One of the most encouraging trends of recent years isn’t a new app or a new platform—it’s the growing number of people choosing to put it all down. More people are waking up to the great toll hours of digital consumption have on our hearts, minds, and spirits. Constant scrolling, endlessly playing video games, and hopping from one short video to the next are wreaking havoc on our ability to focus, our social competence, and our overall mental health.
Some recent findings include a University of Pennsylvania study that showed limiting Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day led to significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks. Another study at Oregon State University of over 1,500 adults confirmed that heavy social media users were more than twice as likely to feel lonely, regardless of age or background. Social media, as it turns out, isn’t all that social.
Perhaps more alarming than what screens are doing to our mood is what they’re doing to our minds. Over two decades of research by UC Irvine psychologist Gloria Mark found that the average attention span on any screen dropped from two and a half minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds in recent years. A 2023 peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports found that the mere presence of a smartphone, even when turned off, results in lower cognitive performance.
Perhaps worst of all is the growing realization that young children’s brain development is being fundamentally affected as they are allowed access to digital devices at earlier ages. A 2025 study tracking children for over a decade, published in eBioMedicine, found that children exposed to high levels of screen time before age 2 showed changes in brain development linked to slower decision-making and increased anxiety by their teenage years. In 2024, a study published in Advanced Science found that screen use adversely affects language skills, depression, and social problems in young adolescents, and that screen time significantly reduced children’s reading time, which further affected their language skills and brain volume.
All this said, you probably don’t need a study to confirm what you already inherently know—that something has been lost and is worth getting back. Can going analog help? Last year, a randomized controlled trial published in PNAS Nexus found that blocking mobile internet for two weeks improved attention spans by an amount equivalent to reversing 10 years of age-related cognitive decline. The off switch is also a reset button.
With summertime on the horizon, parents are facing a golden opportunity. This is when the usual routines dissolve and a different kind of life becomes possible. If you want to give your kids an analog summer, here’s how to start.
Don’t Open Pandora’s Box
If your youngest children haven’t yet been handed a device of their own, the research is unambiguous: Wait as long as you possibly can. Parents who’ve held out the longest tend not to regret that choice. Hold the line.
Communicate Ground Rules
Set, communicate, and uphold simple but strict rules about screen use in your home this summer. Perhaps a family meeting, where parents are unified in their approach, and rules such as no digital devices in bedrooms, screens only one day per week, television only as a family, or even a fully device-free summer, are laid out clearly. You might be met with pushback. When you’ve agreed on a plan, though, stick with it. It will get easier with time if you’re consistent in your approach.
Plan IRL Fun
Get out your calendar and pencil in days at the park, library, pool, beach, family visits, museums, concerts, hiking trails, and any travel you plan to do. Declare themes for different days: cook-from-scratch day, camp in the backyard day, and letter writing day. If you schedule it, it’s more likely to happen. Enjoy lots of IRL summer fun!
Stock Up
Books, records, cassette tapes, outdoor toys, sidewalk chalk, art and craft supplies, film or Polaroid cameras, paper maps, garden tools, jigsaw puzzles, board games, stationery, pens, journals, coloring books, cookbooks, and camping essentials are some of the things you might want to have on hand to enjoy a fun and adventuresome summer that’s not dependent on your digital devices.
Practice What You Preach
For some parents, the hardest part of an analog summer won’t be convincing the kids; it’ll be convincing themselves. Your children will notice whether you’re present or distracted, so come prepared: a stack of books you’ve been meaning to read, a project you’ve been putting off, and a contingency plan for when the pull of your devices is stronger than you anticipated.
Document the Season
This might be the best summer your family has had in years. Take lots of photos, on film, perhaps, and pay attention to what changes. Note the moments of boredom that became something unexpected, the conversations that stretched longer than usual, and the evenings that didn’t disappear into a screen. What you learn this analog summer might shape how your family chooses to move into the rest of the year and beyond.
