Information and guidance about technology use is exploding! Digital citizenship, Internet safety, multitasking etc. As parents, how do we wade through all the information to figure out what is most important? We need a keystone technology habit for parenting. According to Charles Duhigg, keystone habits are small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives.

I would like to propose that keeping all technology in public spaces is a foundational keystone habit of technology use. The benefits that roll out from this include:

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• strengthening parent child attachment when parents are more aware of their child's mood and are more accessible to respond to kids needs

• implicitly influencing good digital citizenship through public/parent “observing eyes” 

• reinforcing connectedness (instead of isolation) in families

• solidifying lifelong healthy sleep hygiene habits, by keeping the bedroom for sleep 

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Happy digital parenting! 
 
Additional Resources:
Charles Duhigg author of the book “The Power of Habit”
Steve Jobs Was A Low Tech Parent Chief executives and venture capitalists thoughts on low tech parenting. “This is rule No. 1: There are no screens in the bedroom. Period. Ever,” Mr. Anderson said.
Observing Eyes Research results confirming that the effects of subtle cues of observation on cooperative behavior can be large in certain real-world contexts. 
Commonsense Media: Digital Literacy
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Updated resource 5 May 2020