By India McCarty
Kids might seem attached to their social media platforms, but most of them want to get off their phones — they just don’t have the tools. Here are a few ways parents can gently nudge their children to start going screen-free, all on their own.
“Social media use is governed by peer-group norms, and those norms can shift, sometimes quickly,” Leonardo Bursztyn, a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, and Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard professor, wrote in a joint article for The Wall Street Journal.
They encouraged communities to band together to put an end to early smartphone and social media use — for example, the “Wait Until 8th” campaign that sees parents pledging not to give their kids phones until they’re in the 8th grade.
Related: Erin Napier Reveals Why Her Daughters Won’t Have Smart Phones, Social Media
“Parents feel powerless in this uphill battle and need community support to help delay the ever-evolving presence of the smartphone in the classroom, social arena and family dinner table,” Wait Until 8th’s website reads. “Link arms with other parents to wait until at least the end of eighth grade for a smartphone!”
There are also ways to incentivize going phone-free for kids. Bursztyn created an app called NOMO, or No Missing Out, where users join challenges to reduce their social media use, getting rewarded with concert tickets or board games.
“Join a community reclaiming their time,” the app’s website reads, sharing that users can win prizes and cash-back deals, as well as participate in the phone-free challenge with their friends.
Speaking to Little Black Book Online, Bursztyn shared, “Gen Z knows doomscrolling is bad for them but won’t reduce their social media use alone – FOMO keeps them stuck. Traditional platforms exploit social psychology to hook users; NOMO uses it to help them break free. Our group challenges, streaks, and rewards turn disengagement into a shared experience. Plus, it’s not just about quitting, it’s about replacing doomscrolling with activities that matter.”
Bursztyn and Sunstein concluded, “These kinds of ‘nudges,’ informed by behavioral science, don’t force anyone to give up social media. They just make it easier for kids to act on the basis of their actual preferences: to spend less time online and more time enjoying real life.”
It can be difficult to get your children to pull back from social media on their own, but through community-wide pledges and incentivized challenges, parents can help their kids go screen-free and start living in the real world.
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