A New Year's Reset in the Digital Age

BY ANDREW DAVIS

We celebrate Christmas in the Davis household. Christmas involves a tree, traditions (a Christmas Eve talent show and white elephant exchange with friends), and gifts. It’s a time of joy and new 'toys' to keep my sons engaged through vacation.

About two years ago, we had a Christmas breakthrough – no large, battery-operated, noise-making, cartoon-branded toys were under the tree. Ahh, the silence. Ack, what do we do with all of those C and D batteries we had purchased from Costco? 

Over the past year, we have replaced “expensive” plastic toys with more expensive pieces of technology. The sirens of a Paw-Patroller have been replaced by the relatively quiet whistles of a game of Madden or chuckles at a funny meme a friend sent via text message to a smartwatch. Long on large batteries, we are now short on charging cables.

The peace afforded by technology gifts brings about a new challenge when it is time for school to start: getting back to a healthy, productive relationship with technology. Knowing that gaming or texting with friends is more fun than doing the requisite night’s homework, we had a brief family reset meeting on Monday night.

In less than five minutes, we covered the following topics:

• Christmas gifts are awesome. These devices are amazing. It is so much fun.
• We have to get back to our healthy digital ways as school starts.
• Gaming/shows: Quick review of the family rule. Nods of agreement.
• Texting on the smartwatch: Quick review of MTS Home Digital Wellbeing Guidelines (aka, have your watches on the charger in the kitchen by 7 and 8 pm, respectively). Nods of agreement.
• Web Safety: Do not talk to strangers on games(something we discovered was possible around 1 pm on Christmas Day), and let us know if you see anything that makes you uncomfortable, either on a game or your watch. Nods of agreement? Follow-up question. Nods of agreement.
• Christmas gifts are awesome. These devices are amazing. Let’s keep those two things true (implied statement - using these is a privilege, not a right).—nods of agreement.

Parenting in the digital age can be complex! I have had to go (kind of) old school and keep a (digital) list of my children's various accounts and passwords. Even Apple, the leader in user experience, has not made an “easy” way to do this. A five-minute conversation leveraging the “school rules” is far more straightforward. And it is not too late. I encourage you to give your child a heads up that the conversation is coming and then, briefly, use the new year – or this blog post – as an excuse to do a quick reset. Together, we can help our students develop a healthy, productive, and intentional relationship with technology.

Regardless of how your “reset” goes, let me know if you have a USB-Micro to USB-Mini to USB-C three-way adapter.