Would Your Teenager Give Up Their Phone? 📱

Public Forum
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In a recent interview on Capitol Report, IMA Senior Fellow Dr. Renata Moon spoke about rising autism diagnoses and concerns around COVID vaccine messaging… but what really stood out was her take on the youth mental health crisis.

She didn’t just talk about diagnoses, she pointed to the everyday things impacting our kids’ well-being:

:backhand_index_pointing_right: smartphones,

:backhand_index_pointing_right: social media,

:backhand_index_pointing_right: constant digital stimulation.

Dr. Moon highlighted communities where kids grow up without phones, and how different their mental health outcomes often are. She even suggests asking kids to try giving up their devices for a while… just to see what happens.

So…would love to hear from you:

:speech_balloon: Could you give up your phone for a week?

:speech_balloon: Could your teenager?

:speech_balloon: And at what age do you think it’s okay to give a child a phone?

:movie_camera: Link to full interview in comments

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Full interview : Pediatrician Renata Moon Examines Autism Trends, COVID Vaccine Messaging, and Youth Mental Health Crisis | NTD

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One of the goals I’ve suggested to my own patients is to reduce daily tech engagement time by 30 minutes a day and work on increasing every 3 days

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Thank you, @traceyh this is a very practical tip for reducing phone dependency… have you had any success stories?

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Brad Huddleston has authored several books on the topic of digital addiction. They are excellent reads. Many insightful thoughts and practical ideas.
A must have for your toolbox.

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Dr. Leonard Sax’s books I think do a wonderful job of talking about boys, girls, and parenting in general in today’s day and age: Leonard Sax MD PhD | Physician, Psychologist, and Author.

We didn’t cave in to giving our daughter a phone “because so and so’s parents let her have one”. Instead, we told her she could have a phone if she bought it herself and paid for the service. That motivated her and she did eventually do just that, but she learned how to save her money in the process and learned the value of money.

Dr. Sax brings up a lot of good points in his books such as the value of dinner time. This is a time where there are no devices and you get to ask your kid how their day went and actually take part in their lives and have a positive influence on them. “Well, there was this kid that picked on me…”, “Oh really, what happened, what did you do?” and you get to say things like “Well, did you consider…” But none of that works if your kid is fixated on their phone or other device and you’re not having conversations regularly.

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I should mention that in summertime sending your child to camp where they don’t allow cell phones can be a miraculous life experience.

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@jrgerber conversations with kids?? That’s so old school!! Which might also become the new school. How brilliant would that be? Thanks so much for all your contributions last year. That was just brilliant too. All the best for the new year.

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Thank you @tmciik1984