Instead of waiting to produce this system in its entirety to release it, I am going to release this framework piece by piece and take the reader along for the ride.
Managing electronics usage is exceptionally difficult and I’m going to start by building a concept that will help parents navigate the entire process.
Day after day I see problem after problem in my gym and life that are directly caused by misuse of electronic devices. This will be a deep rabbit hole but let’s start simply by categorizing the usages and then placing them in a diagram that shows us when we are getting the “best” use of the tools.
As you can see by my beautiful, highly professional (made by what looks to be a third grader) diagram, there are 4 primary uses for our screened devices.
1. Productivity – making content, doing homework, typing this blog post
2. Social – texting, FaceTime, calls, social media
3. Developmental – reading, listening to podcasts/books, learning any new skill
4. Entertainment – movies, doom scrolling, gaming
We intuitively see that often times our usages have overlap. We can be FaceTiming to do homework which may have all 4 letters represented. We are engaging socially while learning, producing our homework, and being entertained by the interactions.
This would be an example of a “sweet spot” for electronics usage whereas binge watching a movie series alone in bed for 8 hours would potentially be a terrible usage of the tool.
I will be parsing this idea out over a number of posts to provide more detailed explanations and guidance for limiting the usage and making sure we get the most out of the modern tools that seem to have us by the proverbial throats.