Beyond Limits: Can Motivation Trump Monitoring for Teen Productivity?
We’ve all been there. To survive in the modern world, our children will inevitably get a smartphone, and with this comes unfettered access to the internet and the myriad of apps and games. It is then up to the parent to manage this access and thus begin the tightrope walk of keeping our kids safe and keeping their attention balanced with things like homework and family time. But the internet is addictive, and this balancing act becomes more and more formidable until we eventually become the ‘screen police’, a role which both parents and children resent.
Why do we do this? Safety is one reason. We know that children are not ready for the tricks and traps on the internet, as well as the people behind them. But the other reason is less recognized; the internet and social media is part of the ‘attention economy’, an unrelenting machine whose purpose is to grab our attention away from us, and that attention could be used for so many better things.
This is often referred to as ‘Time Displacement”; the fact that attention consumed by excessive screen time can displace crucial and beneficial activities, such as studying, personal connection with friends and exercise. In this article, we will look primarily at this aspect of helping our children with screen management.
Parental Controls: The Promise Of Peace Of Mind
The first port-of-call for parents is to install screen controls on the offending devices. They are usually an easy-to-configure set-and-forget solution that are often included with any modern smartphone and often recommended by policymakers. They offer:
Overall limits to the device usage
Time-of-day limits to device usage
Content filters: Limits to specific apps and websites, as well as blocking
Time, search and purchase tracking
Content filters are primarily targeted at safety, while when it comes to attention management, the relevant features are the device and app limits. But is this the best solution? This is still a tactic of the ‘screen police’, just one that is administered at a distance. While this approach certainly has its benefits, our children’s needs and abilities change over time, and what may be effective for younger children may not be the best choice for older adolescents.
Is It The Best for Teen Screens?
While this approach is generally considered the best for child safety, some studies suggest that, especially while progressing through the teenage years, automated screen regulation could result in “adverse or harmful outcomes”, leading to higher family conflict or distrust; while the parent is simply trying their best to manage their child’s attention, this strategy may cause teens to become resentful or disengaged, and not have any benefits on their productivity or achievements.
Teens are also more and more tech-savvy. They frequently find loopholes leading to a cat-and-mouse game of finding and patching these ‘leaks’ in the control software. This also causes resentment, as the parent and child are engaged in a negative battle-of-wits.
Cultivating Self-Regulation
Is there a better way? At Screen Balance Online, we think that there is. As children progress through their teenage years, they are more likely to want to achieve more things, have positive outcomes and achieve goals for themselves. Part of this is learning how to make good choices and regulate their actions; cultivating the understanding and adoption of these good habits is a crucial part of the journey to adulthood.
Instead of continuing with a regime of enforced regulation, perhaps it is time to teach and encourage teenagers to regulate themselves and gradually empower them to do this themselves. The greatest motivation often comes from within - making the internal choice to spend your attention on something important to you will typically trump having an adult tell you to do so.
Screen Balance: A Complementary Solution
Here is where Screen Balance comes in - we believe that the following things can be a significant motivator in learning to make better choices:
A goal you have set yourself
Direct engagement
A familiar, trusted or inspiring message source
Screen Balance combines these into short videos which encourage the viewer to take some positive action (the pre-agreed goal), and does so by showing a supportive character addressing and appealing to the viewer directly. Say you have a son called “Tim” who loves football and has a goal to get into the senior team this year. His favorite football team is Juventus. Imagine his surprise while scrolling through social media when a Juventus player faces the camera and says with a smile “Hey Tim! How is your soccer practice going? Have you worked on your dribbling today?”
Is this an alternative to screen time limit apps? We believe that targeted engagement like this can be effectively combined with, and gradually replace, the traditional parental control philosophy, to encourage healthy digital habits in kids on their way to adulthood. Habit formation is an important step toward self-regulation, and Screen Balance provides a way of exercising and improving this positive digital habit. By supporting our kids in a new way, we want to restore healthy family relationships and re-build the trust that is being eroded by constant digital battle over traditional screen time regulations.