HH #537 Boundaries with Tracy Foster, Heath Wilson & Joey Odom

The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

Hey friends! I hope you are enjoying our Boundaries series as much as I am. Today is special – we have two interviews in one show, with three total guests! The focus of these conversations is boundaries with technology. I know this can be a touchy subject, but I encourage you to really lean in and examine your own relationship with technology as you listen.

First up is Tracy Foster, co-founder and executive director of Screen Sanity. Screen Sanity’s main focus is to maximize the benefits of technology while minimizing the side effects for kids. The second half of today’s episode is with Heath Wilson and Joey Odom, co-founders of technology company Aro. Their mission is to help people experience life uninterrupted by reducing time spent on devices.

I think we can all agree that technology can be detrimental to family time, self-time, and even our ability to focus at work. In fact, I learned through today’s conversations that technology is one of the biggest obstacles families are facing right now, more than sex more than drugs.

Tracy and I talk about boundaries with kids and social media, and about the playbook that Screen Sanity created for kids. We talk about how parents, adults, and teachers can help create healthy boundaries around technology. Tracy even walks us through how online companies target our kids to get as much time from them as possible, and encourages an emphasis on family values to help children understand why boundaries are put in place.

Heath and Joey talk about one of the main reasons technology is a problem for us today – it’s because we don’t have a place for it. Defining the proper place for technology is the first step to cutting back on time spent on our phones. We talk about how Aro got started as a company, and the story is one I’m sure we can all relate to. When Heath’s son was five, he was playing in a soccer game and had not scored a goal all year. Until one day Heath’s son’s soccer dream came true and he scored a goal. But Heath missed the moment because he was looking down at his phone! It was at that moment Heath knew he had to come up with a solution for experiencing life uninterrupted with our cellular devices, and Aro was born.

This Boundaries conversation is a good one! I can’t wait to hear what you think.

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