The focus of my learnings for my Entrepreneurial Design Kickstarter challenge has been centered around the relationship between kids, parents and tech addiction. I wrote about it previously, here and here. What I found, gave me some kernels of thought for ideas on how to continue. For our class, we are to launch a project with the initial goal of raising at least $1000 on Kickstarter in order to continue fulfilling the project to its hopefully successful release. I started to conceptualize what my Kickstarter project would be and decided, since I am dealing with the issue of kids and their overuse of tech, that my project would first and foremost need to be analog. It would be something tactile, like a physical book, perhaps a children’s book. For anyone with kids, a section of your house is probably brimming with them. I haven’t seen a children’s book centered around this subject matter. But would this book be effective?
I am not under the allusion that I can suddenly snap my fingers and be a children’s book author. That would be a disservice for all of the great children’s book authors out there (shout out to the GOAT 🐐Maurice Sendak 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 ),
who have toiled to make their dreams come true. But I also would love to strike that off my bucket list and work hard on a project like this. So yes, it is daunting and I’ve had some shadows of doubt. My main concern as of late is who then do I make this book for? Is it for children? What age? How can I make this more community based? How can I do this without killing my summer?
Is it actually not a children’s book but a book of simple advice for parents? I have learned throughout my journey that parents hold the keys to the ignition that is their children’s foray into the world. As one of my friends Michelle (who is coincidentally a successful children’s book writer) so wisely told me:
“It’s really up to the parents so this should maybe be geared towards parents rather than kids. The kid’s book is a great idea but it could be tricky. Because you’re trying to get parents to get it, who maybe don’t want to do the work anyway which is why they give them the phone. To not give into the phone, means that you need to step it up and either entertain or provide activities or do other things with the kid.
I think that whatever you do needs to be super easy, very fun,very attractive to get parents to want to do this extra work. Parents are already so busy that interacting with their children is a lot to ask!”
If they are willing to do the hard work of actually putting down the devices themselves and interacting with their children, structuring the kids activities around the physical world and encouraging human interaction, it could make a world of difference. Could it be similar to my listicle article in which I captured the best quotes from the data I gathered from my ‘Madlib’ surveys but in a tidy booklet with cool illustrations or funny stills of GIFs or a combination of both? Who will benefit most from this? That is the quandary.
And so it was suggested that I show a simple prototype to some people and see what I learn.
My friend, the good Dr. Eric Weinberg has two kids, 6 & 8. Like many parents, he finds it difficult to pry devices away from their little fingers. I showed him my prototype and point blank asked:
“If you didn’t know me, would you be interested in something like this, a cautionary tale for kids to read, about experiencing real life rather than just through screens?”
He emphatically said:
“Yes. It’s a battle I fight every day. I’m nervous about it especially with my oldest. We don’t have a cut-off. I just keep telling her get off. We need to just develop cut-offs. I need to regulate it. I think I’m just scared because then I’m like ‘What am I gonna do with em?’”
We discussed that parents need to be more aware and we agreed that we shouldn’t be on devices constantly in front of them. It sends the wrong message. And then he mentioned this:
“But who wants to be on the floor while you’re kids are trying to fall asleep without your phone!”
He was fully aware of the dichotomy in his statement after he said it. It reminded me of the following quote from my listicle article, which quite ironically came from his very own sister:
So we are all conflicted. Kids are hyper observant and when they see us adults acting a certain way, they tend to act similarly or think it’s ok at the very least. His feedback was who exactly should the book be for, what age? Too young and they just don’t get it. Too old and it might be too late. We discussed and thought that perhaps it could be for an older kid like 8–10 but is it too late by then? So many of my survey respondents let their kids start using devices at very young ages, like 4 years old. Once kids get on it, game over. Parents seem to be the key for this first phase of whatever my Kickstarter project is. The children’s book may have to wait for phase two. I am still shaping the concept but it might be a book of quotes, concerns and advice on approaches and activities to keep kids busy without the need for screens. As Michelle said, this will “need to be super easy, very fun,very attractive to get parents to want to do this extra work.”
My work is cut out for me.
