GenFree: Unplugging 2 Connect

I recently had a lovely conversation with my friend and neighbor, Hillary Hall. Hillary has been an educator in the Alpine School District here in Utah for 28 years. Most recently, she has been the teacher librarian at Frontier Middle School for the last 10 years. She enjoys getting to know individual students and helping them discover life-long learning through reading! The best feeling for Hillary is putting a book into a student’s hand and having them come back to tell her how much they enjoyed it. She also finds fulfillment in collaborating with other librarians to provide the best programs and lessons to help students gain media literacy.

🎧 Enjoying the Podcast?

Gen Free: Unplugging to Connect explores how reducing screen time can help us live more connected, intentional lives, featuring conversations with Gen Z voices, parents, educators, and experts leading the movement.

If you found this episode helpful, be sure to follow or subscribe, rate, and review Gen Free: Unplugging to Connect on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Sharing the show with a friend or family member helps grow this conversation and supports more families in creating intentional, connected lives beyond screens.

Thank you so much for your support!

🧡 Kathleen

Below are some AI-generated show notes: ⤵️

Key Takeaways

• Parents play a powerful role in raising readers by modeling reading and keeping books readily available.
• Reading strengthens the “long-format brain” and helps children practice sustained attention.
• Reading habits naturally ebb and flow throughout life, but reading is a skill that can always be rebuilt.
• Audiobooks, graphic novels, accessible fonts, and reading while listening can help reluctant or struggling readers get started.
• Reading aloud remains valuable well beyond early childhood—even through the teenage years.
• Libraries can provide students with connection, belonging, creativity, and a screen-free place to decompress.
• Phone-free school policies work best when teachers and administrators enforce them consistently.
• Simply removing smartphones may not solve the problem if Chromebooks become a replacement source of distraction.
• Analog notebooks, printed books, and device-free lessons can help students focus without requiring teachers to constantly monitor screens.
• Learning is often effortful and doesn’t always need to be gamified or entertaining.
• Families can reduce “double screening” by putting personal devices away while watching something together.
• Small environmental changes—such as keeping a book beside the bed or deleting distracting games—can make healthier choices easier.
• Changing technology norms requires collective action from parents, schools, educators, and communities.

Resources & Links

Reading and Education

Ann Patchett TED Talk: The Love of My Life (and Why I Need to Share It with You) TED Talk
The Amazing Generation by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price https://theamazinggenerationbook.com/
The Digital Delusion by Jared Cooney Horvath PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt Jonathan Haidt
Read-Aloud Revival https://readaloudrevival.com/
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Kathleen Barlow

The UnPluggEd Project — October 5–9, 2026 Smartphone Free Childhood
️ Smartphone Free Childhood US
Swimming UpScreen
Child First Policy Center

Immediately after our podcast episode, Bill Brady and I were finishing up our convo and he said something fantastic: "I wanna have the phone that gets kids off their phones." And I believe that he means it.

Bill and I talked about all kinds of things related to protecting kids from unsafe screen use, including "Troodi", the AI chatbot that Troomi introduced late in 2024. Although families reported positive experiences with Troodi, Troomi ultimately discontinued the tool because they felt that even the possibility of unintended harm wasn’t worth the risk.

Bill also talked about some of Troomi’s new features, including a safe browser for YouTube, which I was so excited to hear about, and I think my listeners will be too!

And if you want to skip the intro, including when Bill & I discovered a common second language (hint: it's French!), just skip to about 10 minutes in and you'll get right to the heart of our conversation.

In this episode, you'll also hear about:

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Why Bill believes kids should get a phone when there is a real need, not simply because everyone else has one

•

How his oldest daughter started with a basic flip phone instead of a smartphone

•

Why an age-by-age, stage-by-stage approach to technology can help families protect childhood

•

How Troomi was created as an alternative to both unrestricted smartphones and overly-limited devices

•

Why Bill recommends keeping social media off kids’ phones

•

Kathleen’s experience replacing her daughters’ iPhones with simpler phones — and why she loved that they were boring

•

What Bill has learned from teens who say they actually feel happier without social media

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How reducing easy screen-based choices can leave room for creativity, work, entrepreneurship, friendships, and outdoor play

•

Why parents’ own technology habits matter just as much as the rules they make for their kids

•

Bill’s concerns about heavy Chromebook use in schools

Bill's advice to families: Get outside together as often as possible.

📚 Books & Resources Mentioned:

Troomi Wireless: A kid-focused phone platform designed to help families introduce technology gradually.https://troomi.com/

Outdoor Boys (YouTube ): Outdoor adventures, camping, fishing, cooking, survival skills, and family time in nature. Bill mentions this as one of the channels his younger children enjoy.https://www.youtube.com/@OutdoorBoys

Mark Rober (YouTube): Science, engineering, experiments, and creative builds.https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober

Technopoly — Neil Postman : Explores how technology can move from being a tool we use to something that begins shaping culture and society.

Amusing Ourselves to Death — Neil Postman: A classic examination of media, entertainment, and public discourse.

The Screentime Solution — Emily Cherkin: A guide to becoming a more thoughtful and tech-intentional family.

Grit & Situated — Angela Duckworth: Explores the idea of utilizing "situation modification", rather than relying on willpower to make good decisions.

iGen — Jean Twenge: Bill shares that reading iGen in 2018 helped inspire him to leave his previous career and move into the "safe tech for kids" space.

The Digital Delusion — Jared Cooney Horvath: A look at digital technology, education, and what research tells us about how children learn.

1000 Hours Outside: A movement encouraging families to spend more time outdoors and less time on screens.https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/

If you found this episode helpful, be sure to follow, subscribe, rate and review Gen Free: Unplugging 2 Connect on Apple and Spotify. Sharing the show with a friend or family member helps grow this conversation and supports more families in creating intentional, connected lives beyond screens.

In this episode, Kathleen Barlow speaks with Avery Gonzales, a Utah Valley University student and advocate for cutting back on digital technology, about her personal journey navigating technology, social media, and intentional disconnection. Avery shares how growing up in a close-knit Utah community shaped her childhood, how she experienced the gradual introduction of smartphones and social media, and why she eventually chose to remove certain platforms from her life.

The conversation explores how digital habits affect friendships, attention, and mental health (especially for Gen Z) and how Avery is actively working to build healthier boundaries with technology, including using a device called “The Brick” to block distracting apps.

A lovely Mother's Day conversation with my mom, Barbara Butler, and sister, Tara Flora Johnston. We talked about her experiences as a child growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1940s & 1950s. So grateful that we finally sat down to record some of these precious memories.

🎙️ Raising Screen-Conscious Kids in a Digital World

with Emily Cherkin & her daughter, Sylvie

In this episode of Gen Free: Unplugging to Connect, Kathleen Barlow sits down with Emily Cherkin, also known as “The Screen Time Consultant”, and her daughter Sylvie for a candid conversation about growing up with intentional tech boundaries.

Emily Cherkin is a nationally recognized screen time expert, educator, and advocate for intentional technology use. Known as “The Screen Time Consultant,” she is a former middle school teacher whose work has been featured in major outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post. She has also addressed both the U.S. Senate and British Parliament on issues related to screen time and education technology.

Together, they explore how technology is shaping childhood, education, and relationships, and what families can do about it.

💡 Key Takeaways

• How screen use in schools has changed and what’s being lost
• What it’s actually like to grow up without a smartphone
• The social dynamics of being “the kid without a phone”
• How group chats, social media, and constant access impact teens
• The benefits of phone-free schools and device boundaries
• Practical ways parents can model healthy tech habits
• Kids don’t necessarily feel deprived without smartphones, but they do feel different
• Paper-based learning still offers cognitive benefits that screens can’t replace
• Boundaries work best when they’re consistent, modeled, and values-based

🔗 Resources & Links

Emily Cherkin

• 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thescreentimeconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠
• 🐟 Substack: ⁠⁠⁠https://firstfish.substack.com⁠⁠⁠
• 📘 Book: The Screen Time Solution

Kathleen Barlow

• 🐠 ⁠https://swimmingupscreen.com⁠
• ⚡️ ⁠https://smartphonefreechildhoodus.com⁠
• 🧑‍🧑‍🧒 ⁠https://childfirstpolicycenter.org⁠

🎧 Enjoying the Podcast?

Gen Free: Unplugging to Connect explores how reducing screen time can help us live more connected, intentional lives—featuring conversations with Gen Z voices, parents, and experts leading the movement.

If you found this episode helpful, be sure to follow/subscribe, rate, and review Gen Free: Unplugging to Connect on Apple and Spotify.

Sharing the show with a friend or family member helps grow this conversation and supports more families in creating intentional, connected lives beyond screens. 🧡

Harrison Haynes was the victim of online harm as a teenager, beginning when he was only 12 years old. He has courageously turned this difficult experience into advocacy and is the founder of DIM (Digitally Intentional Movement). He also serves as the chair of the end OSEAC (Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children) Survivors Council.

Harrison and I were able to chat about his studies at James Madison University, his ambitions to become a social worker, his new role of husband, and even about a recent chronic illness that he refuses to let keep him down. Despite some of the difficult content that we discussed, I found this to be an inspiring conversation with Harrison, and hope that you'll join us!

Bradley is an 8-year-old second grader and a member of Gen Alpha, who had a conversation with his Lolli (aka his grandmother, Kathleen), about what it's like attending his Waldorf-inspired charter school.

Whether it's learning to knit, gardening, or reading in the school's cozy library (which even boasts a fireplace!), Bradley is enthusiastic about school and engaged in the learning process there.

Screens are not a part of the curriculum, other than mandatory state testing, and Bradley does not hesitate to weigh in on his feelings about it all.

Please enjoy Kathleen's conversation with her oldest grandson, and see if you agree that the benefits of focusing on the whole child, while limiting digital technology in schools, are undeniable!

Ryan Huh is a director and photographer based out of the NYC metro area. He is fascinated by the power of stories to inspire the collective imagination, starting from a single moment passed down through generations. He holds a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in Film/TV Production. His recent documentary, Starting Over, was awarded the Lookup.Live grant. He is currently in post-production on his debut narrative short film, Profile.

Elianajoy Volin is a senior at Kenyon College, majoring in English with a Creative Writing emphasis, a concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and a minor in Neuroscience.

She is passionate about living an intentional, low-screen lifestyle. From spending her childhood without a TV, to a year abroad studying at the University of Exeter in Devon, England, to spending a few days living at a monastery in France, Elianajoy is practicing the art of human connection.

She is interested in researching and working in the fields of mental health, public health, writing, and queer joy, and is deeply committed to enacting positive change in her own communities.

In this episode, Kathleen engages in a heartfelt conversation with Liddy and Corinne Johnson about the challenges of navigating digital technology and social media. Liddy, a 17-year-old advocate against social media addiction, shares her personal journey from addiction to recovery, while her mother, Corinne, discusses her advocacy for parental rights and digital safety. Together, they explore the generational differences in digital technology use, the importance of real-life connections, and the legislative efforts to protect children from harmful digital content. The episode emphasizes the need for open communication between parents and children, the significance of setting boundaries with digital technology, and the power of advocacy in creating positive change.

Hillary Kimball is a 16-year-old high school student who was published in the Salt Lake Tribune for an editorial based on the challenges of growing up in the age of digital technology. Hillary enjoys cheerleading at her school and loves to travel.

Ngozi Edema is a children’s book author and time management coach who helps busy moms, writers, and entrepreneurs reclaim their time and turn minutes into milestones. With nearly two decades of writing experience, she’s passionate about storytelling and believes productivity should feel purposeful, not overwhelming. Through her coaching, books, and podcast, she empowers others to create space for their goals and finish
what matters most.

Michael Perrone resides with his wife and 6 children in the PNW. He’s a consultant who helps fathers lead in their home, their work and in their community. His mission is to help 1 million fathers unleash their leadership potential.

Richard Freed, PhD, is a psychologist, author of the recently released book Better Than Real Life, and his insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets. Dr. Freed has devoted his career to revealing how Silicon Valley is using its clandestine science of persuasive design to pull childhood away from the real world to exist on social media, video games, and online video. He is determined to bring knowledge of this addictive science—which now exists among a handful of tech elite—to all of those who care for kids. He believes a science-based childhood focused around family, school, and the outdoors must be made available to all youth. Freed lives in Walnut Creek, California and is the proud father of two daughters.

Morgan Monet is a 27-year-old licensed marriage and family therapist and proud “elder” Gen Z-er. She works at the intersection of mental health, identity, and connection, and brings a thoughtful, relational approach to her work, centering the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals and anyone seeking more authentic relationships with themselves and others. Her work emphasizes mindfulness, emotional grounding, and curiosity as tools for resilience in a fast-paced, often disembodied world.

As someone who deeply values human presence and intentional living, she’s both fascinated and concerned by the ways technology shapes our nervous systems, relationships, and sense of self. On today’s episode, she joins her mom to explore how we can stay rooted and connected in a tech-saturated age, without losing sight of what really matters.

Morgan is a 17-year-old high school senior whose mom is Hillary Wilkinson, co-founder of ⁠"Healthy Screen Habits."⁠ Morgan and her older brother have been raised by parents who practice a minimalist approach, when it comes to screen time.

Morgan has a TED talk called ⁠"Embracing Community"⁠, in which she beautifully speaks about the people in her neighborhood whom she interacts with on the regular, and how important and enriching these interactions are in her life.

Morgan is a high school senior who plans to go to college in the fall to study Health & Exercise Science, with the ultimate goal of becoming a dentist. Morgan has enjoyed being the captain of her high school weightlifting team, and is also a fan of mountain biking and exercise in general.

Morgan and I discussed the positive impact of physical movement on both our physical and mental health. We also talked about the necessity of becoming aware of screen overuse, and the practice of being intentional about limiting screen time whenever possible. She has some great insights about living life as a Gen Z-er in today’s world, and shares some simple yet solid advice on how to scale back when tech time creeps its way up, to the extent of becoming excessive.

Jayden Davis is the Programs and Office Manager at an organization called The Policy Project, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kathleen and Jayden connected over an initiative called The Focused Student, in which TPP worked to get a bill passed during the 2025 legislative session. The two-pronged initiative would enable students to have improved focus in school, both by being off cell phones and by ensuring that they were not going hungry during the school day.

During this podcast episode, Kathleen and Jayden talk about the results of their efforts with The Focused Student project, as well as what is considered today to be the gold standard of school cell phone policies. They also discuss Jayden's personal experiences with balancing screen time in her life, what she observed in this regard as a student at BYU, as well as some worrisome screen habits that are so common among many people today, old and young alike.

Seán Killingsworth is the 22-year-old founder of The Reconnect Movement. Reconnect is a student-led club that hosts phone-free social events at universities. Reconnect is currently established on 3 campuses and expanding. At 17, Seán began speaking about the effect of social media and phones on Gen Z. He has spoken at Virginia Tech, The Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, Dopamind, The Suicide Prevention Center of Virginia, and guest lectured at Georgetown University. Seán launched the weekly Power Hour to organize citizens and pass the Kids Online Safety Act. Endorsed by the Anxious Generation and Accountable Tech, the Power Hour generated thousands of letters and calls to key legislators. He is an organizing facilitator for Design It for Us where he will continue to advocate for State and Federal legislation.

* Disclaimer: Since our conversation, Gabriela's org has undergone some re-branding. You can now find her at APPstinence.org, rather than APPstinent.org.

Meet Gabriela - graduate student at Harvard and founder of an organization called APPstinence. This is what Gabriela has to say:

"I’ve always had two wolves inside when it comes to media consumption. On the one hand, my father’s experiences of the Vietnam War showed him the immense power of media messaging to manipulate and control, and as a result he kept a close eye on his kids and tech. On the other hand, I was born and raised in the Silicon Valley at a time when the world was so optimistic about the potential for social media to alleviate us of our loneliness. Soon, the two wolves came to a head.

Despite my father’s diligence, social media snaked its way in and I was hooked from a very young age. Realizing how complicated and strangely pressurized social media was making my life, I decided to try to cut back. Over 6 long years I navigated the stormy waters of getting offline. I repeated the error I see many make, which is to try and self-regulate, “find balance”, only to realize I was doing myself a disservice trying to fight products designed for my capture. I concluded that I had to walk away altogether if I wanted to find peace and stop “fighting.” I now do not have personal social media accounts (Instagram, Tik Tok, X, etc) and use a flip phone as my main phone. The peace of mind, clarity of thought, intimacy of relationships, and perspective this lifestyle has given has been far too good to keep to myself, and so I developed the life philosophy of “appstinence” so anyone can get in on it (check out or Mission and Philosophy page for more on what the concept entails). I made the 5D Method so anyone can try it.

I kickstarted Appstinence to show others that living without social media is not the distant utopian lifestyle it seems, and to crystalize my message to Gen Z (but is generalizable to all ages): The frustration you feel with you screen time isn’t your fault— you are not morally deficient because you can’t put your phone down. Fighting for “balanced use” isn’t worth the fight, not nearly. Walk away. Pick your battles. Just because we grew up on these platforms does not mean we have to continue depending on them for our social lives. We can choose differently. We can live fully without them.