DMV Unplugged promotes collective action and policy change to liberate DC area children from the harms of phone and technology based childhoods.
Today’s Norms Must Change
WAY TOO EARLY - Kids receive iPads/tablets and smartphones WAY before their brains are ready to handle them. Mental health is at great risk and a child’s ability to grow into an adult with the skills of empathy, communication, collaboration, self control and creativity is diminished.
DISTRACTED - At school, kids’ brains are distracted and hijacked by personal devices and educational technology. Tech companies have tapped into human psychology and turned our children and schools into massive revenue streams.
TEACHER POWER VS TECH POWER - Schools are using thousands of technological apps and programs which have limited independent data to support their efficacy or benefit and academic achievement has declined. Access to inappropriate content and distraction in the classroom has increased.
NOT MY KID - Silicon Valley executives who build and understand these products protect their own children’s brains by not giving them these devices. They send their kids to schools that have significant restrictions on technology use.
Silicon Valley is NOT in control…WE ARE.
DELAY Smartphones & Tablets
Phone Free Schools
Transformational Ed Tech ONLY
BOOKS
The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt, Phd
Screen Schooled - Joe Clement, Matt Miles
Stolen Focus - Johann Hari
Dopamine Nation - Anna Lembke, M.D.
The Screentime Solution - Emily Cherkin
The Opt-Out Family: How to Give Your Kids What Technology Can’t - Erin Loechner
PODCASTS, SUBSTACKS & MOVIES
Chasing Childhood - (Apple TV) - Lenore Skenazy, Peter Gray
Childhood 2.0 - (Amazon Prime) - the world our kids are growing up in
Jonathan Haidt (The Anxious Generation) - search for podcasts
After Babel - substack
The Social Dilemma - Netflix
How to Feel Alive (podcast) - Catherine Price - Kids, Smartphones and Social Media
Scrolling2Death (podcast) - Nicki Reisberg
ARTICLES
Age of First Smartphone/Tablet and Mental Wellbeing Outcome – Sapien Labs
Ed Tech Is a Problem. Parents Can Say No – Emily Cherkin
End the Phone-Based Childhood Now – Jonathan Haidt, Phd
The Case for Phone Free Schools – Jonathan Haidt, Phd
‘Educational’ Screens in Classrooms Do More Harm Than Good – Newsweek
The Question We Should All Be Asking - The Opt Out Family
GUIDES
The Choose Your Own Adventure Guide to Smartphone Alternatives - by Catherine Price
Parental Controls for Every Digital Device - from Protect Young Eyes
A Parent's Guide to Understanding the Harms of the Phone Based Childhood, Along with Ten Tips for Rolling it Back - by Catherine Price
Unplug Ed Tech Toolkit - Guide for Opting Out of Screens in Classrooms - Emily Cherkin
Schools should ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences. Parents, too, should create phone-free zones around bedtime, meals and social gatherings to safeguard their kids’ sleep and real-life connections — both of which have direct effects on mental health. And they should wait until after middle school to allow their kids access to social media. This is much easier said than done, which is why parents should work together with other families to establish shared rules, so no parents have to struggle alone or feel guilty when their teens say they are the only one who has to endure limits.”
Vivek Murthy, M.D. , US Surgeon General
Invite us to join your parent, school, neighborhood or church group for a session of information, empathy, action steps and a spark to take collective action.
MISSION
Change the current norms of technology in the lives of children and teenagers. We envision new expectations regarding children and technology where the necessary experiences for a child’s growing and expectant brain are not corrupted and replaced by electronic devices.
VISION
DMV Unplugged seeks to instigate and support change in the lives of children in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. We aim to educate, organize, and support schools and families by translating current research about kids’ brains and technology and by offering practical, realistic solutions to this crisis in the lives of our children. We want to replace inertia and dread with collective action and hope.
GOALS
Delay and minimize the exposure of children to the harms of technology in schools and at home by prioritizing embodied, synchronous, real life experiences. Families can consider alternative phones/devices that do not offer algorithmically generated apps and can reconsider the ages at which a child receives a personal electronic device. Our youngest children should have opportunities to develop self control and communication skills that are not interfered with by the overuse of technology during these daily teachable moments.
Phone Free Schools - In all schools and at every grade level, phones should be off and away (in phone lockers or pouches) from first bell to last bell. The entire school day is an instructional time for our children that should not be disrupted by the tech industry’s drive for profits. Tech products provide a challenge in self control that a child’s brain simply cannot master.
Educational technology should only be used with intention in classrooms when it is transformational and truly necessary; pervasive tech use threatens to replace the most valuable components of the educational experience (i.e. relationships) and materials that research proves are better for learning (i.e. physical books, pencil & paper, manipulatives).