Westchester, Explained 07: What Westchester Experts Say About Screen Time—and What Parents Can Do

As an extension of our weekly "This Week in Westchester - The Podcast" we welcome you to Westchester, Explained. In this special long-form series we take you deeper into the headlines, decisions and policies shaping Westchester County and their impact on your family, your neighborhood and your future. Here we slow it down, dig in and bring in the people doing the work, and we explain not just what the County is doing, but why it matters.

Because government should be clear. This is your County. 

And this is Westchester, Explained. 

In this episode, we’re tackling a topic that touches every family: screen time—and what it’s really doing to our kids. We’re joined by leaders from Westchester County’s Youth Bureau, Department of Community Mental Health and the Disconnect to Reconnect initiative to break down the research, the risks and what "screen time" moderation actually looks like in real life. 

From early childhood development to the pressures of social media, we explore how digital habits are shaping behavior, mental health and connection and why that matters to our Westchester residents, parents and teens.

And with Screen-Free Week approaching, we’ll share simple, realistic ways families can unplug and reconnect with what matters most.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Hi Westchester. I'm Westchester County Government Communications Director Catherine Chaffee. As an extension of This Week in Westchester, the podcast, we welcome you to Westchester Explained. On this episode, we're tackling a topic that touches every family: screen time, and what it's really doing to our kids. We're joined by leaders from Westchester County's Youth Bureau, Department of Community Mental Health, and the Disconnect to Reconnect initiative to break down the research, the risks, and what screen time moderation actually looks like in real life. From early childhood development to the pressures of social media, we explore how digital habits are shaping behavior, mental health, and connection, and why it matters to our Westchester residents, parents, and teens. With Screen Free Week approaching, we'll share simple, realistic ways families can unplug and reconnect with what matters most. This is Westchester Explained. Let's begin. Well, welcome everyone to the podcast. It's so exciting to have you all here. So here with us today, we have Ernest McFadden, who is the Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Delighted to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

We have Dr. Andy Bell, who's a Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health. You are part of that department here.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I am. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

And we have the Disconnect to Reconnect group representative Kathy Hallis. Welcome, Kathy. Thank you. Thank you. Very happy to be here. So, okay, we're here to talk about a little bit of a hot topic, but an important topic, and that is screen time. So let's start at the very beginning. What is Disconnect to Reconnect?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

So it started uh several years ago. It came out of a group that uh Dr. Bell and I co-chair called the Zero to Six Early Childhood Planning Committee. And it's comprised of representatives of many child serving organizations. And we all just started to talk about uh our concerns about where kids, young kids were at, you know, really struggle struggling with uh behavioral challenges. And uh and it was kind of our consensus that part of the uh one of the very important factors there had to do with excessive screen time. And shortly thereafter, um, we started to read a tremendous amount of research that was coming out. The Anxious Generation by Dr. Jonathan Haith uh really drew a correlation between escalating mental health crises and proliferation of phones. And uh so that's where it all started. And so when we say young people, what ages are we talking about? Well, the zero to six group is talking, you know, very, very young children. Uh most of I think most of the public outcry has probably been with school agers and teens. But our our idea is that one needs to start paying attention to this right from the get-go with very, very young children.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

And so zero to six, let's focus on them to start with. So what does a screen do to a child that young?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Well, you know, I'm gonna defer to Dr. Bell, who is like really become quite the expert on what it does to brains.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I'm actually I'm still learning, but um it it doesn't do a lot of good things very early on, especially in the early infancy. Um Yeah, so uh basically uh the cortex, the brain, is a blank slate, which I didn't know about until recently. But at birth it it really is a blank slate. And we have we have inborn subcortical circuits and things like that for instincts and emotions, and play is one of them. And so that those neural networks need to be wired up, and they get wired up through serve and return relationships and attachment and play with infants, with real people, with real people, and it involves sensory integration and coordination. Here's something I didn't know until very recently, but there's a part of our brain card that's called a cerebellum that deals with physical coordination, but that's also important for mental coordination. So if you're if you're shifting sets and you're you're multitasking, those skills and those networks are being built in the cortex. So communication, self-regulation, attachment, uh so many things very early on are really important. And cell phones can, or cell phones, digital media can co-opt that because kids need to be embodied and they need to be in a in a real-time serve-and-return relationship with their caregivers, and they need to be looking at all of these um unconscious signals of safety from their caregivers and people around them, like the way they smile. And little kids will look at the left eye, and there's muscles around the left eye that give all this information. And our dogs actually do the same thing. So all of those things have to be learned, though, and they get built and they get wired up. And um, there are just all these amazing implications for how that works that we're just beginning to understand. And we're learning that it actually doesn't stop at infancy. That's where all the research began. But we're realizing now that throughout the lifespan, we are swimming in a world of these social emotional signals. The same nerves that detect signals of safety from others actually used to innervate our gills when we were jawless fish. And so we're kind of swimming in this social emotional soup. That's what I like to think of. And our our gills will open and close. And we we take in the good stuff and we block out the bad stuff. And figuring that out is a really complicated thing to do for social mammals.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

And so what's the this uh something that I see a lot uh referenced as a child of the 80s? What is the difference between being on a screen and being like I was in front of a television? What's the difference? Is there a difference? I mean, I wasn't in front of the television the whole time. My mother will listen to this and get upset. But but what is the difference? Or if is there one?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Well, I don't know if you remember, but when you're young, a lot of television is really boring. And it's not it's not tailored to the the some of it's actually really exciting.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

I mean, I mean I watched Gilligan's Island, so I yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

There are exceptions, right? Love that, yeah. Yeah, and and the monkeys, of course. Those are the exceptions. Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Still in the 80s, they weren't.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

But I guess I guess what's um what's different about uh digital screen time is that it's interactive and it tailors and it and it it can figure out what people want to see, what people want to hear.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

So you can't turn away. You can't turn away. There are no commercials, right? There's no commercials. And you get a dopamine release.

unknown 7:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And it's just, I mean, it's so elegant in how they've managed to just stimulate the the dopamine reward network.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, and just with the algorithm that it's just amazing. And uh just to follow up on something you shared, Andy, in terms of screen time, right? Um I recently read a study uh through the National Survey on Children's Health in 2020. And it made reference to, and I think we were talking about, you know, in moderation, right? You know, screen time is gonna be here. I think it's just in moderation. But the survey indicated that young people between the ages of six to seventeen spending four hours or more a day on screen time increases their chance of anxiety by some 46%. Depression increases some 61%. Um their behavior and conduct um uh increased by 24%. And even a case of increase some um AE ADHD, you know, just from that abundance of screen time. So I think to your point, Andy, is really, you know, in moderation. I think that's what we really want to make our community aware of.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Yeah. I think that's important because you know, we were talking offline, you know, there's there's certain things that are unavoidable, right? Like kids today, when they're in school, are on screens. You know, that's part of how they learn. They're on computers, they're on iPads, and part of that is you're going to eventually grow up and have a job and be on a computer. And you, you know, that's just the way the world works. And and part of it is also, as we were mentioning, um, mom and dad are busy sometimes. And you need you need you to cook dinner or you need to do something and screens pop in. Um, but it's the moderation. Do you want to expand on that?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, I believe in terms of uh as you said, uh Catherine, you know, we're all busy. You know, and to Andy's point, the the the television, you know, my mother put me in front of the TV when she was, you know, cooking or what have you. I I think in terms of just educating our community about the potential harm that abuse or misuse could could cause. Uh and that's what we hope to do at the youth bureau and some of our community partners is to continue to have these dialogues with our after-school providers about we recognize that screens are here, and now that we're moving in the AI realm, um, we I I think we're in a we're at that crossroad where we really want to make sure that we educate uh the next generation, particularly our young people.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

So I was reading something the other day that pointed out that school-aged children probably spend more time on screens than any other activity aside from perhaps sleeping. So when we call for moderation, you know, we're saying maybe you have to recalibrate, you know, uh, we're not anti-tech, we're not saying let's do away with it, but we are saying maybe reclaim sometime for other things. Uh I think of a lot of the digital media as experience blockers. You know, you could be doing so, we're going for a walk in the woods, you could be, you know, looking for grasshoppers. There's so many other things you could do, particularly in a place like Westchester County. There's so many wonderful activities here that are free and available. And we want people to be able to experience that.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

So let's jump into that a little bit, the play, right? I know you are a play expert, and I want to hear what you have to say on this. But for for parents of young children and and school-aged children, what are what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

In terms of play. Well, I think kids kind of know what to do. They're hardwired for play.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, let them go.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Let them go. Let them do these things. Uh you know, George Carlin has a wonderful bit about why just give a kid a stick in the dirt. And what's wrong with that? Why why do we have to have all this fancy stuff? And you know, and this is one of the things I've and I I don't want to say I'm an expert on play because I'm still just learning so much. And you're Westchester County's expert. Yeah, I don't I wouldn't say that. But anyway, that's a very nice one. That's very nice of you. But what I'm learning is that, you know, we have uh play is an actual instinct, you know, and we have these seven instincts that are hardwired. So I can understand like fear and rage and things like that. Those are good instincts, but play, I never thought of play as an instinct. So the bottom line is basically it's it's kids are hardwired. We're all deep down, we all kind of know how to play. We forget. And if you let kids just do free play, they know what they want to do and they know what they need to learn, and they know and they they learn to figure out fairness when kids are playing games with each other. They learn empathy because they're switching roles when you're playing tag, you know what it feels like to be the other person. Um, kids develop their own internal rules. Fairness, I thought this was a crowning achievement of civilization. And you know, it's it's not, it's it's something that's really hardwired that that all groups have to figure out at a really instinctual level. And kids learn all that stuff and they learn how to get along with each other, and they they learn how to push the limits and to take risks that are healthy and maybe to skin their knees every now and then. And you know, you don't want you don't want anything to be too dangerous, but um so I probably didn't answer your question because I go off on these.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

No, and it's okay. Well, the other thing I think of too is the whole concept of allowing kids to be bored. You know, I think we kind of big one. Yeah, we kind of like rush in, right? They they gotta be doing something, it's gotta be fun, it's gotta be whatever. Educational. Yeah, it's gonna be educational. But but the reality is uh, you know, kids can figure a way out of boredom if you give them some space to do that.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

And I think just you know, human nature, right? Even us as adult, you know, we have that desire for interaction and in and and being connected and talking. And uh Andy said something made me think when I go by some of the parks, right? When the young people are out there, they are so engaged. You know, each year we do what we call InvestFest, where we bring about 200 young people to uh one of our award-winning county parks. And when it's time to go, they don't want to go.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

They don't want to go, right here.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

They just linger around and we love it. So they're really engaged. So I think that desire for human interaction, rather than that is on the young people's side or us as adults.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Has this concept changed the way the youth bureaus are constructing their programming?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Um it it it is. Uh we're starting to see more, and um we uh the state has been very supportive of us through our sports and education. So I think that's elevated to the state level. Uh, we've been fortunate in um 2026 to get an uptick in dollars from the state that's earmarked specifically for sports and education. Um so all of our partners uh who apply for our state uh sports and education money when we go out, um, they're really engaging young people, you know, from the after-school program to the clubs uh to the weekend activities. And it's uh and it's amazing just to see uh young people running around.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

And is this connected also to cell phones and how at what age a child should get a cell phone? Yes. There's a hot topic. So it's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Lots of litigation, and and we're watching that all very, very carefully. Well, we're uh we were very happy about the passage of Bell to Bell and its adoption, you know, statewide. Um there are other bills out there that go a little bit further that we're also, you know, looking at. But I think um, you know, as we said earlier, uh, you know, digital stuff is here to stay, you know, and we understand that. Um we also understand that there's probably no tougher job than being a parent, especially these days. And I I have adult children raising kids and are I'm like in awe of the job that they need to do these days. So we're not trying to make it harder, you know, we're trying to make it perhaps, you know, feel more supportive. But I think the notion of differentiation is important. What might be appropriate for digital techniques in high school do not necessarily translate into second grade. So one of the things that concerns me sometimes is that um there's an um the thinking is well, if we want kids to be uh digitally proficient by high school, we need to start like in kindergarten. I don't think the research as we know it at this point really bears that out. So I'm just hoping that we pursue these things uh in a way that's thoughtful and looks again at the particular developmental stage of kids and not treat all kids of all ages as being in the same place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Is that making sense? That totally makes sense because there are these developmental windows that are very sensitive. And it's really important, like in infancy and for toddlers to be very careful about their exposure. And and during adolescence as well, there's a sort of a brain reorganization that can happen, and and social media can be very damaging.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

But once it's damaging to adults, of course it's damaging to children. That's what I always go back to. It is damaging to adults, of course, it will impact children. Sorry, I just that's me as a mom of three and my gosh, yes, don't have a degree, but that's what I see.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, I yeah, I don't have a degree in figuring out how to stay off social media. I'm I'm personally addicted in in certain ways.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

And I we all have to help each other. Yeah. And I also think it depends, or it depends on the person. It depends on what you're looking at. I mean, you I think if you're going on social media and looking at, you know, cooking recipes, that's great. That's relaxing, that's lovely. But if you're going on and looking at, you know, I don't know, beauty regimens or weight loss things, that's when it could really get toxic and you're just going down a rabbit hole. And for a young person who's already, again, this is just me, the mom speaking, but if a young person is already going through puberty, going through the middle school experience, which is miserable, and then you mix in social media, I mean, that's a recipe for disaster. Disaster.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah. And these algorithms, there are, I was reading something where if if a girl takes down a selfie, a teenage girl, they will start putting ads for weight loss something. Oh, that's terrible. Things like that. Or if somebody doesn't get a lot of likes, when they do get a lot of likes, the algorithm will delay them getting those likes because they want to draw out that dopamine anticipation. And and and when it the hit really comes, it it's it's like processed junk food. It's a social emotional junk food. Junk food, yeah. Yeah, that's it's like corn oil. Not corn oil. Fruct, high fructose corn syrup. Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

You know, Andy reminded me when he made reference in terms of that whole algorithm and dopamine, right? Um recently we we held the the the county and the youth bureau uh held a conference at our uh county center where we brought about 250, no, about 350 uh students to the county center. And one of the topics was around monetizing your social media and your brand. And you know, Andy, you referenced that whole following concept. And so um if it's gonna be used in that respect, you know, all the a lot of the young people that's on it want to say if I get X number of likes, maybe I'll be able to advertise it. And in one hand, we want to commend that, but we know chances are there's not a tremendous amount of using it for the business aspect of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

I mean, it's sort of the same as young people believing they're going to become professional athletes. It's the same thing. You know, I mean you I you wish, you know, like your what is it, the expression your matzigadzu is to become a professional athlete to become an influencer. But the reality is you're probably not going to. And you have to, you know, take steps to do other things. Um so you have um a big week coming up that's really going to focus on this disconnect to reconnect. Do you want to tell us about that?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Sure. Um, thanks to our partner in the um disconnect to reconnect. We were having a discussion that uh May 4th through the 10th is official national screen free week. And um at the youth bureau, we intend to reach out to all of our after-school partners to help promote um screen time, screen free time for a week. We're gonna encourage all of our partners to take full advantage of Westchester's award-winning park system. We have from trails to uh and the concept is really just to get young people to, and even adults, as you said, Catherine, to relax the phone for a week, you know, and to get into that mode of being reconnected. And so we want to join the national campaign on uh screen free week that that week.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

So what are we doing that week? We're taking we're coming home from work, we're putting our phones in a basket. What are we doing? Well, how do we how do we disconnect? These guys how do we disconnect ourselves? How do we disconnect the kids? What do we do?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Well, I think as we shed earlier, uh in moderation, I think it's unrealistic to think that, you know, while we would like to see it happen, to to to go digital free for a week. I think that's that's probably not realistic.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

But if you're it would also be amazing. It would. But we want people to experience it somewhat, whatever they can do. Yeah, right. So even if you have like a couple of dinners together and and the you know, and uh the thought is that you know, put your phones down, just you know, try it out, go for a walk, do a jigsaw puzzle together.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

And I can tell I can tell you what this movement's done for me personally, is that you know, I I love my job, I love my work, and I consider it play. But then I when I started reading about play, I realized that it's not quite the same as play. And so it really motivated me, and I had to be intentional about doing something that was totally unrelated. So I had this cello that was gathering dust, and I picked it up, I started playing. Oh, I forgot how much fun that was. And so I'm doing that now. You're playing the cello. Yeah, I my neighbors. I don't know if I should say this, but I I take my hearing aid out when I play my cello because it sounds better. So my neighbors may not enjoy it in the same way I do, but anyway, it's it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

That's amazing. I love that. I love that. But like the imagine the possibilities if we all put our phones down, we could all be playing the cello.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

And it it just it took that initial effort, and I still have to make myself do it. But once I do it, it's great. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

I love that. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah. But I think most people have things like that that maybe they used to do when they were younger and they got away from it because there is kind of a one of the norms I think. In our country, is that you know you have to be productive and work hard and all the time and play, you know, if you get to it, fine. But but we're really trying to reverse that. We're saying play makes you healthier and more productive, no matter the age.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And it helps you become, yeah. There's all this research showing that when people have time away to do something totally unrelated that involves play, it does have, you don't know what effect it's gonna have on a problem you're solving at work, say, but it does. And it's it's really it's a little bit like dreams too. Dreams do the same thing. If you remember your dreams and think about your dreams, they can help you solve problems and figure things out. And so it's cool. I uh it's a mystery, but it's it's neat.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

It's amazing. And any tips for dealing with the teenagers who might not want to put their phones down this week, Ernest. Any tips? There's always that.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

No, I think in terms of as as as Andy shared, is getting to basic. I was looking at some uh speaking of screen time, I was looking at something uh reminded me, uh, I think we're sitting around the table of you know, many of us may have played a little game called Connect the Dot and how it has evolved before you were just, you know, you draw a line now. I saw they invented uh a dice to go with it. So you roll the dice and that determines how many dots you get a chance to move. But to answer your question, Catherine, I think in terms of sitting down and just having the conversation and um you know in moderation. So if they're gonna be on the screen from the time school gets out until midnight, maybe it's less can we cut that in half?

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Mm-hmm. It's hard for teenagers. Actually, I would love your your thoughts on this because what I have read again, and do not have a degree in this at all. I have a journalism degree. Um, but what I have read is that teenagers today socialize on the computer the way we I my generation socialized, you know, walk into town and town. So they're on the computer or they're playing video games, but that's their space to socialize. So it's hard, it's hard sometimes because, you know, I know I will hear it from my son, he'll say, But I'm I'm talking to my friends. You want me to get off the computer, but I'm talking to my friends. So that's sort of the hard part. What do you do in that situation?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

You know, I that's you're absolutely right. And in some of our programming, when we talk about employment skills, you know, one of those critical skills, we talk about it interpersonal. And we look to encourage uh our participants to engage with each with each other more, and and we recognize that's very difficult to get young people to place the phone down because that you absolutely that's how they communicate with each other. And um, you know, I have you know, my s my my son, when he was um uh on his device a lot, I would say, you just sent five texts to your buddy and you could have just picked up the phone and said, Hey, I'll meet you at the park. You know, so I so I I think it's a you know it's uh it's about how do we um help our loved one rewire their thinking, if you would.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

So I wouldn't try to go like cold turkey and do the whole week. That's probably you know we'll have a riot. Yeah. But you could you could say, you know, let's let's try this out as a family. Yeah. So let's pick a something that, you know, maybe we could all enjoy doing for an hour tomorrow. You know, whatever again, whatever you can. Whatever you can. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

And I I also think just education is really important. You know, my I I don't I don't know if this is true, but my I've read some things where they say that young people are kind of aware that this isn't good for them.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

They are. They are very because they learned it in school.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, they learned it in school. And I think this isn't a parent issue or a child issue. This is a societal issue because there are social forces that are pulling people toward this, and they kind of know it's not great, and they kind of feel bad and exhausted after being on Facebook for too long or whatever those platforms are. And so I think I know for me, just being aware of what the pros and cons are about digital media has helped me moderate my usage. And maybe, maybe for teenagers too. That'll that'll make a difference.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

So the week is coming up. Um, if people want to participate, where should they go? What should they do? Is are there resources online for them?

SPEAKER_02 26:31

So there actually is uh information about this in the disconnect to reconnect newsletter um that uh already came out, but the one that will be coming out next week for May will again uh have the website uh for the national week, and they have all kinds of ideas there of you know uh of things for people to do. And the newsletter, newsletter we send out too, and we'd love to have more people, you know. Read the newsletter.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Where do they sign up? Let them know.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

So it's okay conversations.org slash D2R. Terrific. Okay, okay. And um there's every month there's new suggestions of things that free activities for kids and families of all ages they can participate in.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Terrific. Anything else you want to share with us? This is this is always a good topic, always an interesting topic.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Well, if I could add one thing, it's sure, you know, uh Disconnect to Reconnect would not have gotten as far as it has without the support of the legislature and the county exec. Um, and the official launch was about a year ago at the uh uh Westchester Children's Museum. Um and we had over 60 people there, and you know, again, great support for for for this issue. And the Westchester Library System has really stepped up uh to organize all kinds of things, including a conference that's going to be held on Monday, all about play.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

So lots to do. And the Westchester Children's Museum, it's it's just such an amazing resource.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

All museums are terrific. That's a great way to put your phone tab. Yes, it is. Great way to do it. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. This is really eye-opening and interesting and give us lots to think about.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Thank you. Thank you so much for having us, Caitlyn. All right, much appreciated. Of course. Take care. Thank you. Thanks.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Thanks.