If you were asked to give up your phone one day a week for $100, would you do it? In June, Dr. Diana Smith, the principal of Washington Latin, a public charter school in Washington DC, challenged the 8th and 9th grade students to forgo any type of screen time—phone, television, tablet, video game consoles, etc.—every Tuesday over the entire summer.
If a student successfully completed “No-Tech-Tuesday” by staying away from technology for every one of the summer’s 11 Tuesdays, had written verification from two adults, and wrote an essay detailing what they learned from being technology-free, Dr. Smith would give them $100 of her money. To fund the $100 per student prize Dr. Smith canceled her cable TV service. Of the 160 students in the 8th and 9th grades, 30 students qualified for the prize.
Dr. Smith started the No-Tech-Tuesday challenge in response to seeing so many of her students struggle with setting and maintaining screen-time limits, so much so that their habits, especially around peer interactions, were suffering. “I wanted the students to discipline themselves … in order to understand what happens to their lives without technology.”
For this TTT, let’s talk about money as a motivator to change behavior, especially around technology. It will be interesting to follow the long term effects of this challenge. Ask your family what they think:
If you were asked to give up your phone one day a week for $100, would you do it? In June, Dr. Diana Smith, the principal of Washington Latin, a public charter school in Washington DC, challenged the 8th and 9th grade students to forgo any type of screen time—phone, television, tablet, video game consoles, etc.—every Tuesday over the entire summer.
If a student successfully completed “No-Tech-Tuesday” by staying away from technology for every one of the summer’s 11 Tuesdays, had written verification from two adults, and wrote an essay detailing what they learned from being technology-free, Dr. Smith would give them $100 of her money. To fund the $100 per student prize Dr. Smith canceled her cable TV service. Of the 160 students in the 8th and 9th grades, 30 students qualified for the prize.
Dr. Smith started the No-Tech-Tuesday challenge in response to seeing so many of her students struggle with setting and maintaining screen-time limits, so much so that their habits, especially around peer interactions, were suffering. “I wanted the students to discipline themselves … in order to understand what happens to their lives without technology.”
For this TTT, let’s talk about money as a motivator to change behavior, especially around technology. It will be interesting to follow the long term effects of this challenge. Ask your family what they think:
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog and encouraged people to share with youth in their lives whatever small change they made and to share with me as well so that I could share with you! And that is what I am doing today. I received some great responses. Here are a few examples people shared with me:
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I bet there is one thing (at least) about your phone that you have been meaning to do, and yet you have not taken the time to do it. Yes? I just got another alert from the social media app, BeReal. I downloaded it with my kids a while back to learn about it. I don’t use it. Instead, I have been repeatedly irked whenever it pings me (it does that even with notifications turned off). I keep saying to myself, "Oh, yes, I have to delete that.” And then I never do. SO RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, I am inviting you to do one tiny thing (yep, right now) …
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This Thanksgiving week, I’m taking time with my family. Due to illnesses in the family, this is the first time since the pandemic began that we finally get to have an extended family gathering, and I’m taking the week to truly enjoy it. Here are four of my past Screenagers’ Tech Talk Tuesday favorite Thanksgiving posts which are chock-full of ideas for fostering togetherness this week.
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.
