Welcome to Intentionally Unplugged!

Intentionally Unplugged is an online resource dedicated to helping you and your
family navigate the digital world to carve out time for meaningful human
connection.

A brief history on screens:

In April 2020, The World Health Organization issued its first guidance for how much screen time children should get, advising parents to limit screen-time to just one hour a day for children under 5, and none at all for children under 1. The
damage from smartphone use should have been made clear to us way before this when the biggest tech figures in recent history all came forward to say that they seldom let their own kids play with the very products they helped create:

Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, revealed in a 2001 New York Times interview that he prohibited his kids from using the newly-released iPad saying, “we limit how much technology our kids use at home.”

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, implemented a cap on screen time when his daughter started developing an unhealthy attachment to a video game. He also didn’t allow his kids get cell phones until they turned 14.

Evan Spiegel, Snapchat CEO, imposes an hour and a half of screen time per week on his kids— explaining that young people use Snapchat more often than any other social media platform, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center Survey.

Though these tech innovators recognized the incredible capabilities of these revolutionary devices and platforms, they also recognized their potential to create unhealthy, addictive, behavior.

Becoming Intentionally Unplugged:

From social gatherings to bedside tables, each area of our lives has been invaded by technology, stealing our focus and crumbling the foundation of our quality time together, and our quality time alone. Through data, ongoing research, and simply looking around the dinner table, it has become increasingly clear that screens are an impediment to human connection. According to a study conducted by The Genius of Play, parents spend only 24 more minutes more each day with their children than they do with their phones. But, here’s some good news—we can do something about it. When we can identify the addictive qualities of screened devices and intentionally set boundaries to prioritize human connection, we can find a positive balance between screen time and real life. This is the goal of Intentionally Unplugged. Let’s get started!

Sincerely,

Denise Roland, Founder