In this episode of Digital Dominoes, host Angeline Corvaglia, known as Data Girl, explores the reasons behind the difficulty in stopping once you start consuming online media such as videos or games. She is joined by a special guest, Digital Defender Stella, an elementary school student, who shares her experiences and challenges with online media consumption. The episode delves into the psychological and design aspects that make online media so addictive and offers practical tips for children and parents on how to manage and mitigate these effects. Techniques like breathing exercises, running, and engaging in offline activities are discussed as methods to cope with the emotional impact of stopping media consumption. The conversation emphasizes the importance of helping young people understand why they get 'stuck' online and encourages proactive strategies for balance.

00:00 Welcome to Digital Dominoes

00:28 Introducing Digital Defender Stella

00:49 Understanding the Struggle to Stop Watching

02:24 The Impact of Continuous Watching

03:33 Why Videos and Games Keep Us Hooked

09:12 Strategies to Break Free from Screen Time

12:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Special thanks to

Digital Defender Stella's parents for letting her participate in this episode and for proactively helping her learn about these very important topics!

Episode sponsored by Data Girl and Friends

They are on a mission to raise awareness and foster critical thinking about AI, online safety, privacy, and digital citizenship. They inspire the next generation to navigate the digital world confidently and responsibly through fun, engaging, and informative content. They focus on empowering young digital citizens and their families through engaging and informative learning.

Find out more at: https://data-girl-and-friends.com/ 

List of Data Girl and Friends materials about some of the topics covered:

• Educational workbook, "Why can't I put my phone down?" https://data-girl-and-friends.pagetiger.com/put-down-my-phone/1

Contact us for any questions or comments: https://digi-dominoes.com/contact-us/ 

Her name is Digital Defender Stella. Stella is an elementary school student who loves learning all about AI and the digital world. Thank you so much for being here, Stella. How are you today? I'm good. How are you, girl? I'm doing great. Thank you. I'm so excited to talk to you. So what do you think about this topic that we're talking about?

But let's talk about first how it feels. When you say it's hard what does it mean exactly? How's it feel? Like you feel angry [00:01:30] or sad that they made you stop. Sometimes that happens to you? Yeah. Have you noticed that happened to other people too? Yeah, like one of my friends, that her name is, she's, when her mom tells her to stop to say goodbye to me, she doesn't, because she doesn't want to.

Yeah. Good job. So tell me. How does that make you feel when your friend doesn't want to look away from the tablet when you're there? I feel [00:02:30] lonely. Lonely because there's nobody to play with. All my friends are at the phone or tablet. That's horrible, and unfortunately, I see that a lot too. It's not only people your age that have that problem.

Yeah, I love doing that. Well, that's really good. Did you know that in a lot of places, even a lot of kids your age don't do that very much anymore? That they spend even more time on the phone? No. You're really lucky that you can spend time in the parks and there's a lot of people, even though it's hard sometimes that your friends are are putting their faces in the phone and not wanting to say goodbye.

You see, that [00:04:00] is the very first reason why it's hard for you to stop watching. That square is there because it makes you excited to see something different. Afterward because it shows you, oh, there's some more exciting stuff that you can watch. So that's the first reason. And you said you watch, you know, Disney and prime and Netflix.

They know that because at school, when I do songs, it goes like that. You watch songs on YouTube at school and you see it's counting down to the next one? Yeah. Very observant. Good job that you noticed that. That's right. That's another thing that countdown is exciting for you. [00:05:00] And another thing I want to ask you, sometimes when you watch shows, do you feel like at the end you haven't seen the whole story?

I used to watch shows with cliffhangers, and sometimes the cliffhangers can last years. They can keep you watching for years, waiting to answer some questions. That's one reason you're so excited, you want to know what's going to happen, but they can make you be there for a very, very long time waiting.

And keep watching, right? Yeah. And, and that's pretty easy. It's harder to stop watching and think of what you're going to play or what you're going to read or who you're going to talk to. That's more work. And if you [00:06:30] watch a lot, then you can kind of get stuck that way. So that's why. Sometimes, it's just like when you, like, watch too much TV.

Yeah. Why do, like, almost everyone I know watch, do video games? I saw my little cousin. Yeah? Was your little cousin playing games? No. What was he doing? He, sometimes, he watches TV. [00:07:30] When I call him, he watches TV. He doesn't even want to say hi. But he's like, stuck on the TV. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because the TV and the videos and the video games, they're so, they're made to make you want to be, it's called engaged.

For example, on YouTube, did you know that the people who make videos on YouTube can make money? No, yeah, they can. So if you make a video and enough [00:08:30] people watch it and enough people put the little button that say they want to watch your stuff every new stuff that you get, then you can make money. And in order to make money, people have to watch the video from the beginning to the end. And they have to want to watch more and more of your videos. So the more exciting your videos are, the more people are going to watch them, you know, the more you have these cliffhangers I told you about, the more people are going to be, you know, excited to watch the next [00:09:00] one.

And that way, the more money people can earn. So that's one reason why things are made that you can't even hear anything around you when you're watching or playing games. Yeah. So, my question is, do you have any idea how to help yourself or other people when you feeling like you don't know how to stop?

It's normal to be all emotional when it stops. And it's really great that your parents just take the time. What do they do? Like they talk to you. You can talk to your parents. You can do breathing exercises. You can run around the [00:10:00] house because there's all that emotion. You have to get that emotion out and calm it down.

So if you ask someone, do you want to play with me? And they say, no, they'd rather watch or they'd rather play, just go do something really fun, right next to them or outside. And a lot of times they were like, wait, I bet that's more fun than what I'm doing and they'll come and they'll stop watching and they'll stop playing and they'll do the more fun thing because actually, as you said before, it's a lot more fun [00:11:00] being in the park than watching.

Right? Yeah. This you can do. All kinds of stuff that is beyond your phone. That's right. You've really learned that really well. You've been paying attention to this, haven't you? Yeah. The trick is to help other people understand that too. And sometimes they won't understand if you use words. But they will understand if you show them, just do it right next to them.

If someone can’t stop, like, play a game, or invent a game and play it. [00:12:00] Exactly. It's not always easy. It takes practice to be able to learn to stop. But if you know about it, And you know why you're having that problem, then it goes a really long way, right, Stella? Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. So everyone who's listening, you heard it directly from the mouth of Stella, our elementary school student who's super excited about what we're doing and what we're learning.

Thank you so much, Stella. Bye everyone. Bye.

Digital Dominoes