We all know that technology is creeping into our lives more and more, whether you embrace it or attempt to fight it, it continues to become more and more necessary.
With this increased reliance on phones, tablets, etc. the amount of screen time our kids are exposed to is concerning and has to be addressed within your family as to what you’re comfortable with. However, screen time isn’t only a concern for the kids, us parents are also often paying too much attention to our devices and perhaps not as much to other things that we should be.
All of these reasons are why I am excited to partner with Google to learn more about their digital wellbeing initiative. Google’s mission is to design products that are helpful and that improve peoples’ lives. With that said, despite using android based products exclusively, I was completely unaware of just how many wellbeing tools are so easily available to us.
As a family we sat down to evaluate how technology is fitting into our lives, whether willingly or unwillingly. I don’t think I am shocked at the results but am definitely saddened. I am optimistic that we, as a family, can revamp our use of technology using Google’s wellbeing tools I’ve now learned about.
The first tool I would like to talk about more is the Dashboard. The Dashboard shows you a wide variety of information – a complete picture of how you are you using your phone.
To access your Dashboard you will go to your Android settings and click “Digital Wellbeing & parental controls”. Once you are in the Dashboard you can click on the colorful wheel (see above) ans determine usage based on the amount of time in each app, the number of notifications you receive from your apps and the number of times you open each app.
Once you know more about how much time you’re on your phone and what apps you’re spending most of your time on there are additional tools and tips to help you regain your life.
One that I believe will help me the most is the ability to manage notifications – pretty much like ‘out of sight, out of mind’. If I don’t see the notification pop up I’ll be less inclined to check that email or text or Facebook message. As you can see above, clicking on “Manage notifications” under “Reduce interruptions” from within your dashboard you’ll be able to remove the indicators on the apps that remind you of unread messages or other updates.
Another way to regulate your online time is the Do Not Disturb feature which allows you to hide ALL notifications with one click. You can also set up the do not disturb feature to automatically turn on during certain times, think lunch time, dinner time, bed time etc. allowing you to focus on your family.
I worked with Google a few months ago to speak about Google Family Link. Family Link is another feature from Google’s digital wellbeing tools that our family has used every day since we were introduced to it. Be sure to head over to that blog post to read all about it and how it truly streamlines your control over devices your children have access to.
Of course any change is tough on our kids usage of technology is hard, and if I’m being honest, changing my own digital usage was hard on me too. For our family it made sense to slowly incorporate new rules and ‘policies’ around when we’d have online time versus family time, when we allowed the kids to be on a phone or tablet and for how long and overall when we’d have do not disturb time. Gradie wasn’t always thrilled about it, but once it became more routine she is on board and we are seeing positive outcomes from limiting online time.
Above I have only addressed a handful of the wellbeing tools available from Google. I highly encourage you to visit wellbeing.google to learn all about them and which will have the biggest impact in your and your family’s use of technology. Let’s encourage usage that benefits our overall wellbeing without jeopardizing quality time with our friends and family.
Sounds like a great thing for tech obsessed families. I think we ALL have way too much screen time!
Couldn’t agree more!!
Those tools seem so helpful for families in this tech driven world we live in now. It seems so great that they have benefits for children and adults.
Truly a benefit to everyone in your family. Eye opening seeing how much time we are truly spending online.
I love that Google is doing this. I know I am online wayyy too much. I really need to put my phone down more often.
You and me both – so easy to get lost in our devices
I had no idea about this tool. It sounds like it has amazing benefits. I have to look into getting it for my family.
I didn’t know about it either – now I am in love with all these tools!
These tools really help us control our screen time and lets us see how much we are actually online. I love all the wellbeing bells and whistles.
This is definitely a good idea! I always worry that my child is on the computer way too often. This is definitely a good way to have a good mix of technology plus other things that have nothing to do with technology.
My husband and I need to 10000% put limitations on social media and being on technology! I have tried to instill such things… Doesn’t last all that long, ha!
This sounds like such a great way to keep track of what you are doing online. I have to admit I think I would be concerned if I knew how long I Was on the computer working sometimes.
Oh boy I hope it never measures my time spent online! This is terrific though I have twin grandchildren who recently received their first iPads and we’ve been trying to figure out the right ratio.
I use this tool. I cannot tell you how informative it is. It has really helped me analyze my tech usage.
This seems like a great tool! I have three kids and I try to limit their tech time and also stay on top of what they are doing while on the devices. I love how simple and easy this seems to use. Thank you for letting me know about it!
Controlling kids using mobile gadgets can be challenging. This will help parents to minimize and supervise it. This is going to benefit lots of parents.
I recently made some changes to our lifestyle to get our digital wellbeing back in check as well. It’s awesome that Google has these tools available to help families have these hard tech talks.
This era that full of technology is very challenging to all parents like me, kids are always in their gadgets instead of playing outside but I am glad that google made this tool to help us to manage their technology usage,
Now that our little one is getting more interested in tech, we have to start look into these family-friend tools. Perhaps we will start with Family Link.
I’m loving that Google has provided these digital wellbeing tools for the general public. In our digital world it’s always a struggle to find balance between online activity and real-life activities.
This initiative has great need in so many families today. I love their goal to be helpful to families.
I think it could be really useful to help families manage their screen time. My college aged son recently deleted all of his social media and games from his phone so that he would be more productive. He’s really pleased with his choice.
That is a great way to manage online time. Thanks for sharing this – electronics are always a battle and I get so frustrated.
Such wonderful tools for our busy families.
I really need to get better acquainted with this. Thanks.