Tech Tickets: A Quick and Simple Way to Help Balance Technology in our Homes
Categories Notes from the Journey
When I was young, my mom came up with a brilliant idea: tickets, about the size of a business card, that had our allowed television time for a given time period, broken up into 15-minute increments. Whenever we used 15 minutes, we used a hole puncher to punch out one box. At the end of the allotted time period (A week? A month? I can’t quite recall…), we were allowed to redeem any unused increments for bookstore dollars. In short: unused television time = the ability to buy a book at the bookstore.
We had one tiny bookstore in our tiny town, and those trips were magical. I remember picturing those bookshelves whenever I wanted to watch a show, and trying to decide: 15 minutes of fleeting screen time, or minutes squirreled away to be transformed into a book I could choose, keep, read again and again.
Now, as a parent, I look back and thing how truly brilliant this simple strategy was. Not only did it help manage our screen time, but little by little, it helped us see where true value was held, and develop our love for books.
Oh, there were also regular library trips and book orders, borrowed books and used books; myriad other ways that books came into the home, so we weren’t being deprived of reading material through this system, nor did we feel entitled to a certain amount of television. If our parents said no t.v. at any given time, that was that.
There were several things these tickets were not:
They were not an entitlement to any given amount of television. Household rules held fast for when we could or couldn’t watch t.v., things that had to be done beforehand, and the like. The tickets didn’t govern the household; our parents did, and those tickets were a privilege, not an entitlement.
They were not a free-for-all. We knew which movies or shows were allowed, and could use our time on those.
But the tickets were like a special bonus: something that was novel (no pun intended), something we felt proud to use, and something that helped us begin to weigh, discern, and strike a healthy balance.
With my mom’s permission (Hi, Mom! Thank you for being wonderful!), I’ve put together some printable “tech tickets” based on this same idea.
These can be used according to your own household parameters, current season, kids’ ages, etc., but are intended for a single ticket to be used across all digital devices and media.
A few ideas might be…
Time Allotment:
- Each punch hole counts for 1 hour, if you abide by 1 hour of screen time per day.
- Each punch hole counts for 30 minutes, if your limit is 30 minutes of screen time per day.
- If a punch hole isn’t used any given day, it’s up to you whether it can be redeemed later, along with other daily punches on another day.
- Many factors will go into your time allotment decisions: age (see this article for pediatricians’ recent limit recommendations), each child’s unique needs and tendencies, each family’s technology use or reduction-of-use goals, screen usage purpose (are they using the screens to create and communicate, to complete homework, or for entertainment?), etc.
- Allotments can be fluid, too. An hour one week, half an hour the next– these are the tool, not the master.
Card Use:
- Cards can be disposable (punch during use, throw out when redeemed)
- Cards can be re-used (laminate with packing tape or laminator, mark off punch holes with dry-erase marker instead of hole-punching them, and erase/re-use after redeemed).
Exchange rates:
- 1 completely-unused card equals 1 book purchase. In this case, you could also allow combined cards with a combined unused-7-punches, to equal 1 book purchase. Let’s say they preserve 3 unused punches one week, and 4 the next; in that case, the two cards combined could be exchanged for a book.
- Bookstores are wonderful, but if the price tag on the books makes this a prohibitive ongoing practice, consider alternating bookstore trips with a used bookstore, a library book sale, or a trip to the book section at a thrift store. Such treasures to be found in these venues!
- If you find a series your kids love, consider tying that series into this exchange. They can “earn” the next book (paperback, audio, other otherwise) by trading in screen time for it. They’ll be so eager to find out what happens next! Now, I’m also a firm believer in providing non-incentivized access to engaging and quality books, so (personal opinion), I wouldn’t do this with *all* books– perhaps just one series here and there. If a kid is itching to read the next book in a series, it could be counter-productive to make them wait and exchange the ticket, when the book itself would help the allure of screen time lose its sheen. Take it on a case-by-case basis.
- Consider other exchange ideas; perhaps they can choose between a book, an outing to a favorite place, a trip to the bowling alley, a certain dollar amount to spend on art supplies; whatever your child’s interests are, or the interests you would like to nurture. Each of these options encourages screen-free time, creative endeavors, or family/friend quality time. You could have a “menu” of things they could choose from each week. Or, 1 month you could decide the exchange will be for books, the next month for favorite outings, the next month a trip to the craft store, the privilege of choosing which park to go to; whatever feels most appealing and flexible to your family and the goals you’re striving toward, these tickets can be used in that way.
To print your set(s) of Tech Tickets, choose your preferred design (white, or variety pack). Then click the image below, and print, cut them into tickets, and that’s it! Simple as that.
The white ones can be used as-is, or can be custom-decorated by your adventurers to help give them some added ownership of the idea.
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Happy Adventuring! See you out there!