Our newsletter today is by Tim Wright, host of the Wonder of Parenting podcast with Michael Gurian (wonderofparenting.com), author of timwrightbooks.substack.com, and author of the Toby Baxter young adult book series. Tim will speak at our What Boys Need As Males Conference in January 2026 (www.helpingboysthrive.org).

On their podcast, Tim and Michael are often asked about good screen time rules for kids. Today, Tim offers insights into the question from new polling and brain-based research. In today’s articles of the week, we’ve also included insights from other authors on protecting our children from overuse of cell phones.

The average young person today is on course to spend 25 years of their life on their phone. (Plus more on other screens.) Most of them don’t want to live this way, but feel trapped.—Jonathan Haidt.

********

Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jonathan Haidt, recently conducted a poll to get a feel for the impact of screens on kids, surveying the kids themselves.

Here are some interesting insights from their article: What Kids Told Us About How to Get them Off Their Phones:

This digital technology has given kids access to virtual worlds, where they’re allowed to roam far more freely than in the real one. About 75 percent of kids ages 9 to 12 regularly play the online game Roblox, where they can interact with friends and even strangers. But most of the children in our survey said that they aren’t allowed to be out in public at all without an adult. Fewer than half of the 8- and 9-year-olds have gone down a grocery-store aisle alone; more than a quarter aren’t allowed to play unsupervised even in their own front yard.

When asked how they would want to spend their free time, the overwhelming answer was: with their friends. In other words, face to face connections.

But because so many parents restrict their ability to socialize in the real world on their own, kids resort to the one thing that allows them to hang out with no adults hovering: their phones.

I encourage you to read the article for yourself.

As I read it, I couldn’t help but think back to that old PSA from the 1980’s:

The evidence is in.

Our kids know it intuitively.

And we as adults know it as well.

Our brains are wired for human connection. Our biology is wired for immersion in nature. Our souls are wired for the transcendent.

Not screens.

As the article concludes:

Today’s kids want to spend their childhood in the real world. Let’s give it back to them.

********

This week’s The Wonder of Parenting Podcast: A Brain-Science Approach to Parenting, addresses the concern of a mom who experienced abuse as a child and wants to make sure she doesn’t continue the cycle. Dr. Gurian offers guidance from his own experience as the child of abuse.