Today marks a year since Colin Kartcher put down his sword and lay to rest after battling daily for our kids in the digital space. I remember the night so clearly. I had been thinking for a while about sending him a message asking him how he got his podcast off the ground as we are in the same space; some pitfalls to avoid etc. I sent him the message and about half an hour I went to check mmh let me see if he may have answered. And the first picture I see is a post from Andrea Davis who runs better screentime post a picture of her and Colin with the caption – rest in peace my dear friend. I was gutted. I could not believe it. I remember the tears just flowed freely. I wept. I did not know this man personally but I wept. I remember asking in between sobs, “who is going to protect our children now from Big-tech?” ” who will fight for our teens?” I went back to my inbox to him – there it sat – unread and probably would never be read. It was so heavy. I knew then that it was urgent I get this project off the ground. There was no one coming to rescue our kids. And so screens n kids was birthed on the night Colin Kartchner lay to rest.
Today I was talking to a lady who told me, the other day she was about to buy her two year old daughter an iPad as it kept her busy. I told her wait. Delay. Give her a longer childhood. Our kids need us, they need us to wait. So while Collins battle may be over we are going to war.
“showing our kids we love them is 98% effort and 2% putting down our phone.” – Colllin Kartchner
“Experts say that handing a smartphone with social media and untethered access to these apps with no training or guidance is like handing them (children) the keys to a car with no driver’s ed. So how do we sit here in shock wondering why kids are crashing and burning every single day?” – Collin Kartchner
“Cyberbullying has become a huge crisis. Our kids’ entire self-worth at 13 is determined by virtual, unpredictable feedback. The validation that we all crave to them is only available in this synthetic way. … And one mistake, one tiny gaffe that we all made as 13-year-olds every day — that when we were kids was forgotten in an hour — is now publicly housed on the school Snapchat page. When you’re 13 today, there is no place to run. There’s no escape. And it is soul crushing.” – Colin Kartchner