What's expected and what deserves attention in the digital world
Concerning use isn't measured in hours, but in what it crowds out and how it leaves your teen.
2 min read
What's expected
- Spending many hours on social media.
- Having important relationships with people they met online.
- Preferring texting to talking on the phone.
- Feeling bad when they have no signal or no battery.
- Wanting privacy about what they do there.
What deserves attention
- Screens costing them sleep on an ongoing basis.
- Actively hiding what they do.
- Cutting themselves off completely from offline relationships.
- Their mood depending only on what happens on social media.
- Signs that they saw something that disturbed them, or of inappropriate contact with adults.
The difference
A teen who spends four hours online but sleeps well, has offline relationships and can disconnect when needed doesn't have a problem. One who spends two hours but neglects everything else may well have one.
That's why the most helpful question isn't how much, but what for. Entertainment, connection, habit, boredom, refuge? Screens are often a response to something. Before cutting them off, it's worth knowing what that something is.
A question to take with you
If they weren't on a screen, where would they be? And who would they be with?