According to a professor who has become a “digital nutritionist,” turning off the color of his phone and pruning 30 minutes a week could help consumers control and improve their online media diet.
These two measures, also known as grayscale and algorithmic tolerance, are one of many recommendations from Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr, an associate professor at the University of London and a leading expert in digital literacy.
While recent discussions focus on the harm caused by social media on children, Regehr wants to deal with digital illiteracy among parents, it gives them a better understanding of their children’s devices and how to use them safely and effectively.
With her new book, Smartphone Nation, Regehr recommends facing your own use first with a digital “walkthrough” of your favorite app with friends and partners.
“Turning your phone to GreyScale is one of the quickest and easiest ways to understand the impact of colors and images on your user experience,” she writes. “This allows you to feel how colors and images play through the addictive nature of these devices.”
Instructions for this can be found either in Google Help on Android phones or Apple Support on iPhones.
On the other hand, algorithm resistance is about controlling the algorithm rather than letting it control it. Therefore, Regehr recommends making clear choices about what you want to see in your feed, and can’t find trash for 30 minutes a week, not due to trash.
“When I was worried about my family’s digital diet… I had a hard time knowing what guidance to use,” explains Regehr in the book. “I created something to help myself and my family navigate digital terrain. I thought I was a digital nutritionist.”
In an interview with the Guardian, Regehr said she supported the school’s smartphone ban and a growth campaign for a smartphone-free childhood, but these were not enough and more education was needed to help families think critically about their digital choices.
“Even if they refrain from giving their kids smartphones until they are 15, they will still be 16. And they are responsible for providing the tools they need to navigate this space effectively,” she said. “We need to provide education on how these things work.”
Her book, “Why are we all obsessed with the screen and what you can do about it,” is designed to help bridge that gap, and will come with new educational materials introduced at schools later this month.
According to the UK’s first national survey, almost all schools in the UK have banned the use of mobile phones by students during their student days.
Stimulated by concerns about child mental health, attention span and online safety, a survey of over 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools were somehow banned.
“I support my free childhood work on smartphones,” says Regehr, program director for the digital humanities at UCL, who previously investigated how algorithms used on social media platforms rapidly amplify extreme misogyny content. “My fear is that when you implement the ban, you can remove schools and lawmakers from the hook because you think they’re done with work.”
Regehr’s book is dedicated to two young girls. “My goal is to look back at our generation, much less healthy and more skill-actively enslaved, just like looking back at previous smoking in the delivery room in a hospital and not wearing a seatbelt.
“I’m trying to make cultural change so that their lives are better. This is the biggest threat to their health and well-being, and that’s what I want to tackle and I believe we can see cultural change. People just need information.”
Smartphone Nation: Why we’re all obsessed with screens and what you can do by Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr is published by Bluebird on May 15th