In a World That's All Digital, All the Time, Expert Shares How Parents Can Free Kids from Tech Addiction

As social distancing requirements have become normal, even taking over holiday family gatherings over the past few months, kids are living lonelier lives. That often means turning on screens and technology. 

Given the combination of the web, social media, and multiple mobile devices, today's youth are no doubt the most tech-savvy generation ever. That fact combined with a global pandemic and virtual education is driving tech use among kids even higher.

"It's universal at this point," said addiction specialist Joshua Andrus.

Andrus started Parents Overcoming Electronics. He says kids often turn to their devices to deal with emotional struggles.

"If we're looking at tech addiction, it's their version of telling the alcoholic to stop drinking and that's just never effective," he explained. "They're going to the devices to fill a void."

In a series of books on the issue, he highlights lessons and alternatives for the whole family.

"Teaching kids ownership about what their home environment looks like but then spreading that out," Andrus said. "Parents start to get wise about what quality time looks like."

His latest release called "Thriving During COVID and Beyond" helps kids endure this historic part of their lives.

"The purpose of it is to help kids to see themselves as warriors that have gone through a sentinel event," said Andrus.  "They're the first generation that had to do school exclusively online for a time, to see themselves as most prepared for that."

He also urges parents to create stronger bonds by becoming partners with their kids.

"If we can build healthy disciplines where we're spending 15 minutes engaging with our kids in their favorite card game and that's all we have, then that's still 15 minutes that we didn't have yesterday and that was an intentional use of our time," he said. "Start finding things that you look forward to but also monitoring the time to see if you could push it up a little bit more and more."

Andrus believes the results are well worth it in the end.

"What I notice when I engage with my kids or I engage with their friends is they get their bucket filled of that connection they're really seeking through social media or they're seeking through video gaming. They get it filled in a less superficial way," explained Andrus.  

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