricians in the country have signs in the waiting room that said something like the following: "For children’s development, having times off screens is important. This doctor’s office is a ‘screen-free zone’ for kids."
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The average high school starts at 7:59 AM, with some starting as early as 7:00 AM. Studies show lack of sleep affects our teens well being. Now, many schools are shifting their start times.
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A principal in Washington DC challenged her 8th & 9th graders to forgo any type of screen time every Tuesday throughout the whole summer in exchange for $100.
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A survey in the UK reveals that 3 of the 4 most popular social media platforms had a net negative effect on the mental well-being of young people.
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Remember Andrew from Screenagers? The college student who struggled with an addiction to video gaming. We recently checked in with him to find out how he has been and what he is up to today.
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Who ever thought that we would be living in a world where porn would just pop up unannounced on our screens? Porn is just a click away for so many of our kids and I strongly believe that we as parents need is to start talking about inappropriate media sooner rather than later. But what do you say and at what age?
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Let’s face it—our kids are exposed to lots of media that is pure junk. So how do we expose kids to media that has positive messages but is not overly sappy? In my view, I think documentaries make for great media. Here's ten you and your kids can watch.
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I hear from many pre-teen and teen girls that they or their friends have been asked by boys via social media to send nude pics. It is imperative that we try to have conversations with our sons and daughters about the pressures, internal and external, of looking “hot” and sending “hot” photos. We need to arm girls with ways to respond to pressures.
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I just got back from a 3-week vacation with Meleah, my 13-year-old. She is a social teen who likes to “talk” to her friends via Snapchat, Facetime, and Instagram frequently. A week before we left she said: “Mom, I think I’m going to leave my iPhone at home.” I played it cool and just asked why. She said she needed a break. So, we went old school and turned it back to 2004.
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School may be out, but summer reading is just heating up. I often get asked by kids in Screenagers’ audiences whether reading on an e-reader counts as screen time. While a screen is a screen, I highly encourage kids to read, whether it’s paper or electronic.
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We've all lost track of time when using our phones. So many parents, myself included, want to make sure the screen time limits we've set are being followed by ourselves and our children. Luckily for us, there are several apps out there designed to manage screen time limits so we don't always have to.
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If your child’s life has included a Minecraft phase, you know what I’m talking about. There’s the beginner level of the game that you play, walking from place to place collecting resources for survival, and there are the deeper levels, that can include creating entire neighborhoods to programming your own action sequences and building tools that you make available to other players.
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I received a few emails this week about the appropriate age to buy a young person a smartphone. Data shows that younger and younger kids are getting smartphones —what is too young?
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I am upset. Yesterday my teenage son Chase showed me the Discover feature on Snapchat. The Discover feature grabs content from a variety of sources — Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, CNN among many others and makes it accessible to anyone, including our kids. But what makes me so mad is that there is no way to remove or block the Discover Story feature on the app. So what do we do?
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Last week, Harvard rescinded the acceptances of 10 incoming freshmen for posting racist, sexually offensive material on Facebook. As intense as the consequence may seem, this is an important reminder that nothing on the web is private, even private chat groups.
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In the past couple of months, I visited schools where the teachers talked to me about concerns over kids and cell phones during field trips.
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When I visit schools across the country, I am consistently surprised that students, parents and even teachers are frequently unsure of the cell phone policies at their school. Wouldn't it be great if we had data on how often middle schools allow students to have cell phones with them all day? And wouldn’t it be great if we knew what policies parents want?
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One of the most interesting screenings of Screenagers was at a conference for addiction professionals. Did you know that about 1% of the U.S. population has a gambling disorder? It is almost double that in Hong Kong.
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I strongly believe that one of the most powerful aspects of Tech Talk Tuesday is starting the discussion with something positive about the tech in our lives. If we really want to have effective dialogue that creates a lasting tech balance with our kids, we need to talk about the positives too. Believe me, your kids will want to hear this week’s TTT.
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As Mother’s Day approaches I have been thinking about my mom and her support over the years, and I am also thinking of non-family important women who have also helped me when I was growing up. I call these women Mentor Moms.
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A new study being presented this week at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting found that tablet and smartphone use by babies and toddlers correlates with a speech delay.
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Last week we talked about the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” and how to talk to your kids about the hard subjects seen in the show. This week, we think it’s important to focus on what the teens think about the show and its provocative content. What are they saying about “13 Reasons Why?”
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Teens all over the world are streaming the Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why.” The series, based on the young adult novel by Jay Asher, explores hard issues like online bullying, rape, and suicide. Because youth today so often watch shows alone on their personal devices, it is imperative that we engage and have conversations with our teens about these intense subjects.
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I just returned from Australia where I was rolling out Screenagers. All over the country, I heard exactly the same questions and concerns I’ve heard in the U.S. and in other countries: Why are we so glued to our devices and what is excessive screen time? A new book called Irresistible by Adam Alter looks at why everyone seems to be is so entranced by screens.
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Families today are busy. Often everyone is running in different directions, and texting each other under the same roof is becoming the new normal. This disconnect in personal touch is troublesome. To keep our sanity, and our face-to-face conversations alive, my family follows four rules...
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The season of spring break is upon us. With it comes the issue of what to do with your unstructured days. Let’s face it, so often down time has become screen time.
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I am the first to say that I love multitasking. We know the brain can handle certain kinds of tasks at the same time like walking and chewing gum because those actions don’t rely too much on the frontal cortex. However, our brains can't adequately process the performance of two tasks at the same time when those tasks require some thinking.
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IIn the president’s plan, the Department of Education’s total budget would be slashed by $9 billion. One of the hardest hit will be after-school programs, key support for families.
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People often ask me about the medical risks that all this screen time is having on our kids—such as the development of eyesight problems or tendonitis. I get emails from ophthalmologists who are convinced that nearsightedness is increasing, but so far there are no long-term studies to say anything definitively.
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How many times have you or your kids pulled out a phone at dinner to quickly get the answer to a question that comes up? Knowledge-on-demand is the norm now but I am concerned it takes away from interesting, deeper conversations and interrupts dialogue.
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This recent UCLA study about what happens in a teens’ brain when they get a “like” on their photo showed that when the teenagers saw pictures that showed risky behavior, it decreased activity in the regions of their brain that are responsible for putting on the brakes.
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A major study recently showed without question the negative effect cellphones have on the quantity and quality of children’s sleep. Why public health experts care is because things like accidents, obesity, mental health problems all go up with sleep deprivation – and grades go down.
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The morning of March 3rd until the morning of March 4th, 2017 is National Day of Unplugging. This day is designed to help people of all ages to embrace the ancient ritual of a day of rest and we are so excited that Screenagers is a co-sponsor!
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The 24 hours from sundown March 3rd until sundown March 4th, 2017 is The National Day of Unplugging. This day is designed to help people of all ages to embrace the ancient ritual of a day of rest and we are so excited that Screenagers is a co-sponsor!
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We recently conducted a small survey of people from our Screenagers email list. From the responses I have come up with 4 rules that I think households should strongly consider implementing.
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Have you ever heard the term “ghosting”? It happens to teens and adults alike and according to a Huffington Post poll, about 10 percent of Americans have "ghosted" someone to break up with them. Using avoidance as a coping skill is not new, but online communication has made that an easier way to deal with uncomfortable situations.
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My own two teens both have rich emotional lives—full of ups and downs (like most of us on this planet). From this I realized I wanted to talk more with them about how they and their friends communicate on social media and via text about their mental health. What do they find helpful and what is not helpful?
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Many people use the word “addiction” casually to describe something they do often and somewhat compulsively. Clinical addiction is a different, much more serious, matter.
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"Why not just say 'no'?" I've had this question from other parents and thought about this issue while I was making the film.
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Given this is the biggest parenting issue of our time, we knew that a movie is a great start but that a real movement is needed and thus we created Tech Talk Tuesday (TTT). TTT is all about giving ideas each week that foster ongoing calm, short conversations with between kids and their parents, teachers and their students, and others.
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With 2017 on the horizon, the last few days of 2016 are resolution season. Are you considering making some positive life changes? Great, me too. But how can we make the changes stick…for real this time?
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How comfortable are your kids talking to extended family and adult friends? One concern I often hear from parents is that they think screen time decreases face-to-face communication skills. I have not found any exceptional data around this issue. Families and friends will be together for the holidays and in these settings many kids and adults will gravitate towards their personal devices. When situations are uncomfortable or activity is slowed down this is accepted behavior these days. It upsets me when I see kids disappear into their screens when those special multigenerational opportunities for conversation are right in front of them.
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How much time do you, the adult, spend on screens? This week Common Sense Media (CSM) released the results of a survey of 1800 parents that found that parents spend 7.5 hours a day of non-work time on screens, and 1.5 hours a day of work-related screen time.
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13 great holiday non-tech gift ideas.
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NBC's Today Show ran a piece this week where 10th grade students at a school in Tumwater, Washington watched Screenagers and then had the chance to do a one-week digital detox and be filmed for TV. Only some kids agreed to do it and the results were unexpected. Watch this with your kids! My kids thought it was really well done.
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When my daughter Tessa, who is in Screenagers, saw the completed film, I was shocked by one of her first reactions. She said, ”I didn't realize so many other kids are dealing with all this rule stuff like we are." Of course, she had been with me over the years as I was making the film, and yet somehow, she did not know how common it is for families to struggle with setting limits. She went on to tell me how rarely any of her friends talked about their rules around screen time.
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With Thanksgiving this week, it is a good time to think about the various practices of “unplugging." To help find times to unplug, a good starting point is to think more about when our kids are not on screens during each day, rather than when they are on screens. From there it's easier to set guidelines around unplugging. I’ve heard about many creative approaches to unplugging:
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I sometimes get questions from kids and parents about whether reading on a Kindle or another device counts as screen time. I am not concerned about reading on a device, what worries me is when you read on a device that has wifi and apps, it makes it hard to concentrate and stay on task.
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Candidates have used screens for good and for evil this election. They've used it to bully as well as to inspire. Talking to your kids about this issue is a great way to open up the conversation about how they define bullying. Talk your teens today about how they, and you, used social media, polling data and other ways to get engaged and informed about the election this year.
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A new meta analysis published in Jama Pediatrics confirmed how portable devices like cellphones and tablets are seriously affecting our children's sleep. Sleep is one of the biggest pediatric public health issues of our time. I hear this firsthand when I ask groups in the post screening discussions "who sleeps with their cellphones their room?" Most hands in the room go up.
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This week the American Academy of Pediatrics released new recommendations on screen time. They now recommend that children younger than 18 months “avoid digital media use (except video-chatting),” but kids 18 months and older can use digital media. They also say that children 2 to 5 years should limit their time to one hour a day and for youth 5 years and older they now don't really have a recommended cap on screen time.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just changed its recommendation of screen use for children. They now recommend that children younger than 18 months “avoid digital media use (except video-chatting),” but kids 18 months and older can use digital media. They also say that children 2 to 5 years should limit their time to one hour a day and for youth 5 years and older they now don't really have a recommended cap on screen time.
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Finstagrams are “private” Instagrams meant only for your closest friends. Many kids just refer to them as their private Instagram account. Here’s the definition from the Urban Dictionary:
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