'Screenagers' Offers Tips On How To Keep On-Line Screen Time Healthy

Speaker 1: 00:00 Social media is a godsend and a curse during this pandemic quarantine time, it helps keep us connected and it steals our attention in great chunks of time that easily get out of control for parents with youngsters at home time, online is a mixed blessing too. On the one hand distance learning means time online can be educational, but on the other hand, how do you know where your child's mind is focused when they are a screen scrolling? Dr. Delaney Ruston is a Stanford trained physician whose film Screenagers growing up in the digital age has been shown in hundreds of communities. She's recently started a podcast designed to spark conversations about how to help young people grow up screen wise and tech balanced Delaney. Thanks for being with us. Speaker 2: 00:43 Oh, it's great to be here Speaker 1: 00:45 Was, you know, adults as well as teenagers and kids can have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the screen once we've begun scrolling, but is there any reason to worry more about a teenager who's spending a lot of time online. Speaker 2: 00:56 The data shows that for teens and tweens, when they have a lot of screen time that is associated with increased risk of having lower emotional wellbeing, as well as hits in terms of academics when they get back to school. So it is concerning when it is pushing out other things in their lives. Speaker 1: 01:20 Are there some ways to spend time online that that engage a teenager's minded better ways than others? Speaker 2: 01:27 Data has shown that the primary thing that youth are doing with so much of their time is consumption. They're scrolling through watching other people create, seeing other things. And we want to ensure that our kids are gaining skills to feel competent because this is such a time of unease in their development. Yes. You know, to do the kind of work for parenting, it's gonna take some struggles. It shouldn't be a battleground, but there are ways that we as parents can help our kids to have time away from social media and video games. Speaker 1: 02:07 Right? So what's a parent to do. I mean, um, you know, just telling someone that you're going to take away, their cell phone is not a good strategy, probably. Right? Speaker 2: 02:15 Absolutely. You know what I have seen for many years now, the way that schools do it, and frankly, how I was trying to get my kids to spend less time was a scare tactic. You know, this is going to ruin your brain. This is all these problems. And as a physician, I should have known that the data consistently shows that when we try to scare people into behaviors, it doesn't work. And it's the same here. So rather than a scare tactic, it's so much more about a shared tactic, so that it's about sharing stories and science and letting our kids know that we can see that this is important for them, but also it's important to take breaks. Speaker 1: 02:57 Would you call it an addiction? Sometimes it feels like an addiction, doesn't it? I mean, even just whatever age you are looking at a screen can sometimes get very addictive. Speaker 2: 03:07 You know, I think as adults, we have that natural inclination to want to see what's going on to get the beings it's amplified with kids and teens that they're pulled for all sorts of reasons to be on devices. In fact, we know that the emotional brain, the highs actually feel higher. The pleasure dopamine release is in higher concentrations than, um, any other time in life, but it's not an addiction. I think that's really important because as a physician, working with many people that have addictions, where the whole definition is it's ruining, it's really causing negative harm in their lives. We're seeing that kids, if they have other things going on in their lives and they still are on Screentime a lot, then the data shows that they're much less likely to have any problems. The real concern is when they have lost losing their relationships, sleep a sense of self confidence. The very few percentage are actually addicted to the point where it's having all this negative in their lives, as well as that. They have no control over it. Our kids have some control, but they need our help. Speaker 1: 04:26 You mentioned sleep. Is that a particular concern that a, you know, after they've gone to bed, kids are still scrolling. Speaker 2: 04:32 Yes. You know, the research is showing not only that there's a major sleep deprivation epidemic that impacts our kids and teens when their devices are in their room or they're on them too late in terms of the increased chance of risky behaviors, online and offline, emotional issues and challenges and learning. But, you know, what's really interesting is there's new data that shows that that connections in their forming brain is dysregulated, that they can scientists have seen on imaging studies or teens that are getting disrupted sleep as opposed to teens who are not. So having screened out of the bedroom is one of the number one things that I recommend to parents. And to even start that now in summer, to let kids know and teens know, okay, let's work on this together. Maybe you want to have one night on the weekend where you can have your screen in your room. You know, let's figure out together what time it comes out of your room and parents so often tell me how hard this is to regulate, to do this kind of work, but ongoing conversations, getting a friend to do the work with you. So you have someone to kind of go through the work. All these are necessary, things that can help parents to bring on these, uh, this particular rule that I think is one of the healthiest things we could do for our kids right now. Speaker 1: 06:01 So you've made this movie Screenagers, which has been shown all over the country. And you've recently started a Screenagers podcast where you talk with teenagers about their use of the technology. What, what have you learned from them, from the teenagers themselves about the best way that they've found to, to regulate their own screen time? Speaker 2: 06:19 I just heard from a teenager today, who said how she wishes that social media automatically turned off for all teenagers at seven at night, they're all struggling with this and they take time. Many of them take time off, but they want are they really, you know, I think do need our help. And they know that they both can get benefits from being connected and being distracted. But that screen time can really become a security blanket and a unhealthy way of coping with their hard, uh, emotions as well as other challenges. And so they have told me over and over that they need accountability and they need help in figuring out limits. They want to be involved, but for us as parents to just say, well, COVID here. Let's just let them do whatever they're going to do is really doing a disservice to them. The question is, how do we talk with them? That gets their more of their buy-in because it is to me the most important parenting challenge we have, but there's absolutely skills as parents. We can continue to get better at Speaker 1: 07:41 Delaney. Thanks so much for your insights here. Speaker 2: 07:44 Wonderful. It was great to be here. Speaker 1: 07:46 That was dr. Delaney Ruston, who has produced a film called Screenagers growing up in the digital age.