We can remember a time before the Internet. They can’t.

Today’s adolescents are living in the era of everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything—a time where AI blurs the lines of reality and digital capitalism drives the terms of social engagement to the extent that students are left wanting, wanting for something real.

This week’s guest is Jean Rogers – the director of the Children’s Screen Time Action Network, a collaborative community of practitioners, educators, advocates and parents working to reduce excessive screen use in childhood. She is the author of “Kids Under Fire: Seven Simple Steps to Combat the Media Attack on Your Child,” a book that has helped parents empower their children to make healthy screen choices and

become responsible consumers of screen media. Jean believes that digital wellness in childhood translates to healthy, responsible, successful adults.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Screen Time Action’s mission and mandate

- Responsible advocacy versus personal responsibility

- The paid NextGen digital wellness advocacy opportunity for students 

- Techno-voidance

- Authentic relationships, Character development, and Presence in the Digital Age

- The case for phone-free schools (Jonathan Haidt et al)

- Her digital wellness “Drive, date, discuss” tips

• • •

Supported by JOMO(campus), Season 4 explores the landscape of students, smartphones and social media, asking global experts to explain the hard truths about the mental health decline among youth on campuses worldwide and inspire us with evidence-based strategies that will turn the tide. Get more JOMO at jomocast.com. 

Learn more about the JOMO(campus) digital well-being program at jomocampus.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ginny Yurich is a Michigan homeschooling mother of five and the founder and CEO of 1000 Hours Outside, a global movement focused on bringing back the balance between virtual life and real life. She hosts and produces the extremely popular The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, is a keynote public speaker, and is a zinnia enthusiast.

In this episode, we discuss: 

- The 1000 Hours Outside origin story and vision for thriving through nature connection

- Ginny’s definition of digital well-being

- The biggest digital challenge facing youth today

- Her best strategy for fostering well-being

- Principles for wise digital decision-making that she uses with her children

- What brings her joy and how she prioritizes it

• • •

Supported by JOMO(campus), Season 4 explores the landscape of students, smartphones and social media, asking global experts to explain the hard truths about the mental health decline among youth on campuses worldwide and inspire us with evidence-based strategies that will turn the tide. Get more JOMO at jomocast.com. Learn more about the JOMO(campus) digital well-being program at jomocampus.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the high schoolers who attend Buxton boarding school in Williamstown, Massachusetts, resumed in-person learning in the fall of 2020, the head of the school noticed that the kids had lost something important. After months of remote learning due to the pandemic, kids no longer knew how to interact with one another. 

“The students had completely forgotten the basics of face-to-face interaction. They had spent so much time glued to their smartphones.”

Everybody’s attention was being sucked into their online lives — text messages, emails and social media apps — on their phones. The students struggled to converse with one another, and the ability to be with or sit with other people was gone entirely. They decided to conduct a social experiment: a smartphone ban for the entire campus - faculty, students and administration. Instead, each community member was given a Light Phone, a minimalist device designed to be used as little as possible. Where smartphones make it easier to do wrong things - like doom scroll and binge watch - the light phone makes it easier to pay attention to what matters - the people and experiences right in front of us. 

The kids have never been happier. 

In this episode with light phone co-founder Joe Hollier and Buxton School co-director John Kalapos, we discuss:

• How smartphones and social media negatively impact campus culture: “The smartphone makes it easier to do the wrong things.”
• Faculty-led concept of (and participation in) going smartphone-free
• Student-written technology policies
• Positive impacts of removing smartphones from campus: “Now, I don’t have to be a smartphone cop.”
• How minimalist phones like Light make it easier to do the right things
• Digital well-being advice for school leaders

• • •

Supported by JOMO(campus), Season 4 explores the landscape of students, smartphones and social media, asking global experts to explain the hard truths about the mental health decline among youth on campuses worldwide and inspire us with evidence-based strategies that will turn the tide. 

Get more JOMO at jomocast.com.

Learn more about the JOMO(campus) digital well-being program at jomocampus.com 

Check out the new JOMO Goods shop at www.jomogoods.com 

Music by Thomas J. Inge

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.