The 2024 TCF Annual Screen Report

+ meet the members of the TCF family!

I floated the idea of sharing an “annual screen report” for our family at the very beginning of 2022, before I would have said The Connected Family was even a seed of an idea. (Though, listening back to the Instagram Stories, it’s no surprise we’ve ended up here…!)

The idea was simple: I’d share a snapshot of my family’s relationship with technology, periodically and publicly. I listed four reasons in those original Stories:

PASSION | My passion for low-screen living and family culture meant I welcomed the chance to have conversations about all things kids + technology. (True then and now!)

ACCOUNTABILITY | I figured it would be another way to keep myself accountable to this thing that I say matters to me. Knowing someone is “watching” is extra motivation to make good decisions.

BENCHMARKING | I loved the idea of being able to see change over time in my own habits and behaviors, as well as record snapshots of our family life over the years.

NORMS | For most of us, the way we act is influenced by what we perceive to be the norm for our peers. For example, if no other ninth grader is on social media, you likely wouldn’t give yours an Instagram account. If every other ninth grader is on social media, you’d likely feel a lot of pressure to let yours on, and it would be hard to choose a different path.

If I could help contribute to norms of low-screen living, I wanted to do that. And I still do! You might not have in-person like-minded community (yet!) to lean on when making decisions or figuring out whether the way your family does things is “normal”¹; I’m happy to be that friend in whatever way I can.

So, welcome to the first TCF Annual² Screen Report! 96% of Story viewers were interested in a family screen report the first time I mentioned it; I hope you’ll find it useful, too. And if nothing else, it’s a good introduction to the family behind The Connected Family.