Childhood, screens and the addictive pull with Dr Danielle Einstein

Today, I'm joined by ⁠Dr Danielle Einstein⁠, Vice President of ⁠AGASA⁠, clinical psychologist, author of ⁠Raising Anxiety⁠, researcher and founder of ⁠The Dip⁠, to talk about why screens act as an avoid magnet for young people and what parents can do about it at home.

Danielle is an adjunct fellow at Macquarie University with three decades of research into how technology shapes emotional wellbeing in young people. She provided critical evidence at the Australian Parliament's Senate Inquiry into social media age legislation and has since briefed members of the UK and New Zealand parliaments.

We talk about technoference, why the addictive pull of devices is biological, not a character flaw, why both parents need to agree before making changes, and movements like Smartphone Free Childhood that are helping families make the shift together.

We also get into:

• Why boredom is a good starting point for connection and confidence
• The "avoid magnet" effect: how a phone in the pocket stops a young person from learning they're OK
• Why shaming a teenager about screen use backfires, and what to do instead
• Smartphone free childhood: why changing norms works better than changing one family at a time

Go Deeper:

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Originally published on Spotify.