How to do screen time this summer

Welcome back to Techno Sapiens! We’ve got a few fun things on the menu for today:

(1) Summer screen time tips

(2) An invitation to join our Techno Sapiens subscriber chat (!)

(3) A new feature called ‘The Scroll,’ where I’m sharing quick updates, news, and links from the worlds of parenting and tech.

6 min read

Happy summer, sapiens!

In my house, we marked the occasion with a classic Memorial Day Weekend: surprisingly cold weather; lots of friends and family; too many hot dogs; and a parade for which my 3-year-old prepared by spending the entire weekend asking “will there be cannons again?” (There were.)1

One of the most common questions I get from parents at this time of year is how to manage screen time in the summer. If that’s you: read on!2

If you, alternatively, are limping to the school-year finish line, and even thinking about summer screen time sounds like another impossible task to add to the to-do list, I get it. Maybe just bookmark this one and revisit in a few weeks.

Alright! To fewer cannons, better weather, and healthier screen time for all!

How to approach screen time with kids this summer

1. Focus on the do, not the don’t

I often hear a version of a question that goes like this: How do I get my kids off of screens this summer? To anyone who’s ever peeled their children’s fingers off a device amidst protests for one more episode, this question makes sense. How do we make it stop?!

But sometimes a different approach works better. Rather than starting with what you don’t want (i.e., too much screen time), think about what you do want.

Get together with your children, and ask yourselves: what do we want out of this summer? Do we want to relax? Play? Learn a new skill? Spend time together? Travel? You can even make a “Summer Bucket List” of simple activities, like going for a bike ride, sampling all your local ice cream shops, brainstorming names for the new baby, etc.3

Then think about where screens do and do not fit in.

2. Find what works for your family

Despite what Instagram videos of children frolicking in grassy fields would have you believe, a successful summer does not have to mean a screen-free summer.

Families approach summer tech use in different ways, and ...