Name: Parents say childhood out of balance
Uploaded: 2025-12-16T17:35:16.706Z
Duration: 6 min 26 s
Description: Holly Moscatiello, president of the Balance Project, joins to discuss the challenges of childhood today.

Holly Moscatiello, president of the Balance Project, joins to discuss the challenges of childhood today.

Holly Moscatello, president of The Balance Project, highlighted the significant changes in childhood experiences due to the rise of digital technology and social media. She noted that children now spend over seven and a half hours daily on devices outside of school, which replaces time previously spent on independent play and real-world exploration, impacting their confidence and resilience.

Moscatello emphasized that modern social media is designed to capture attention and can negatively affect developing brains, particularly among adolescents. She encouraged parents and communities to model balanced technology use and provided resources through The Balance Project, which now operates in over 100 communities, to help families address this collective challenge.

Parents say childhood out of balance

Joining us now to discuss this important topic, Holly Moscatello is the president of The Balance Project. Welcome, Holly. Hello, good morning. Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us. So you've said you've had a bi-era childhood, meaning bike rides and free play first, then the internet explosion later. So while today's kids only know post-smartphone world, what was the enough is enough moment that made you say, I have to start The Balance Project? Yeah, sure. When I realized how different childhood today is from the childhood I had and the consequences of that, I think growing up in an analog childhood, I didn't understand how valuable those experiences were to be independent, to have to figure out how to fix my own bike chain, to come up with games to play on my own and use my imagination, to explore, to maybe encounter some struggles with the small S. All of those things build confidence and resilience and give kids the ability to tackle bigger challenges later on. And in today's world, our kids are spending over seven and a half hours a day on a device outside of school. And so all of that time that they used to spend exploring, figuring things out on their own, finding things that they are interested in is replaced by the screen. And that has long-term effects on their healthy development. Yeah, touchscreen could actually end up meaning that you're out of touch. Yeah. And based upon how we grew up, Holly, and I say, I won't say my age, I won't ask you yours, right? But when we grew up, we actually played, but that also we engaged in critical thinking. And you make a big point that today's social media isn't the same as early Facebook era. It's engineered to actually hook people's attention. So can you spell out what that looks like for children and teens in real life, both in terms of what they're seeing on the screens and what it's actually doing to their brains and possibly their self-esteem? Yes, absolutely. And I think I wanna start even by saying, we call ourselves the Balance Project because we do believe in the value of technology and we do believe it plays a role in our child's development, especially as they continue into a 21st century world. But that said, I think the internet of today is very different than the internet of the 90s and the early 2000s, especially with social media, which is where we know our kids are spending the majority of their time. It is designed now, it's a business, right? And they want as much attention as they can get from us as possible. And there are tricks, likes, notifications, that constant dopamine rush, and that it's like a casino in your pocket where it's intermittent rewards and you don't know if you're gonna get a reward with a like or a comment or you're not. And so I think for developing brains, that's very hard to resist. Adolescents, their brains are still developing. They don't have the same ability to control what they're doing. And so it makes them more vulnerable to spending more time on social media than in real life. On top of that, I think they're being exposed to content that is being curated for them based on their age, based on things that they've maybe spent a little bit more time on. And so it can kind of turn those little insecurities or those areas where they might be interested and maybe should be asking a parent into a way to serve them content that they will engage with, but perhaps that they shouldn't see. And so we're seeing that tweens and teens who are spending a lot of time on social media, again, they're not spending that time in the real world and getting those real experiences, and they're also getting served content that isn't healthy for them. And when we think about our youngest kids, it's a little bit different, right? Most likely our youngest children are not on social media, but most likely their parents are. And so if you're a parent or a grandparent and you think about your day-to-day now, not spending time engaging with your kids, those small children who are looking to learn from you and engage with you and your face and your reactions, that's another challenge that we're seeing is just with the parents and grandparents who are involved, establishing that norm as scrolling versus being. And so I think we as parents, grandparents, and adults need to really model great behavior and be human first, phone second. Right, set the example because your children are watching. Holly, you're now in more than 100 communities across the country. So if someone watching today thinks, we need this where we live, what's the best first step and what does success look like to you 10 years from now if the movement that you've started really takes hold? Yeah, I mean, I think 10 years from now, hopefully they won't need us. We won't be needed anymore, or we can just support this balanced lifestyle. I think the first step is really simple and it's just being aware. So if you're listening right now, you already checked off that first step. I think next, what we suggest that you do is you can check out our website at thebalancedproject.life and you can kind of learn more about all of the different aspects of our movement and you can join our online community hub, which provides resources and templates and tools and a support network to help you activate in your community. We've got a proven process that has been working. We've got a lot of different programming and a lot of tools that can help you start this conversation first in your home and then in your community of parents, adults, educators, and your community at large, because this is really not a one-dimensional issue. This is a collective challenge that we need to solve together. Social media rocked my self-esteem. Only once, Holly, only once. My daughter's 31 now, but when she was younger, I was like, what do you mean you don't wanna be my friend? And that quickly changed. Thank you so much, Holly. We appreciate it. And The Balanced Project. Thanks for having us. You got it. Thank you.

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