Screenagers Blog

Happy New Year! I thought this would be a good time to revisit your plans to limit screen time this year and reduce struggles in your house. I’ve got a 3 part plan.

All these films can inspire meaningful conversations with teens and a few of the suggestions are appropriate for younger kids.

What incentives work to help decrease screen time for our kids (and ourselves)? Today we look at a contest a company is running that is offering 100K for someone to not use their smartphone for the year and whether these kinds of external motivations change habits.

Big news has hit us today about brain morphology and screen time and I want to weigh in as we all try to make sense of the findings.

Coming up with unique gifts for the holidays to help promote off-screen time for kids and teens is something I have enjoyed writing about in the past and jazzed to do again today.

Thanksgiving is this week, and I have some ideas about how to support more face-to-face interactions and fewer retreats into all our individual devices.

Often teens will say things online such as “hey you are cute” and other compliments. Teens tell me that they would not say these things face-to-face but online it is fun. I have tips and more to guide and support them.

Schools experience pressure to have tech on their campuses from tech companies, administration, and others. Schools want to do well by their students and tech has been sold as a quick fix.

I encourage parents to share their feelings with their children. It is not about burdening them with one’s anxiety or sadness or other emotions. It is about naming feelings and discussing them. This approach has been shown to be highly effective in helping youth develop greater emotional intelligence.

Last year Snapchat introduced Snap Map, a cartoon-looking map with Bitmojis of users positioned at their real-life locations. Did you know that It goes one step further than just showing where the kid is, it also can virtually show what they are actually doing?

Spending more time talking with youth about all the cool things on screens paradoxically makes them more receptive to talking about ways to limit screen time.