One of the biggest questions for parents in this digital age is, “How can I help my teenager spend less time online?” There are as many answers as there are parents and teenagers. However, if you’re willing to try a few things, the ideas below may help your family find a better online/offline balance.
Model the online/offline behavior you want your kids to have
You’re worried about your teenager, but are you spending too much time glued to your devices? There are few better ways to teach your kids anything than to model the behavior for them.
You can start with specific “device-free time” throughout the day. Example: After school, you can have an hour to organize activities and catch up with friends. Then the phones go away between 6-9 for dinner and family time.
Taking small, scheduled breaks away from your phone can retrain your brain. When we get bored we have trained ourselves to instinctively reach for our phone and start scrolling. Mindlessly. For hours. Without access to our phones, we can start reaching for a new hobby, grab a book, or do something active.
Modeling this behavior and including your kids in these new habits will help them build online/offline balance into their own lives.
Try a Kinetic Phone Charger
Take the phone cords away. They are yours now. Parents control the phone cords. You, my beloved teenager, you are now the proud owner of a Kinetic phone charger! And you can use it whenever you want to charge your phone.
Kinetic phone chargers charge while you move your body. Ergo, you have to move your body to power your phone. Even better, they are pretty slow to build a full charge for your phone so teens will have to manage what’s important to be online for and power off their device from time to time.
Go traveling!
This tends to be my answer for everything because I love it so much. Just broke up with a significant other? Just lost your job? Go traveling!!! But it works really well for online/offline balance. Especially if you travel to a country or go camping in a place that has limited, painfully slow, or no internet connections.
There is somewhere amazing near you that fits this description. Take your family there. Explore. Move your body. And disconnect from the information superhighway. You will all be better off for it and, again, you will start to build habits away from your devices.
Kermode can help
Kermode can help you and your family build stronger digital citizenship skills and explore online/offline balance strategies. Contact them today at info@kermodeeducation.com to learn more.
