S4 Episode 4: Screen-Free Week! // Lucy Kidwell from Fairplay

“Maybe the most important tip of all when it comes to screen free week is: Do not let perfection be the enemy of just good effort! ...You have to do it however it feels right for you.”

- Lucy Kidwell

Healthy Screen Habit Takeaway

Resources

For More Info:

https://screenfree.org

Resources Mentioned:

https://fairplayforkids.org/

https://fairplayforkids.org/screen-time-action-network/

Show Transcript

Hillary Wilkinson:

This is Episode Four of Season Four of the Healthy Screen Habits Podcast. So what if I were to tell you that next week you have the opportunity to live deeper, to be more present, have extra hours in your day. What if I told you by the end of next week, you could feel less anxious, connect with more clarity and you could do it all for free?! What is this magical thing that's happening? Well today, our guest is going to tell us all about it. 

Her name is Lucy Kidwell. And trust me, you want to pay attention to that name because she is a rising star in the digital wellness space and advocacy for families. She's a senior at Indiana University, Bloomington, but today is speaking to us from where she currently lives in the United Kingdom. The event is Screen Free Week.  This year screen free week occurs next week; May 2nd-8th. We have tips and resource and ways in which you can decide how you want to implement a little freedom from screens in your life. Whether it's a little or a lot, we're gonna get into all of it. Welcome to the healthy screen habits podcast, Lucy Kidwell!

Lucy Kidwell (10:34):

Hi Hilary. Thank you so much for that great intro and for having me. So, you know, like you said, I'm Lucy and I'm at Indiana University, but currently living in England and I'm the Screen Free Week coordinator at Fairplay. So I'm just really excited to talk to you about the celebration, give some tips and background and just talk about how I got, got involved in the whole space.

Hillary Wilkinson (10:56):

Well, I’d love, love to hear more Lucy, you're this super great advocate for youth in the digital space, cuz you're a Gen Z-er yourself and yeah, you have this experience of growing up with screens. And so I'm kind of, I'd like to explore what brought you to digital wellness.

Lucy Kidwell (11:16):

Yeah. So that's an interesting question. Um, I obviously haven't always been involved in it. I started out in college, really studying immigration law and human rights and kind of that side of things. Um, but then during my junior year, I became involved as a mentor for eighth grade girls. And this just totally changed my perspective of kind of everything regarding my generation and the, you know, the younger generations. Um, so I'd be talking to them and I realized just how many more issues they seem to have than the people in my grades growing up. And I mean, we're only separated by a couple of years, um, a lot more self image problems, anxiety, depression. And it was really shocking to me, you know, I didn't expect it. They were from, you know, it seemed like great families and they're lovely people. And so I got to talking to them and they said, yeah, it's,  it's Instagram.

Lucy Kidwell (12:10):

And I said, “what? You know, like why, why are you still on it? If it's doing this to you?” Just kind of confused about it. And they said, “well, you have to be like, that's where everything is. You know, you can't get off the screens or you're ostracized, you kind of kicked out.” And it got me thinking about all of this because you know, I grew up right on the cusp of when social media was becoming a big thing. Like I wasn't, I was 17 or 18 before I even looked at Instagram, which I'm very, very happy about now. Um, cuz it would've changed my childhood a lot, but so I started doing research and then I found fair play, which is this, um, amazing organization designed to protect children online and kind of combat this commercialization of childhood that you see a lot that has to do with screens.

Lucy Kidwell (12:59):

And what happened is I, I kind of sent them a crazy email, um, on accident thinking no one would read it. You know, they said,” Why are you signing up for the newsletter?” And I kind of just let everything out. Um, but then someone from Fairplay emailed me like the next day I was so embarrassed that they actually read it, but I started, um, a research internship with them and just everything happened from there. Um, I became involved in the Interfaith work group at the action network, which basically looks at this from a spiritual perspective, you know, multi-religious and then finally Screen Free Week coordinator, which is just super fun. It's a great job.

Hillary Wilkinson (13:36):

Oh, well I I'm grateful for that initial embarrassing email that you laid it all out because I think you are right where you're supposed to be.

Lucy Kidwell (13:48):

I think so I'm, I'm happy for it.

Hillary Wilkinson (13:50):

Yay! So let's get, we've got a limited amount of time let's get right to it. So can you explain what is screen free week? I wanna know, like just tell me everything. How did it start? What's the mission?  The whole, I mean you're, you're the lady to come to!

Lucy Kidwell (14:06):

Right? Well, so thank you. So Screen Free Week is an international celebration and we wanna say celebration because we're emphasizing that it, it's not, not about shaming. It's not obligatory, like you're a bad person. If you break your screen free week fast, it's much more focusing on the positive things that we can do when we put screens away. It's a time to be really intentional, um, to engage in time with your family and friends, um, and really do anything you want to do. Um, so people, when they do it, they just take a break from digital entertainment that is phones, you know, social media TV, and spend time reading in nature, volunteering, exercising, gardening, arts, and crafts, picking up new hobbies. So lots of fun things you can do during Screen Free Week. It was originally started in 1994 actually, which

Hillary Wilkinson:

 Oh wow, I had no idea!

Lucy Kidwell (15:01):

Well, back then it was actually called, uh, TV Turnoff Week. Um, and it was championed by this organization called the Board of the Center for Screentime Awareness that was just super into like TV and you know, television protection for kids. Um, but then Fairplay took it over in 2010 where it became much more about other forms of digital entertainment, video games, phones, screens, things like that. Um, and it's just, it's an awesome celebration. You know, the pandemic did mess things up a little bit. We had to change a lot of things in person celebrations couldn't really happen. Um, but in 2019, which was the last kind of normal year, I guess you could say over 150,000 people around the world participated, we got so many of their stories and it was just really cool. Really cool to see.

Hillary Wilkinson (15:52):

That's awesome. I love that you have like some numbers to back it up too. We have to take a break, but we'll we come back. I'm gonna ask Lucy for tips to help me and you to implement our own screen free screen free times next week.

—-Ad Break —----HSH Website—---

Hillary Wilkinson (16:37):

Today, we're talking about Screen Free Week. The campaign hosted by fair play.Fairplay is the leading nonprofit organization committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized screen obsessed culture, and it's the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. So since 2000 Fairplay has worked, provide lasting change and screen free week is one of the ways it does this! Screen Free Week starts May 2nd this year and goes through the eighth. Lucy Kidwell is with us today and is the coordinator. She's gonna hold our hands and get us started successfully on this path. So Lucy, I have to confess, I have you here for 100% selfish reasons,

I needed to have you here and talk to me because I don't know where to start.   I wanna set my family up for success in pulling off our definition of Screen Free Week, which honestly for my family will mean hours outside of work and school. Cuz we don't have enough vacation days built up to right to go full bore: no screens!  But I don't, I don't know how do, how do I get started?

Lucy Kidwell (18:29):

Getting started with screen free week? Well, I think the first thing that I would say, and maybe the most important tip of all when it comes to screen free week is do not let perfection like be the enemy of just good effort because you have to do it however feels right for you. I feel like a lot of people have this idea of Screen Free Week as like, okay, if you touch, you know, this phone it's over, you know, you failed screen free week and you get a, you know, bad black star and you can't do anything like no, no, no, no, there, there really aren't any consequences. And I think the most important thing is to just try is to do the best you can and realize is that, Hey, you know, I might mess up, I might on Tuesday check my phone, um, three times and it's not gonna be a big deal.

Lucy Kidwell (19:19):

So I think giving yourself some grace is kind of the first attitude to enter into it with because you want it to be fun. You want it to be a time of like realization saying my life could be a little bit different. My life could be better in these areas. Um, and I think also realizing how challenging something like this is, is a really great start. You know, I feel like at least when I do things like this, I always have the idea that I'm just, it's gonna immediately be like rainbows and puppies, you know, and I can put everything away and there won't be any angst, but there's always angst. And so just like trying your best, um, for some families that looks like, Hey, you know, we have to use screens for homework for the kids. And so we're gonna make it 4:00 PM to bedtime, no screens or, you know, we have to certain aspects of our lives that we can't really get around and that's okay. You know, you don't want people to look at that and say, well, I can't go screen free, so I'm not gonna do it at all. I think do it as much as you can is my first big tip.

Hillary Wilkinson (20:27):

Great. Are there any online resources that you have?

Lucy Kidwell (20:32):

Yeah. So, um, Screen Free Week has a variety of great online resources. Um, mostly geared towards the whole family. So we have this organizer's kit for people that want to bring screen free week into schools, just providing kind of the fact sheet, the, why are we doing this? You know, how to do community events and such. Um, but then also really fun family activities like, uh, a bingo card, like challenge for families where people can cross off, you know, activities trying to get a screen free bingo, um, things like taking a nature hike or a book, um, lists of ways to build forts and sort of idea, inspiration, outdoor, fun, printable pledge cards, things that make it really hands on, you know, cuz kids, especially little kids, they would really like a Screen Free Week certificate and maybe it'd be cool for them to print out something and cut out. I pledge to be screened for why, you know, it's, it's really, it's cute. And then finally when it comes to resources, just language for contacting schools spreading on social media, you know, even submitting proclamation requests to the government, but that's, you know, that's more on us.

Hillary Wilkinson (21:45):

Oh, very good. Well, I, I like that, um, that we can start with that. I think a good place to start with the introduction of this idea is starting with that pledge. So I, I like how it kind of gets people of the mindset, it readies people. So maybe that's something that I could do like, so the website is screen free.org.  and if you go on that website, that's where we can download all of these tools. Correct?

Lucy Kidwell (22:22):

Right, right. And you can also put in the pledge information. Um, so it just asks for your first and last name, you know, the org organization that you might be a part of how many people are participating, so you could put yourself, you could put your family. Um, and then if you want to add a “why”, you know, you can put that in there too. And it's a little bit of accountability, you know, I think it can be very helpful. Um, right.

Hillary Wilkinson (22:45):

And I think it helps set the mindset for, for the coming week. You know, it's kind of the, the prep of getting ready for, okay, with, we're going to try this this year, this is what we're going to do. What do we think we can pledge to do and get people ready.

Lucy Kidwell (23:03):

Definitely. I think that's so important, you know, because there's just this great sense of you being a part of something big. It is a movement! And it's amazing to know that so many people around the world, every, uh, continent, except for Antarctica.  Antarctica actually, um, were working on that one. But just like knowing that is really amazing and it gives you a lot of encouragement. Um, and just, you know, I could list off hundreds of tiny practical tips, but it is really going to look different for each family.

Hillary Wilkinson (23:34):

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think that, that, uh, that kind of speaks to our, our philosophy at Healthy Screen Habits where we want to educate and empower families to choose their own healthiest screen habits, because this is not in this digital world. It is not a one size fits all. It's a one size fits one. But in order to figure out kind of which size fits, you need to try on a lot of things. So this is one of the tools that we can do that with.

Lucy Kidwell (24:08):

Yeah, for sure. And you know, I know for me when I'm trying to cut down my screen time, you know, there are a variety of little things I do. You kind of have to treat it really practically sometimes because I feel like we can get into this mindset of, oh, I have this great ideal and I'm going to follow this, but like, it really comes down to little preparations that you make for yourself. Um, for example, you know, when I'm trying to not get on my phone, it's really important for me to just keep it out of the room, just keep it out of sight. Cause if I look at it, if I check one notification, even if it's an email it's over!  Like I, I'm not going to get off of it. And then also I think before screen free week, there are some preparations you can make such as letting people know that you're doing this.

Lucy Kidwell (24:54):

I mean, if you have family and friends that you want to contact you, it might be good to say like, “Hey, I'm not going to be available for these hours.” Or if you have a landline, say, could you call me at this number  instead? Um, which might make things easier. And then, you know, think of things like recipes, print out the recipes before print out appointment reminders, print out, um, like directions to places, all those little things that could suck you back into your phone. Um, it may sound simple and obvious, but I think those helped me a lot.

Hillary Wilkinson (25:28):

Well, yeah. And as you're going down this list, I'm realizing how I, I don't think of myself as being a tech dense person, but as you're saying all of those things, I'm realizing, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would have to do all of those things, especially the directions!  I am lost in my own backyard. So I, I would have to definitely pre-think I, I am going to need to pre-think if I'm, if I'm traveling any, you know, distance, I'll need to figure out where I'm going before I get headed.

Lucy Kidwell (26:04):

Oh yeah. I mean, we use it for everything.

Hillary Wilkinson (26:07):

Yeah. Okay. So I'm feeling prepped. I am going to visit the screenfree.org website to get the pledge ready and start getting a little bit organized this week. I feel like the big issue for me personally will be staying off of social media. Once I do the school drop off, it's a habit. I feel like I continually have to address, because it's so easy for me. I drop off and then I come home and my car's so warm and cozy and I just sit in the garage and think I'll do one or two things and 20 minutes go by. So it's amazing what pockets of time I think can be freed up. So, but I do think that the, for the success of Screen Free Week is going to be a lot like setting up for a successful week of healthy eating, where if we prep and plan, it'll be easier to adhere to. Do you have specific things you're going to be doing during your screen free time next week?

Lucy Kidwell (27:14):

Yeah, I do. Um, this is kind of strange, but I'm going to be hiking through Spain. I'm very lucky to be in Europe right now. Yeah, I know. And it's my break. I have a big, long break. And so I'm actually doing what's called the Camino de Santiago. Oh yes. Which is this, uh, 30 day long pilgrimage, um, through Spain and I'm going with some friends and we're going to be walking a lot, like 15, 20 miles a day. So not much time for screens, a lot of time for boredom. So we'll, we'll see how it goes. I'm really excited about it though.

Hillary Wilkinson (27:48):

Yeah. Well I think maybe if I planned to walk through Spain, maybe I…

Lucy Kidwell (27:56):

I know…

Hillary Wilkinson (27:57):

I think that's a, it's a good, uh, you know, tip there.

Lucy Kidwell (28:01):

Yeah. Really, uh, accessible to everyone! I know it's very easy to implement in your own life. I, I really recommend it as Screen Free Week coordinator go to Spain.

Hillary Wilkinson (28:11):

Yes. And she's not even funded by the, uh, you know, tourism board.

Lucy Kidwell (28:18):

I know, I know.

Hillary Wilkinson (28:20):

Okay. We have to take a short break, but when we come back, I'm going to ask Lucy Kidwell for her Healthy Screen Habit.

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Hillary Wilkinson:

 My guest today is Lucy Kidwell from Fairplay who is teaching us all how to have a successful Screen Free Week next week, Lucy, you have already given us so many tips, but I'm gonna ask you for one more. And that is on every episode of the Healthy Screen Habits Podcast. I ask each guest for a healthy screen habit. So this is a tip or takeaway that our listeners can put into practice in their own home. Do you have one you can share with us?

Lucy Kidwell (29:20):

Yeah, I do. Um, I've, I've said this before. Um, not on this podcast, but to like everyone I meet, I think it's really important to not just remove screens, but to replace them. It's like, if you see a little baby and they're playing with something really dangerous, you don't just yank it out of the baby's hand and let the baby just cry for hours and just ignore the baby. You replace it with something soft and pleasant and you know, good for children. And so that's kind of how, like I treat myself, like I very much look at myself as a baby when it comes to screens because I have no self control. So I'll say like, I'm not only going to ban my phone for this week. I'm going to get four new books that I've really wanted to read for a while. I'm going to schedule, you know, Hangouts with my favorite friends. I'm basically going to fill my schedule with really positive enriching experiences that will make it easier. But because if I'm just sitting in my room without, you know, a great book or a new hobby or a fun class to take, I'm going to get on my phone. Like, I, I, you know, you have to be realistic with yourself. And so I think just replacing, you know, not just removing, but making sure to focus on the good and what you can get out of it is probably the most essential screen habit I could give anyone.

Hillary Wilkinson (30:43):

I like that. And it also kind of, um, is in step with your idea of Screen Free Week being really a celebration. It's really more positive. I think if we can frame things in this, not this subtractive type thing, but in a positive thing, it's additive as far as all the positive things that are bringing to you.

Lucy Kidwell (31:07):

Right. Right. Language really matters. Especially talking to it with children, you know, you want to get excited about it and get into that head space.

Hillary Wilkinson (31:14):

Yeah. So if you would like more information on Screen Free Week and want to avail yourself to all of the amazing tools that Lucy's been speaking about regarding the pledge, the plans, et cetera, et cetera, please pop over to screen free.org. As always. I will link all of the information in the show notes, which you can find by going to HealthyScreenHabits.org, find the podcast dropdown menu. Look for episode four of season four. I will have it ready and waiting for you, Lucy, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today!

Lucy Kidwell (31:53):

Thank you for having me. This has been so fun.

Hillary Wilkinson (31:56):

Yes, and Happy Screen Free Week! And, um, you know, drink lots of water on your hike and, and maybe pack some Band-Aids in case of, you know, Moleskin and Band-Aids in case of blisters.

Lucy Kidwell (32:10):

Right, thanks for that advice-  will do.