Throughout the country spring break has just finally come to a close. But, summer vacation is coming up. What will that mean for screen time in your life? I have some rules to help my family manage screen time while on vacation. We set times that we are all going to check in otherwise we try to disconnect.
I was recently in remote areas of Mexico with my family and it was both healing and at times distressing to be without cell service or a computer connection most of the time. I managed by setting expectations with the people I work with about when I would be able to check in and when I would be totally unavailable.
Camps are a great opportunity for your kids to unplug. We highlight a study in Screenagers that showed that kids who unplugged and went to a nature camp for just 5 days showed a marked improvement in capacity for empathy.
Here's some questions to ask your family this week for Tech Talk Tuesday (#TTT):
Do you think we should completely unplug during vacations?
How would you feel about going to a camp that had no wifi or cell service?
Do you think parents should be able to work some during family vacations?
Are there some things you think you should be able to do on your phone or computer while on vacation? If so, what?
If there was an emergency and you didn't have a cell phone, do you have some ideas of how you might solve the problem?
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
Throughout the country spring break has just finally come to a close. But, summer vacation is coming up. What will that mean for screen time in your life? I have some rules to help my family manage screen time while on vacation. We set times that we are all going to check in otherwise we try to disconnect.
I was recently in remote areas of Mexico with my family and it was both healing and at times distressing to be without cell service or a computer connection most of the time. I managed by setting expectations with the people I work with about when I would be able to check in and when I would be totally unavailable.
Camps are a great opportunity for your kids to unplug. We highlight a study in Screenagers that showed that kids who unplugged and went to a nature camp for just 5 days showed a marked improvement in capacity for empathy.
Here's some questions to ask your family this week for Tech Talk Tuesday (#TTT):
Do you think we should completely unplug during vacations?
How would you feel about going to a camp that had no wifi or cell service?
Do you think parents should be able to work some during family vacations?
Are there some things you think you should be able to do on your phone or computer while on vacation? If so, what?
If there was an emergency and you didn't have a cell phone, do you have some ideas of how you might solve the problem?
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
I've noticed a lot of confusion in my conversations with adults and teens about using incognito mode. Many don't realize that, even in incognito mode, the websites they visit can still track their activity and show them ads related to what they did during that session. If you are unfamiliar with Incognito mode, today I explain why and how kids may use it and why you want to know.
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Today I share my top 3 main screen time categories and offer many options of rules that can be tailored to your specific family. Let’s be real that policies for a 10-year-old will be different for a 17-year-old. Then there are factors such as kid’s maturity levels, outside activities, sibling dynamics, bandwidth of parents/guardians, and the list goes on. For this reason, having many ideas can be helpful. Let’s get started.
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It’s back-to-school time and an ideal time to readdress screen time at home. Ahhhhh, so not easy! When we approach emotionally triggering topics with our kids, having a road map, including specific things to say, can be extremely helpful. I know all too well that without those things, my reactive brain can take over, and everything can go sideways. Eleven years now into studying the intersection of biology, psychology, communication science, and parenting screen time, I offer my top 3 steps for creating new or cementing existing tech time policies as back-to-school kicks off.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
