158: Digital Nutrition - Seeing digital media interaction in a new light.

Enjoyed the new music for the show? It’s a song “Birds” from Independent Australian Artist Melanie Horsnell from her 2005 Album “The Adventures Of” available along with her other fine albums over at melaniehorsnell.com (digital download for instant access!) 

Have you heard of the many ways we should be consumed with guilt for wanting to interact with digital media - you need to digital detox. You need a digital diet. Just another thing to feel guilty about or feel bad about letting our children do as a parent.  Well, it was definitely a topic I wanted to discuss on the show, but I wasn’t loving the deprivation / I’m a bad person vibes that so regularly form the discussions around tech and overuse or misuse. If teaching in the low tox space for 10 years has taught me anything, it’s that a positive mindset of “discovery not deprivation” works best for implementing changes, so we set out to find an expert who could help us navigate digital media. Enter Jocelyn Brewer, who is a Sydney-based registered psychologist with a special interest in the psychology of technology and staying human in a digital age. Alongside being part of the Cyberpsychology Research Group at Sydney University, Jocelyn is completing her Masters of Applied Science (Cyberpsychology) exploring the role of self-control and mindfulness in the prevention of Problematic Smartphone Use. This exploratory research surveyed over 500 Year 7 students in metropolitan Sydney and will be completed in 2019. The conversation we have is about the good and the bad, what to watch out for as a sign that addiction wheels are in motion, how to connect over tech instead of have it be something that distances you from your kids and how to raise them to have a healthy level of awareness and self awareness around their media use. It’s a conversation I’m proud to bring to the fore and I hope you love it as much as I did. Find the podcast show notes and this month’s sponsor offer over at www.lowtoxlife.com/podcast Alexx.