Reclaiming Childhood: How to Give Your Kids an Analog Summer

Filling your calendar with park visits, library visits, beach days, and simple home activities replaces screen time with meaningful shared experiences.

Research suggests that even small reductions in social media and technology use can lead to measurable improvements in loneliness, mood, and overall well-being. Hans Carlen/Getty Images

One of the most encouraging trends of recent years isn’t a new app or a new platform—it’s the growing number of people choosing to put it all down. More people are waking up to the great toll that hours of digital consumption take on our hearts, minds, and spirits. Constant scrolling, endlessly playing video games, and hopping from one short video to the next are wreaking havoc on our ability to focus, our social competence, and our overall mental health.

Some recent findings include a University of Pennsylvania study that showed that limiting Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day led to significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks. Another study at Oregon State University of more than 1,500 adults confirmed that heavy social media users were more than twice as likely to feel lonely, regardless of age or background. Social media, as it turns out, isn’t all that social.

Perhaps more alarming than what screens are doing to our mood is what they’re doing to our minds. More than two decades of research by University of California–Irvine psychologist Gloria Mark found that the average attention span on any screen dropped from 2 1/2 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds in recent years. A 2023 peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports found that the mere presence of a smartphone, even when turned off, results in lower cognitive performance.

Perhaps worst of all is the growing realization that young children’s brain development is being fundamentally affected as they are allowed access to digital devices at earlier ages. A 2025 study tracking children for more than a decade, published in eBioMedicine, found that children exposed to high levels of screen time before age 2 showed changes in brain development linked to slower decision-making and increased anxiety by their teenage years. In 2024, a study published in Advanced Science found that screen use adversely affects language skills, depression, and social problems in young adolescents, and that screen time significantly reduced children’s reading time, which further affected their language skills and brain volume.

All this said, you probably don’t need a study to confirm what you already inherently know—that something has been lost and is worth getting back. Can going analog help? Last year, a randomized controlled trial published in PNAS Nexus found that blocking mobile internet for two weeks improved attention spans by an amount equivalent to reversing 10 years of age-related cognitive decline. The off switch is also a reset button.

With summertime on the horizon, parents are facing a golden opportunity. This is when the usual routines dissolve and a different kind of life becomes possible. If you want to give your kids an analog summer, here’s how to start.

Don’t Open Pandora’s Box

If your youngest children haven’t yet been handed a device of their own, the research is unambiguous: Wait as long as you possibly can. Parents who’ve held out the longest tend not to regret that choice. Hold the line.

Communicate Ground Rules

Set, communicate, and uphold simple but strict rules about screen use in your home this summer. Perhaps a family meeting, where parents are unified in their approach, and rules such as no digital devices in bedrooms, screens only one day per week, television only as a family, or even a fully device-free summer, are laid out clearly. You might be met with pushback. When you’ve agreed on a plan, though, stick with it. It will get easier with time if you’re consistent in your approach.

Plan IRL Fun

Get out your calendar and pencil in family visits, museum visits, concerts, hikes, any travel you plan to do, and days at the park, library, pool, and beach. Declare themes for different days: cook from scratch day, camp in the backyard day, and letter writing day. If you schedule it, it’s more likely to happen. Enjoy lots of IRL summer fun!

Stock Up

Books, records, cassette tapes, outdoor toys, sidewalk chalk, art and craft supplies, film or Polaroid cameras, paper maps, garden tools, jigsaw puzzles, board games, stationery, pens, journals, coloring books, cookbooks, and camping essentials are some of the things you might want to have on hand to enjoy a fun and adventuresome summer that’s not dependent on your digital devices.

Practice What You Preach

For some parents, the hardest part of an analog summer won’t be convincing the kids; it'll be convincing themselves. Your children will notice whether you’re present or distracted, so come prepared: a stack of books you’ve been meaning to read, a project you’ve been putting off, and a contingency plan for when the pull of your devices is stronger than you anticipated.

Document the Season

This might be the best summer your family has had in years. Take lots of photos—on film, perhaps—and pay attention to what changes. Note the moments of boredom that became something unexpected, the conversations that stretched longer than usual, and the evenings that didn’t disappear into a screen. What you learn this analog summer might shape how your family chooses to move into the rest of the year and beyond.