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Can You Reboot Your Family’s Screen Rules Before Going Back to School?

Offline.now experts say the week before school resumes is the perfect time to reset kids’ sleep, focus and screen habits starting with what parents model.

Executive Function Coach, Speech-Language Pathologist, and Educational Specialist

Certified Professional Coach

As kids head back to school after the holidays, many parents notice the same pattern: bedtimes drifted, screens crept into bedrooms, and mornings feel like a battle. 

Executive Function Coach Craig Selinger and Personal Development Coach Mark Diamond, both experts in the Offline.now directory, say the answer is yes; but only if families treat the last week of break as a “tech reset,” not just a scramble for school supplies.

Selinger points out that today’s devices are structurally different from the TV many parents grew up with:

“Phones and tablets are more addicting than the old living-room TV. There’s no natural ending — no episode, no credits, no ‘we’re done now.’ When the ‘TV’ lives in your child’s pocket, transitions to homework or sleep become a lot harder.”   That matters because late-night screen habits have real consequences in the classroom. Reviews of adolescent media use consistently link bedtime and late-evening screen time with shorter sleep, poorer sleep quality, and worse next-day functioning; including attention, memory and mood that kids need to learn.

On top of that, education and cognition research shows that media multitasking: juggling schoolwork with notifications, chats, and apps is associated with reduced sustained attention and weaker academic performance.

Diamond, who ran a tech-free summer camp for 25 years, has seen how quickly kids’ brains and behavior respond when screens are dialed down and real-world activity is dialed up:

“At camp, we watched kids go from anxious and distracted to confident and connected in a matter of days — without phones. Outdoor play, hands-on projects, chores, even just walking and talking with friends reset their mood and focus in a way no app can.”  “Micro-routines make a macro difference,” says Diamond. “If you reclaim just an hour a day from screens for real-world activity, most kids feel the change in their bodies and brains within a week.”   Selinger adds that the reset only sticks when adults go first: “You can’t tell a teen to stop scrolling at 11 p.m. while you’re answering work email in bed. Kids are watching how we transition off our own screens. If parents lead by example, the new school rules stop feeling like punishment and start feeling like the new normal.”  For journalists covering back-to-school, kids’ mental health, learning and technology, this story connects the dots between holiday screen creep, sleep, attention, and how a simple, family-led “tech reset week” can set kids up to actually learn once they’re back in class.

Featured Experts Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP – Executive Function Coach and child development specialist (Brooklyn Letters). He focuses on how kids actually learn, and how digital dependency, sleep loss and multitasking erode attention and academic skills.  Mark Diamond – Personal Development Coach and former director of a tech-free summer camp. He specializes in outdoor wellness, behavior change, and helping families translate “camp magic” into everyday routines at home.   Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.




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Why Your Digital Detox Resolution Fails by January 15

Offline.now experts say broken resolutions are less about willpower and more about confidence and that even small digital changes can deliver big mental health gains.

Registered Social Worker (RSW)

Every January, millions of people make the same promise: “This year I’m going to spend less time on my phone.” By mid-month, most are back to doomscrolling in bed, feeling like they’ve failed yet another resolution.

According to Offline.now founder and author Eli Singer, that story is not about laziness, it’s about confidence.

Offline.now’s proprietary research shows 8 in 10 people want to change their relationship with technology, but more than half feel so overwhelmed by their habits they don’t know where to start.

  “If you don’t learn how to manage the screens in your life, they will manage you,” says Singer. “When people tell us they feel overwhelmed, it’s not laziness. It’s a crisis of confidence. And confidence is something that can be built.”   At the heart of the platform is the Offline.now Matrix, a behavioral framework that maps people into four quadrants: Overwhelmed, Ready, Stuck, or Unconcerned - based on their motivation and confidence levels. Someone who is “Overwhelmed” needs reassurance and tiny first steps; someone who is “Ready” can handle bigger commitments. Treating everyone as if they’re in the same place (“just delete Instagram”) virtually guarantees most resolutions will collapse. 

Psychotherapist Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW, who specializes in ADHD and modern anxiety, sees how this plays out in the brain. For many of her clients, especially those with ADHD, digital devices provide a fast dopamine hit that everyday life simply can’t match.

“With ADHD, you’re working with a dopamine deficiency,” she explains. “Phones and apps are designed to give you highly stimulating, personalized content. You get this huge dopamine surge, and when you put the device down, everything else feels flat, boring and harder to start.”  She notes that common habits like checking your phone the second you wake up, quietly undermine even the best January intentions:

“If you’re on your phone first thing in the morning, you hijack your attention and dopamine for the rest of the day. Your brain has already tasted the highest stimulation it’s going to get, and it will keep seeking that level. That’s not a willpower issue, it’s neuroscience.”   The good news: the science suggests you don’t need a perfect detox to see benefits.

A JAMA Network Open study on young adults found that reducing social media use for just one week - without going completely offline; led to about a 24.8% drop in depression, a 16.1% drop in anxiety, and a 14.5% drop in insomnia symptoms.

“Lasting change doesn’t require deleting Instagram or TikTok tomorrow,” says Singer. “You need to win one personal victory today, and then another tomorrow. That’s how confidence rebuilds.”  Featured Experts Eli Singer – Founder of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. Speaks to the behavioral data behind failed resolutions, the confidence gap, and the Offline.now Matrix framework.  Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW – Psychotherapist specializing in ADHD, anxiety and digital dependency. Explains the dopamine science behind compulsive scrolling and offers brain-friendly strategies that work better than “willpower.”  Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.



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Holiday Phones, Real Kids: “Don’t Give a 10-Year-Old a 24/7 Device Without a Plan”

Coach and Offline.now founder Eli Singer helps parents move from panic and guilt to clear, realistic agreements around that first smartphone.

Smartphones and tablets are among the hottest holiday gifts for tweens and teens. They’re also one of the biggest sources of parental anxiety.

“We’re giving 9, 10, 11-year-olds a pocket device with the power to nuke their sleep, social life and self-esteem — and we’re doing it with almost no training,” says Eli Singer, founder and CEO of Offline.now. “The question isn’t ‘Should kids have phones?’ It’s ‘What’s the plan for this incredibly powerful tool?’”

Singer, a coach and parent who lives with ADHD himself, takes a non-judgmental, shame-free approach with families. He’s blunt about the risks — social comparison, late-night scrolling, drama at school that now comes home in their pocket — but equally blunt that guilt doesn’t help.

“Parents are overwhelmed and scared. They’ve seen the headlines linking social media to anxiety and depression, and they feel like they’re already behind,” he says. “My job isn’t to scare them; it’s to help them write the first draft of a family agreement they can actually live with.”

Singer recommends three simple starting points over the holidays:
	Bedrooms are sacred. Phones charge overnight outside kids’ rooms and ideally outside parents’ rooms, too.
Meals are for humans, not phones. A bowl or basket at the table becomes the visual reminder: we’re here together. Model what you ask. If parents scroll through dinner or answer work emails at fireworks, kids get the message long before any rule is written.  Offline.now’s Digital Wellness Directory includes professionals who specialize in families, ADHD, and youth mental health; Singer positions Offline.now as the bridge between overwhelmed parents and the right expert help.

Why now Late December is “first phone” season. January brings the real-world consequences: blown bedtimes, drama in group chats, school exhaustion. Singer can give reporters a nuanced, practical angle on holiday devices — beyond “phones are bad” vs. “phones are fine” — and concrete questions families can ask before they unwrap the box.

Available for interviews Eli Singer - CEO of Offline.now; author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. I speak about practical behavior change, non-judgmental family agreements, and confidence-based starting points - and I can direct people to licensed professionals via the Offline.now Directory when needs go beyond coaching.  

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