Kids see and learn from your screen habits

It’s easy to ‘make’ kids use dumb phones than to practise healthy smartphone usage habits around them.

The market in the west seems hot for non app solutions in the field of digital wellbeing/de-addiction but most are focused on building solutions for kids.

It’s an easy sell tbh. We can ‘control’ kids so let’s have separate devices for them with a layer of control in our(adults’) hands. But are we ready to face the right questions?

Do adults not need intervention for their screen/smartphone addiction?
Where do kids learn the habit of reaching out frequently to smartphones from? What do they see around? Is their worldview not getting shaped by adults glued to screens?

The algorithms certainly affect the developing state brains much more than adult brains but what kids see around gets ingrained in their behaviour and they see screens almost as a natural extension to human body.

They see you carrying your smartphone always with you,

they see you ignoring what falls on your ears while being consumed in scrolling,

they see you reaching out to smartphones every few minutes,

they see you choosing screens when they approached you to play with them,

and then that's what they learn.

Giving kids access to only non addictive phones/screens is a good step but we should also ask ourselves first - are we, as adults, teaching through actions the importance of daily digital breaks, dedicated no-scrolling-zones, smartphone free time, and similar healthy digital habits?

If the answer here is no, then the durability of ‘kids specific’ interventions won’t be reliable.

Creating screen free environments around kids is as important as building screen less devices for kids, if not more.

With trring, we want to help adults embrace digital wellbeing into their modern lifestyle so that they address the problem of digital addiction from a lifestyle intervention perspective and not as a quick fix approach.

The first step trringphone does is to show your intention to take daily breaks from  smartphones and slowly it becomes your behavioural nudge to make it a habit.

Happy digital napping!