Offline.now was founded in Toronto by Eli Singer, creator of the Offline.now Matrix and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. Offline.now is a directory of therapists and coaches who work on screen and phone use. Lasting change runs on confidence, not willpower: start where you actually are, with a step small enough to win. Start with the two questions at offline.now/start. They take about a minute and sort you into one of four types, each with its own starting place.

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how-do-you-follow-election-night-without-doomscrolling-until-3-am

How Do You Follow Election Night Without Doomscrolling Until 3 a.m.?

The 2026 US midterms are Tuesday, Nov. 3, and some close races may take days to call. Offline.now founder Eli Singer on getting through the night and getting some sleep.

Founder and CEO

The 2026 US midterm elections are Tuesday, Nov. 3, and some close races may not be called for days (NPR). Eli Singer, founder of Offline.now, says the hardest part for most people will be the night itself.

"People have been in this news cycle for months. They've seen the ads and had the hard conversations, at home and at work. On both sides, people feel their future is at stake. A strict phone rule for one night won't hold up against that." Eli Singer, founder of Offline.now  What the research says  Election stress shows up in sleep. In a study of the 2020 presidential election, 437 people in the US reported on their sleep every day before and after the vote (Cunningham and colleagues, Sleep Health, 2022). Election Day brought less sleep and more stress, and disrupted sleep that night went along with changes in mood. It was a volunteer sample, so it may not match the country as a whole.

The worry starts early. In a 2024 survey of 2,006 US adults, 46% said they had lost sleep worrying about the presidential election (American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2024). Make a plan you can keep  Singer's advice is to decide the shape of the night ahead of time, ideally with someone else.

Talk it through with someone in your house before the polls close. Pick the point when you accept you won't know until morning. Plan something for the evening besides the phone, like a walk. Decide how you'll wind down. You'll be keyed up, and sleep will be harder than usual. Keep the phone out of the bedroom if you can, and set an early alarm to check the results.  Offline.now's guide to doomscrolling covers the daytime habits that make a night like this easier.

"Election night asks for the most self-control at the hour you have the least. Make your plan at dinner, while you're still thinking clearly." Eli Singer  "The results will be there in the morning. Waking up early to check them is a perfectly good plan." Eli Singer  Where to start  Lasting change runs on confidence, not willpower. Two questions find your starting place: Find Your Starting Place. If election stress feels persistent or overwhelming, a qualified professional can help you tailor support.

About the expert  Eli Singer is the founder of Offline.now, a directory of therapists and coaches who work on screen and phone use. He created the Offline.now Matrix and wrote Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. He is available to comment this week on election-night phone use and news stress: eli@offline.now, or the Contact button below.


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What the Meta/YouTube Verdict Still Misses About Youth Social Media Harm

Digital Dependency Expert

The verdict against Meta and YouTube has reignited debate over addictive design and youth social media harm. But according to Harshi Sritharan, clinician and digital dependency expert with Offline.now, one key issue is still being overlooked: digital emotional regulation. Sritharan works with young people and families dealing with the real-life fallout of harmful platform design, including compulsive scrolling, sleep disruption, body-image distress, emotional dysregulation, and conflict at home.

“The goal isn’t to remove technology from their lives entirely,” says Sritharan. “It’s to help young people and their families build healthier relationships with it.”  She can speak to why regulating platform design matters, why digital resilience and online emotional regulation should be treated as core life skills, and why simply restricting access without healthier alternatives can push vulnerable youth into harder-to-monitor spaces.

As news coverage focuses on liability and platform accountability, Sritharan offers a frontline clinical perspective on what these harms actually look like inside homes - and what young people, parents, schools, and policymakers may still be missing.

ABOUT THE EXPERT Harshi Sritharan is a clinician and digital dependency expert with Offline.now, a digital wellness platform connecting individuals and families with therapists, coaches, and social workers who specialize in healthier relationships with technology. 

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What Time Should You Actually Turn Off Your Phone at Night?

Offline.now experts say you don’t need a perfect “no screens after 6 p.m.” rule but you do need a realistic cut-off if you want your brain (and mood) to recover. 

Everyone’s heard you’re “not supposed to be on your phone before bed” but what does that actually mean in 2026? 

Most major sleep organizations now recommend putting devices away at least 30–60 minutes before bedtime to protect melatonin and help the brain wind down. The National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both advise turning off screens about an hour before bed; other experts say a 30–60 minute window is the minimum. (Advisory) Research on blue light shows that evening screen exposure suppresses melatonin and delays sleep, especially when you’re scrolling something stimulating. (Sutter Health) 

Psychotherapist Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW, who specializes in ADHD and digital dependency, puts it bluntly: 

“To ensure quality sleep and peak performance—whether in sports, work, or school—avoid using your phone after 11 p.m.”   For teens and adults with ADHD or anxiety, she says, late-night doomscrolling is especially brutal: screens keep dopamine and stress high at exactly the time the nervous system should be powering down. Harshi says:

"The quality of sleep determines your level of executive functioning the next day"    She also makes an important distinction: if you are on a device in the evening, active use (choosing a show, talking to friends, looking up something specific) is less harmful than passive use: 

“Don’t do passive tech use — that doom scrolling, content just being thrown at you,” Sritharan says. “Be more active about your tech use.”   That kind of passive feed is more likely to serve up emotionally intense content kids didn’t ask for and aren’t ready to process. 

You Don’t Need a Perfect Curfew to See Results The good news: the science suggests you don’t have to quit completely at night to feel a difference.

 
A JAMA Network Open study on young adults found that reducing social media use for just one week — not going cold turkey — led to about a 24.8% drop in depression, 16.1% drop in anxiety and 14.5% improvement in insomnia symptoms.

 
Offline.now founder Eli Singer argues that the real challenge is confidence, not willpower. Their data show 8 in 10 people want a healthier relationship with tech, but more than half feel too overwhelmed to know where to start. 

The platform’s behavior data also show that late afternoons and evenings are when phones dominate use and when people are actually most motivated to make changes. We have less in the tank at night, don't trust willpower to  transition off. Have a system/routine of pre-decided of low-effort (potentially fun) activities to help the transition off phones. 

“We tell people: don’t start with a perfect 8 p.m. curfew,” Singer says. “Start with one realistic phone-off window — even 30 minutes before bed — and prove to yourself you can protect that. That first win matters more than an ideal schedule you’ll never keep.”   A Simple, Science-Aligned Answer  For most people, Offline.now’s experts land on a practical, high-compliance answer to the question “What time should I turn off my phone?”

 
Aim to put your phone away 30–60 minutes before your target bedtime Make everything after that screen-free by default (books, stretching, music, talking, journaling)  If you must be on a device late, keep it brief, low-drama and intentional — no infinite feeds, no emotionally loaded content   It’s a small change, but in the context of a day where we’re already on screens for roughly 10 of our 16 waking hours, that last hour matters.

 
Featured Experts  Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW – Psychotherapist specializing in ADHD, anxiety, insomnia and digital dependency. She explains how late-night and early-morning phone use hijack dopamine, disrupt sleep and make it harder for kids and adults to function the next day.  Eli Singer – Founder of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. He speaks to the platform’s behavioral data on when people are most ready to change, and how 20-minute micro-experiments (like one phone-off window at night) build real confidence over time.   Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.



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The Double-Edged Scroll: Why Passive Screen Time Drains You More Than Active Use

Offline.now experts say the problem isn’t just how long you’re on your phone, but what your brain is doing while you’re there and passive scrolling is the real energy thief. 

Most conversations about “screen time” focus on hours. But newer research and what clinicians see in practice suggest how you use your phone may matter as much as how much you use it.

 
A 2024 meta-analysis of 141 studies on active vs passive social media use found that, overall, effects are small, but there is a pattern: passive use (just scrolling and watching) is more consistently associated with worse emotional outcomes, while some forms of active use (commenting, messaging, posting) show small links to greater wellbeing and online social support. (OUP Academic) Other work from Frontiers in Psychology suggests that the emotional impact of passive use depends heavily on how you feel about the content: when it triggers envy, comparison or negativity, mental ill-being goes up; when it’s genuinely positive, the effect can be neutral or even slightly protective for some users. (Frontiers) Reviews also point to upward social comparison, FOMO and rumination as key pathways linking passive browsing to lower wellbeing. (ScienceDirect)

 
Psychotherapist Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW works with teens and adults who feel “wiped out” by their feeds and draws a sharp line between passive and active tech use:

 
“Don’t do passive tech use — that doom scrolling, or content just being thrown at you,” she says. “I want people to engage in active tech use. Go and search something up, choose the long-form video you actually want, talk to your friends. Don’t let the app decide everything you see — especially for kids, who are getting content they’re not ready for and didn’t sign up for.”  She notes that many of her clients describe feeling “numb, anxious or wired” after long passive sessions, a sign that their nervous system is being pulled around by unpredictable, emotionally loaded content rather than chosen experiences. She also discussed the short term recall related to scrolling:

"Some of my clients can't even remember what content they consumed right after scrolling. However, we know that what we pay attention to and what we show our brains has an impact on our thoughts, mindset, feelings and overall internal world."  Offline.now founder Eli Singer frames this as a design problem, not a moral failing. The platform’s research shows people already spend about 10 of their 16 waking hours on screens; the realistic goal is to upgrade some of that time, not pretend we can all go offline. His advice: instead of vowing to “get off your phone,” start by swapping just 20 minutes a day from passive to active use; for example, messaging a friend to meet up, learning something specific, or planning an offline activity.

“When people tell us they feel overwhelmed by their screen habits, it’s not laziness, it’s a crisis of confidence,” Singer says. “We don’t need perfect digital detoxes. We need small, winnable shifts, like taking one block of passive scrolling and turning it into something you actually chose.”  For journalists, the story isn’t simply “screens are bad.” It’s that passive, algorithm-driven scrolling is where comparison, FOMO and emotional overload tend to pile up and that helping people change how they use their devices may be more realistic, and more effective, than focusing on raw minutes alone.

 
Featured Experts  Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW – Psychotherapist specializing in ADHD, anxiety, insomnia and digital dependency. She helps teens and adults understand how doomscrolling and passive feeds hijack dopamine and mood, and teaches practical shifts toward more intentional, “active” tech use.  Eli Singer – Founder of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. He brings proprietary data on digital overwhelm and the “confidence gap,” and shows how 20-minute “micro-wins” like upgrading one chunk of passive screen time can change people’s relationship with their phones without extreme detoxes.   Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.



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We Don’t Realize How Much Time We Spend With AI. Because It’s Hiding in Our Phones

Offline.now experts say AI is quietly eating into our already 10-hours-on-screens day, not just in chatbots, but in all the “little” tools we barely notice. 

If you ask most people how often they use AI, they’ll say something like: “I tried ChatGPT a couple of times” or “I don’t really use AI.”

 
But look at their phone, and the story is completely different.

 
Digital wellness platform Offline.now has found that we already spend about 10 of our 16 waking hours on screens, roughly 63% of our day. Founder Eli Singer calls AI “the shadow roommate inside those 10 hours”: invisible most of the time, but involved in more of our everyday taps and swipes than we realize.

 
And we now have data to prove it.

 
A recent Talker Research survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, commissioned by Samsung, found that 90% of Americans use AI features on their phones, but only 38% realize it. Common features like weather alerts, call screening, autocorrect, night-mode camera enhancements and auto-brightness are all powered by AI — yet more than half of respondents initially said they don’t use AI at all. Once shown a list of features, 86% admitted they use AI tools daily. (Lifewire)

 
Singer sees this as a classic “confidence gap” problem applied to AI.

 
Beyond the “invisible AI” on our phones, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and image generators are spreading fast. A nationally representative U.S. survey from Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Real-Time Population Survey found that by August 2024, about 39% of adults aged 18–64 were using generative AI. More than 24% of workers had used it at least once in the previous week, and nearly 1 in 9 used it every single workday. (NBER)

 
Globally, usage is enormous. A World Bank backed analysis of online activity estimated that, as of March 2024, the top 40 generative AI tools attracted nearly 3 billion visits per month from hundreds of millions of users. ChatGPT alone commanded about 82.5% of that traffic. (Open Knowledge Repository)

 
From a mental-health perspective, psychotherapist Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW says the issue isn’t just the number of visits, it’s the way AI subtly shapes the texture of our day.

“Every autocorrect, every AI-sorted inbox, every ‘magic’ photo fix is a tiny cognitive hand-off,” she explains. “Individually they feel helpful. But taken together, they keep your brain in a constant state of micro-decisions and micro-rewards, which is exhausting, especially if you already struggle with ADHD, anxiety or overwhelm.”  She points out that many of her clients only think of “AI time” as the hours they spend in a chatbot window. In reality, AI is involved when: 
Their phone decides which notifications to surface  A map app reroutes them automatically  Spam filters silently screen hundreds of emails   “By the time they open a dedicated AI app, their nervous system has already been engaging with AI-driven features all day,” Sritharan says. “That’s part of why people end the day feeling tapped out but can’t quite explain why.”  Singer worries that this “shadow AI” is quietly eating into the same finite resource Offline.now tracks with screens in general: attention.

 
“We already know 10 hours a day on screens is unsustainable for our focus and our relationships,” he says. “Layer AI on top — systems designed to predict and nudge our behavior — and you’re not just losing time. You’re outsourcing micro-chunks of judgment, memory and choice without even noticing.”  So how much time are people spending with AI?  Right now, no one has a perfect number and that’s exactly the point. The best data we have suggests:

 
 Most smartphone users are already interacting with AI daily, whether they know it or not. (Lifewire)  Roughly 4 in 10 U.S. adults now use generative AI, with a growing share using it at work every week or every day. (Harvard Kennedy School)  Globally, billions of monthly visits are flowing into AI tools on top of our existing 10-hour screen days. (Open Knowledge Repository)   “The future isn’t AI or no AI,” Singer says. “It’s: Can you be conscious about how you use it — instead of letting it hijack your attention and manage your life?”  Featured Experts  Eli Singer – Founder of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. He brings proprietary behavioral data on screen time and digital overwhelm, and a framework (the Offline.now Matrix) for rebuilding confidence through 20-minute, real-world steps instead of all-or-nothing “detox” advice.  Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW – Psychotherapist specializing in ADHD, anxiety and digital dependency. She explains how AI-assisted micro-tasks interact with dopamine, attention and overwhelm, and offers brain-friendly ways to renegotiate your relationship with both screens and AI.   Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.



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Do Teens Secretly Want Phone Boundaries More Than Adults Think?

Offline.now experts say many teens feel overwhelmed by their phones and actually want limits, just not constant power struggles with their parents.

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

Ask a parent about phones and teens, and you’ll hear the same story: “They’re glued to that thing and don’t care.” But when you ask teens themselves, a different picture emerges.

 
A recent Pew Research Center study found that about 95% of U.S. teens have access to a smartphone — and around 4 in 10 say they spend too much time on it. (Pew Research Center) Coverage of the same data notes that over 70% of teens say they feel happiness or peace when they’re not tethered to their device, even as they rely on it for social life. (KTUL)

 
Psychotherapist Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW, who works with teens and young adults on digital dependency, sees that ambivalence every day.

 
“I have 12- to 15-year-olds who come in and say, ‘I know I’m kind of addicted to my phone,’” she says. “When a teenager says that, I’m relieved — it means we have something to work with.”  She stresses that most young people don’t actually want to be left alone with endless scrolling — they want help making sense of it. 

Teen Limits Work Better Than Parents Think  New data suggests that reasonable limits can help and that many teens benefit when parents set them thoughtfully. A tool parents can use is collaborative problem solving. This involves parents and teens working together to come up with a plan for the best strategies that combat everyone’s concerns while compromising.

 
A 2024 Springtide Research Institute survey of 1,112 13-year-olds found that teens whose parents limit their screen time are less likely to be heavy users: only 32% of those with limits use their phone 5+ hours a day, compared with 55%of those with unlimited time. Just 24% of teens with limits said they’d felt like they had a mental health problem, versus 32% with no limits.(Springtide Research Institute)

 
In other words, boundaries are mildly protective, not cruel, especially when they’re explained instead of imposed.

 
Sritharan cautions against “no phones ever” rules that ignore school and social realities: 
“We can’t make blanket statements of ‘no screens’,” she says. “We shape how kids use devices so they can still get things done and spend more time engaging with their family.”    That might mean agreeing on tech-free windows (like family dinners or the hour before bed) and tech-friendly ones (like a 45-minute bus ride where a teen can listen to music or message friends). 

Teens Are Leading a Quiet “Cutback” Movement   Parents often feel like the only ones craving less screen time, but surveys show Gen Z is already trying to dial things down.

 
A global survey cited by Tech Times and ExpressVPN found that about 46% of Gen Z are actively taking steps to limit their screen time, more than older generations.(Tech Times) Another U.S. poll commissioned by ThriftBooks found half of respondents are cutting back on screens, with Gen Z and millennials leading — and 84% adopting analog habits like printed books, paper planners and board games.(New York Post) Reporting on the “board game revival” among Gen Z echoes the same trend: young people are consciously seeking offline, face-to-face ways to connect.(Woke Waves)

 
For Offline.now experts, this adds up to a simple message: teens aren’t fighting all boundaries — they’re fighting feeling controlled or misunderstood.

 
Parents as Co-Pilots, Not Phone Police  Executive Function Coach Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP says the real leverage point isn’t just new rules; it’s how parents model and co-create them.

 
“If you want behavior change in kids, start with the parent model,” he says. “A 12-year-old will not put their phone away at dinner if their parents won’t.”   He encourages families to focus on “little moments” where phones quietly block connection — especially car rides and in-between times when kids might naturally open up:

 
“In the car, your kid is trapped with you,” Selinger says. “That’s when they start talking. If they’re on their phone the whole time, you lose those big conversations hiding in the boring moments.”  Both experts emphasize co-designing boundaries with teens: agreeing together on tech-free times and how late-night scrolling affects mood and school performance. When teens feel heard — and see adults following the same rules — boundaries feel less like punishment and more like shared protection.

 
For journalists, the story isn’t “teens vs phones” or “parents vs teens.” It’s that both sides are quietly overwhelmed, and many young people are more open to limits than adults realize — if those limits are built with them, not against them.

 
Featured Experts  Harshi Sritharan, MSW, RSW – Psychotherapist specializing in ADHD, anxiety, insomnia and digital dependency. She helps teens and young adults understand dopamine cycles, distinguish passive vs active tech use, and build realistic phone boundaries that support sleep, school and mental health.  Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP – Executive Function Coach and child development specialist (Brooklyn Letters). He focuses on how tech use shapes learning, attention and family dynamics, and how parents can model healthy habits and co-create screen rules that actually stick.   (Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.)



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“Give Me My Phone Back!”: Why Parent–Teen Phone Fights Miss the Real Problem

Offline.now experts say taking the phone away isn’t enough, real change starts with what parents model and how families talk about screens together.

If it feels like every other night ends with “Give me my phone back!” you’re not alone. A recent Pew Research Center report found that about 4 in 10 teens and parents (38%) say they argue about phone time, and nearly half of parents admit they spend too much time on their own phones. Executive Function Coach Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP says those blow-ups often miss the real issue.

“If you want behavior change in kids, start with the parent model,” he says. “It starts at the top: kids are watching how you use tech.”  He notes that conflict usually shows up in the “in-between” moments — after school, in the car, at breakfast — when a phone becomes an invisible wall between parents and kids.

“Those little moments are actually big moments,” Selinger explains. “If you can pull out tech during those kind of banal, whatever moments, that’s when kids start talking to you.”  Research shows the stakes go beyond eye-rolling. A 2025 CDC analysis of U.S. teenagers found that higher non-school screen time is linked with irregular sleep, less physical activity, more depression and anxiety symptoms, and weaker social support.(CDC) And yet, many families don’t have clear, consistent rules: Springtide Research Institute’s 2024 survey of 13-year-olds found that only about half say their parents limit screen time, but when limits exist, teens are less likely to be heavy users and report slightly better mental health.(Springtide Research Institute)
For Selinger, the takeaway is simple: filters and confiscation can’t replace family systems. What works better:

Parents go first. Phones out of bedrooms at night, off the table at meals, and away during key “micro-moments” sends a stronger signal than any lecture.

Agree on the rules together. Teens are far more likely to respect boundaries they helped design, for example, “no phones at dinner and after 11 p.m. on school nights”  than rules dropped on them mid-argument.

Link boundaries to what teens care about. Sleep, sports, grades, mood and friendships are all directly affected by late-night and all-day screen time; making that connection reduces the sense that rules are “random.”

Instead of asking “How do I make my teen stop?” Offline.now’s experts encourage parents to ask, “What are we modelling and what shared routines would actually make life better for everyone in the house?”

Featured Experts Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP – Executive Function Coach, CEO of Themba Tutors and child development specialist. He focuses on how phones reshape learning, sleep and family dynamics, and helps families build “digital sunset” routines and mealtime/bedroom rules that stick.



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Expert Available: The Tech Tantrum: What parents can do when screen-time conflict turns explosive at home

Offline.now digital dependency therapist Harshi Sritharan on headlines of an 11-year-old who allegedly shot and killed his father after a device was taken away - why screen-time blowups can reflect transition friction and nervous-system overload.

It's a recent news story  that has captured international attention and  has parents, experts and child care advocates swirling:  US boy, 11, allegedly shoots father to death after Nintendo Switch taken away   If you’re planning a story on screen-time conflict, Harshi, a Digital Dependency therapist, is available  for on-the-record comment, rapid written quotes, and short interviews on practical de-escalation and safer screen-limit routines. 

 
“The headline is about a device. The deeper story is what happens when a predictable boundary becomes an unplanned confrontation without a de-escalation routine.”  Offline.now is a new wellness platform dedicated to helping families achieve healthy digital balance.

What Harshi can help journalists cover  On-the-record context and practical guidance for stories touching screen-time conflict, including:
 
Why device removal moments can trigger outsized reactions in some kids (transition & regulation) How parents can de-escalate safely without turning limits into power struggles How to design screen rules that rely on systems, not willpower What to do after a blow-up (repair & resetting the plan) When “this-is-bigger-than-screens” and families should seek professional support  Insights from our expert Use any of these as on-the-record quotes:

 
Start with regulation, not the rule. “When emotions spike, it’s not a teachable moment. The first goal is to help everyone get calmer, then you can talk boundaries.”  Don’t match intensity with intensity. “If you argue, lecture, or negotiate in the heat of the moment, you keep the conflict alive.”  Use a short script - and stop talking. “Two sentences is enough: ‘I’m not debating this. We’ll talk when we’re calm.’ Then pause. Silence can be a tool.”  Avoid surprise confiscations. “Taking a device without warning can feel like an ambush. Predictable routines reduce the power struggle.”  Offer an off-ramp, not a cliff. “Transitions are hard. A timer, a closing ritual, and a clear ‘what’s next’ can prevent escalation.”  Make boundaries about the system, not the child’s character. “This isn’t ‘you’re bad’ or ‘you’re addicted.’ It’s ‘our home has screen rules and we follow them consistently.’”  Repair matters more than punishment. “After a blow-up, repair is the reset - name what happened, reset the plan, and practice the next transition.”  Know when this is bigger than screens. “If threats, aggression, or extreme reactions show up, that’s a signal to seek professional support - not just enforce a stricter rule.”  What parents can do right now Create a neutral device ‘parking spot.’ Devices live in one predictable place (not a tug-of-war in someone’s hand).
 

Use a consistent transition routine. When time’s up, share a  “shut it down” cue, park the device, and then move on to a 2-minute action (teeth, pajamas, snack, shower).
 

Pick one calm script and repeat it verbatim. “I’m not debating this. We’ll talk when we’re calm.” (Then disengage and model calm.)
 

Important context Harshi does not speculate about individuals involved in the news story and does not claim that gaming or screens “cause” violent behavior. Her focus is on what families can do - before conflicts escalate - using practical de-escalation tools, predictable routines, and supportive repair strategies.



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You Can’t Reconnect with Family Through a Screen You Won’t Put Down

Offline.now experts say the simplest way to rebuild family connection over the holidays is for adults to lead with their own phones and turn them off first.

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

When families say, “We never really talk anymore,” the holidays are supposed to be the fix, the one time of year everyone gets under the same roof, sits around the same table, and finally catches up. But in 2025, most people arrive at those gatherings with a second guest in tow: their phone.

New behavioral data from Offline.now, a digital wellness platform founded by author and CEO Eli Singer, shows 8 in 10 people want a healthier relationship with technology, yet more than half feel too overwhelmed to know where to start. That makes the holidays a natural “reset” moment; if parents and other adults are willing to change their own habits first.

 
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Gaea Woods says phones have quietly become the “third party” in many households:

					“Phones are killing interpersonal relationships - not because tech is evil, but because we use it unconsciously at the moments connection matters most. When you’re scrolling at dinner, you’re sending the message, ‘My phone is more interesting and important than you.’”  Research on “phubbing” aka phone snubbing backs this up, linking partner and family phone use during conversations with lower relationship satisfaction and more conflict. Offline.now’s experts see the same pattern: when screens show up at the table, intimacy and meaningful conversation drop.

 
Executive Function Coach Craig Selinger argues that the real leverage point isn’t screen-time rules for kids; it’s modelling by adults:

“If you want behavior change in kids, start with the parent model. A 12-year-old will not put their phone away at dinner if their parents won’t. Kids copy what you do, not what you say.”  When kids see parents physically turn phones face-down and set them aside, it creates permission, even relief. Over a few days of holiday visits, those small moments can add up to something families say they miss most: unhurried conversations, shared jokes, and the feeling that the people in front of you are more important than the feed on your screen.

For journalists covering holiday family dynamics, tech and relationships, or digital wellness, Offline.now can offer expert interviews on:

How to design realistic, family-wide phone rules for gatherings Why parental modelling matters more than any app setting Simple scripts parents can use to set expectations without shaming kids  Featured Experts Gaea Woods, MA, LMFT – Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist specializing in digital dependency, intimacy, and communication in modern relationships.  Craig Selinger, M.S., CCC-SLP – Executive Function Coach and child development specialist focused on how tech impacts learning, attention, and family systems.  Expert availability can be arranged through Offline.now’s media team.




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