Why Screen Health exists

a letter from dylan, who built it

One day our kids will leave the house and will face the full force of this world without us. A world changing at an increased rate, which we can’t predict or control.

In the last 20 years, we entered the digital age, in the next 20 who knows. Parents are facing the same forces of hormones and peer pressure but the situations are playing out in new landscapes. The task is to raise kids to navigate a world you never did, and which will change multiple times over in their lifetime.

What changed with the digital age

In 1998, year two of Gen Z, I entered the world. My childhood was distinctly divided by a pivotal moment in 2007, an inflection point as significant as the invention of the printing press. The year 2007 brought forth: the iPhone’s debut, Facebook’s universal embrace, and the cloud’s first breath. At the tender age of 9, I stood on the threshold of a new era.

At 11, an iPod Touch became my gateway into the digital age. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat: these weren’t just apps; they were the new language of connection, and I learned it quickly. By the time high school arrived, this language of the digital world was universal among my peers. Our rituals were synchronized: mornings commenced with Snapchat stories; nights ended in the glow of Instagram. This was the rhythm of our days.

Yet, beneath the surface, my soul was in unrest, a fact I was unaware of at the time. The unending stream of updates and the perpetual cycle of comparison took a hidden toll.

College years brought no change in my digital habits, but a new perspective emerged. Working with YoungLife, a middle school ministry, I saw a mirror of my own struggles that started seven years ago in these kids, but worse, a lot worse. All the “bad stuff” that used to start in high school was now starting in sixth and seventh grade. My morning and evening rhythms of checking Instagram had evolved to an hourly or minute by minute ritual.

Parents have always lived in the dilemma of daily discerning what to protect their kids from and what to expose them to. This is generally fine and good with things like driving, drinking, and dating which have been around for a long time and reap the benefit of looking to previous generation’s experience. But we have no such example with social media, iPhones, AI, and whatever new tech is in our future.

In the last 20 years, most families have been caught up in the whirlwind of change, adopted the rules of their kids’ friend group, and have reaped a generation steeped in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

After years of talking to parents I’ve yet to see one family who went into their children’s adolescence with a crystal clear plan around tech, and finished high school having followed even a resemblance of that plan.

Not because of lack of effort or care, but because they weren’t prepared for the rapid change. Most families ended up at a place they regretted, but was too difficult to reverse.

In our new time, we need insights that are native to it: mental frameworks to guide us, peers to encourage us, and a sense of direction.

Screen Health is a forum, community, and learning place for those who seek for their kids to thrive in a changing world.

What we believe

• Apart from connection with God, we can do nothing.
• Tension 1: tech is both a great tool and a toxin.
• Tension 2: kids can be shielded both too much and too little.
• Digital maturity is built like an immune system.
• Every kid is different.
• Yesterday’s solutions won’t always work today, and today’s won’t guarantee success tomorrow. Adaptability is essential.

Dylan