The Search for Digital Wellness in the Screentime Era

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2:12Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevec on Bloomberg Radio. Hey, this week in our weekly Business Week Women's Health segment, where we focus on key issues in developing technologies impacting the present and future of women's health around the world, we wanted to tackle the issue of kind of everybody's health when it comes to a digital world, Tim. Yeah, we've got with us the doctor and psychologist, Kenesha Sinclair McBride. She's Associate Chief of Integrated Behavioral Health at Boston Children's Hospital.

2:48She's also an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. She also does work for Boston Children's Hospital Digital Wellness Lab. She joins us from Boston. Doctor, welcome to the program. I just want to understand, when you think about overall health, to what extent is screen time a part of that conversation? Well, thank you guys so much for having me. And health and screen time are really connected. Well, we think about mental health care and physical health care as a whole child approach. And so when it comes to social media and screen time, we are concerned about the connections with mood, depression, anxiety, body image, experiences of bullying or harassment.

3:32And then on the physical side of things, concerns about sleep, impact on physical activity and getting things done during your day.

3:39Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:So what's the right conversation to have with parents? I think about this a lot. And I, you know, we were kind of strict with our daughter. She's 22 now. But it was a different world then. Yeah, it's amazing. Right, that many years ago. But having said that, increasingly as she got older, I mean, everything, even schoolwork and assignments and interaction with teachers, it all happened digitally. And so she had to be on those platforms. But how do we, in a society, I love what this weekend essay by Catherine Page Jeffrey about, you know, learning how to have the right digital conversation with your kids.

4:16Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:How do you advise parents on all of this? So that's the number one thing. I really love the idea of like, we're not going to be able to create the childhoods of the past. We live in a digital world. So the focus can't really be on limiting or having kids not use screens. It's what you're doing, the content, how you're viewing it. How can you be critical? And so I teach families to really just ask them thoughtful questions to their kids about like, what are you looking at? How does it make you feel? Do you feel happier, more stressed? And who's made this content? What are they trying to sell you?

4:51What does it do to put your attention here? So those like sort of thoughtful pieces of kind of how is this impacting me? How is this connected to my mood and why? as well as thinking about what is real and how do you figure out what are good sources and how to analyze what you're looking at. I think that is going to increasingly become such a bigger part of our world. What is the right way for parents to approach this? I mean, Adam Masseri from Instagram was on stage here at Screen Time essentially saying we have to teach our kids that what you see on the screen is not necessarily what's happening in real life.

5:27What is the right way for us to talk to our kids about this? I think that we should start off kind of keeping things light because parents get so stressed out and nervous about this. So I say, you know, first of all, just ask a fun question like what's the best or funniest or most interesting thing you've seen on social media lately? And then from there, the parents can ask more questions about frequency of use, what platforms your child uses, what content they consume. So that gives you a kind of an opening. And then you can get a little bit more serious in terms of, you know, what would you do if you saw something that was upsetting?

5:59Kind of listen non-judgmentally, be open, and let them know that they can come to you and talk to you if they have any concerns.

6:08Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:You know, I find it interesting, this, you know, digital wellness lab. And I am so curious about, I know you're involved in it and may not know all the work that they are doing, but give us some insight into some of the projects that they're working with or some of the concerns that they have. And maybe there's also some, you know, I don't want to be all negative. Right. I live on this too, and I find it super helpful. I'm curious about some of the work that you guys are doing there. So I'm a consultant for the lab, and there's so much cool things happening when it comes to advocacy, new research, and working directly with youth.

6:43I think that's one of the most exciting things is the kind of youth advisory board is kind of talking to different companies in this space and letting them know how kids really experience them. And then we're doing very big surveys where we're finding out kind of what does this look like in the real world? What are kids saying? What are parents saying? What are they concerned about? And kind of on your topic of is there some positive stuff here? And the answer is yes. Kids can find connection. They can find community. They can find good resources. So it's like figuring out what is that positive content and what is the things that kind of make you feel not as good.

7:17And the people we need to listen to the most about this are teenagers, are kids. What is the right way for schools to deal with this technology? I was actually pretty dismayed to find my first grader came home just a few weeks ago with the way that the assignments were working this year. Yeah. And he had an app, a website that he was supposed to go to for math homework a couple times a week. And I was like, why are we already doing this on screen? Told you it starts. Is it a better way? Is he getting the information in a better way than he would on paper? I'm not a Luddite, but it just feels like why should a first grader be using a screen for this?

7:50well like multimodal learning is so important for society right now so you know i'm hoping that your first grader is also getting time to like manipulate the math concepts in the classroom and that the app is more of a reinforcement again that's a positive piece of content that's something that's something that's going to add to his life versus kind of passively sitting and taking in something that may not be as healthy for him so practicing your math skills at home them on an app. That feels like one of those things that we want to kind of go in the right direction, even though it does feel like here they come again.

8:22My kid is only six. Why do they have technology? It's kind of putting all the pieces together.

8:28Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:Dr. Sinclair, one thing I think about is people who have seats at the table on this or who want to have a seat at the table. And we certainly see the big tech leaders at the White House. They're concerned about regulatory oversight or burdens or access to markets. We see that in a big way. Are tech leaders getting involved? And the reason I bring this up, I remember doing a panel at least 10 years ago with a bunch of tech folks who said, yeah, my kid, I don't let them go on a laptop. There's no screen time for them. So I'm wondering if tech leaders are also involved in this discussion. Yes. And actually, one of the things that's been so exciting about my work with the digital Wellness Lab is I've gotten to be a part of some of those discussions with some of the main tech companies where we're kind of giving our insights as Boston Children's, this place where we're doing all kinds of research and clinical work on kids' behavioral health.

9:20We're able to offer that to them in terms of this is what we're concerned about. This is what we're seeing. How can you guys think about this as you're developing new technologies?

9:30Dr. Keneisha Sinclair-McBride:All right. We're going to leave it on that note. So glad we could bring this in because we just think as we look at all the content generation that we're hearing and all the work that folks are doing when it comes to media, sports gaming. This is something we think about a lot. Dr. Kenesha Sinclair-McGrath, she's Associate Chief of Integrated Behavioral Health at Boston Children's Hospital, also Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School.

9:54When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering, and claims experience. Learn more at thehartford.com slash risk mitigation.

10:29Policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut.

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