A Thursday night Town Hall hopes to provide local parents a starting point to think about the impact of phones and electronic devices.
The forum serves as the kickoff to the Restoring Childhood Initiative. Social Worker and Counselor Ryan Dalton based the initiative on reversing the impacts on behavior, growth and mental health issues stemming from the use of these mobile device.
“And then there’s just this sort of lack of autonomy, lack of ability to do for themselves that other generations, we didn’t see,” Dalton said. “And all of these things have risen, specifically from about 2012 until present.”
In the past, the mental health crisis was blamed on helicopter parenting. Dalton said this is a factor, but devices played a key role because this parenting style leads kids to push themselves to their devices more.
Dalton said this has impacted both boys and girls differently, but overall, the impacts are negative. He said the issues caused by helicopter parenting are different than those coming from devices. Dalton said sleep deprivation is an issue too.
“In the schools, I see this on a daily basis,” Dalton said. “A lot of times in class, I spend a large portion of time waking kids up. And they’ve been on a video game or on their phones all night long.”
The initiative is based on the book “Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt. Dalton said the book covers many issues modern kids face, including a lack of resiliency. Dalton said resiliency is normally developed through traditional play, but many present day students lack resiliency because they did not play like previous generations.
Dalton said he hopes people who listen to Thursday’s Town Hall have an open mind, even if they come into it thinking there is no way to reverse these trends.
“I would ask people not to be overwhelmed with the issue,” Dalton said. “And to say, like, we don’t have to have all the solutions right now. We just have to have the willingness to be open minded and read this book and be informed by what we read. And be willing to do action based on what we read and what we learn together.”
Similarly, Dalton said the country has done this before on issues like seatbelts in cars and smoking in public.
Dalton said the movement is not anti-technology, rather an attempt to ensure technology is not controlling people’s lives. Dalton said a movement like this will take the entire community rallying together to solve the issues that come with technology.
The two hour Town Hall will be broadcast Thursday evening at 6 on Lite Rock 95.9, 96.9 Highway 111 Country, and News Talk 94.1. Local education and mental heath experts will have discussions about the problems and solutions to changing technology’s negative impacts.