What Is Your Phone Addiction Doing to Your Kid’s Brain?
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What is your phone addiction doing to your kid’s brain? Phone addiction. It’s a real thing and something that desperately needs to be talked more about.
But more specifically, what is your phone addiction doing to your kid’s brain?
This is something I feel so strongly on my heart, and really feel as if I can’t NOT share this with you.
My brother in law posted an article this past week, which my husband passed along to me, and it’s been weighing on my mind and my heart. Mix this article with watching the first episode of Black Mirror and you have one hot mess over here…
Now, if you feel you have your phone use under control and have no idea what the hell I’m talking about…you are amazing. And please, feel free to click right out of this and we’ll meet back up next week…
I, on the other hand, feel at times that my phone controls me more than I control it if I’m being 100% honest here…
…and I have been noticing some uncomfortable shit…like my daughters seeming adoration for smartphones at the ripe old age of 2.
Well, can you blame her? She sees mommy and daddy using them, and she’s deep up to her knees in the imitation phase of her development.
Doh.
Because I talk about intentionality on my site, I can’t not share this with you…so here is the article my brother in law passed along.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90454545/copycatting-parents-screentime-may-be-just-as-dangerous-as-secondhand-smoke
Now, take it or leave it, friend… but I’ll tell you what…that article physically hurt my insides. And since this has been a conversation that my husband and I have been having for a while, this article really was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for us.
…So here is what we have been doing to make some changes in our home.
I have purchased a watch.
Yes, a watch. Maybe most people still have a watch, but I haven’t had one hardly ever in my life…and I constantly felt the need to carry my phone with me everywhere I went because I NEEDED to know the time. So, after wearing my son’s red and blue rubber Spider Man digital watch for a few days, I broke down and bought my own.
And for clarity sake…not an Apple watch. With an Apple watch, you are still technologically tethered. Every ding or vibration, your presence is ripped away from whatever you are doing and pulled right toward the tiny glowing screen wrapped around your wrist.
My husband bought an alarm clock.
When I look at my values around health, sleep and connection with my husband…it’s clear to me that the phone has no place in the bedroom…
- It trashes any chance of connection (ahem, con-nec-tion *wink wink*)
- It is a melatonin disruptor, the sleep hormone.
- It strains your poor eyes.
- And it keeps you up way too long chasing rabbits down Pinterest rabbit holes, or whatever site you like to peruse late into the night..
So he bought an alarm clock, and a fancy one at that.
This thing has crickets chirping at you as the warm, glowing orange light dims down over the course of 20 minutes (if you want that feature…you can totally turn that off though).
It slowly wakes you up to increasing “sunlight” and birds sweetly start chirping at you.
It’s awesome. Why have we never thought of this before?
Hide the phone
Basically, I am weak as fuck, but I’m not the only one. Out of 10 people I asked this question
A resounding yes. But in all fairness, it’s not your fault. These companies knew what they were doing. I once listened to a podcast where a former Facebook big wig admitted (and I don’t think this is new information anymore) that Facebook was designed to create addiction.
Every ding and like creates a dopamine hit in your brain…just like drugs.
So to beat this thing, you’re going to have to do more than use will power. You’ve got to put it out of mind completely. Hide that thing! I’ve put mine everywhere from down in the garage, to the top shelf of my kitchen cupboards.
And don’t stop there. Delete apps that challenge you. Take Facebook off your phone. Take Instagram, or Tik Tok, or whatever the heck you use, off your phone. That way, it’s a hurdle you will need to jump over if you want to use that app. Tht alone may reduce your consumption.
And yes, I’m admitting that it’s that hard for me sometimes.
Replace “Apps”
There have been
But the dang thing gets you on every account. “I NEED it for this…” “I NEED it for that”.
Here
- Sonos– You can actually download the app on your computer. Yes, this is still technology, but it doesn’t have the same pull on me at all.
- Email- Again, you can use your computer. There isn’t anything that can’t wait an hour or two to respond to is there? I hate that the world expects an immediate response from us. We have done that to ourselves though. Create boundaries. People will be okay if they need to wait a second. It’ll be good for them 😉
- Camera– I tried to use a DSLR, but it has a learning curve to actually take good photos, and I don’t have the time to develop that skill right now. I’m thinking about buying an inexpensive digital camera that I can point and click with and calling it a day.
- Audio books– You can listen to audible on sonos, along with podcasts! So I can use the sonos app on my computer for this rather than my phone.
- Google Maps– we COULD go back to paper maps. I haven’t done that, but I’m just saying…ya could!
Let me be clear, I am not perfect. I have to use my phone quite a bit for my blog and my business. But finding ways to reduce it as much as possible is the goal here! My real aim is to not use it when my kids are around, not to never use it at all.
Here is that article again…
In what ways have you reduced your phone usage or beat your phone a ddiction? What have you found to help, and what didn’t?
