I love a good podcast recommendation! Be it about parenting philosophies and family relationships,
education and professional development, current affairs or a digestible dose of pop culture, I’m
always up for a fresh voice and current content that may have a new learning or input for life.
Recently, I came across an insightful phrase via an early childhood podcast recommendation: Mixed
Digital Diet. It has helpfully changed the way I communicate and view screen time both
professionally and in the home.
Kate Highfield, from the University of Canberra and Dr Fiona Scott from the University of Sheffield
shared the idea on an episode of the Early Childhood Australia (ECA) Podcast in a discussion around
early childhood and education in the digital age.
The two academics are researchers in the early childhood and tech space, along with parents of
young children themselves, so they are both professional and personal stakeholders in this area.
In the episode they discussed their top tips for educators and families in the digital space. With Dr
Scott sharing her top tips around the idea of what she termed a “mixed digital diet”.
As soon as I heard the phrase – mixed digital diet – it made so much sense! Like a literal balanced
diet in what we eat and put into our bodies, the idea of considering what we consume digitally as
families and individuals is important to our overall health and well-being.
I appreciate that the phrase is a positive one. It doesn’t make screen time or technology the bad guy,
but rather acknowledges it is now an accepted part of our daily lives, and it is up to us when and
how we consume it.
The idea of a mixed digital diet is also an open to interpretation concept. It is not a hard or fast rule,
or a black and white, one or the other non-negotiable. How a mixed digital diet looks from family to
family, and classroom to classroom, and individual to individual will differ. The important thing is
your family’s digital consumption is considered and decided. Otherwise, just like in our physical diets
it will happen to you. Then you’ll be left wondering how you gained those extra kilos, or in this case
lost those extra hours or got into unhealthy digital habits, when you weren’t paying attention.
The ECA Podcast episode broke digital consumption down into three categories: private viewing, co-
viewing and not viewing.
Sometimes families will need children to be contained and entertained and that may mean private
viewing for a moment alone on a device, or in front of the TV watching Bluey. And that is OK.
But it is also of value to then share in those digital moments as a family together by co-viewing. Not
only seeing technology as a babysitter, but also as an avenue to connection. By sharing in a Bluey
episode together – such as Keepy Uppy or Magic Xylophone – it means you then have a jumping off
point from the digital space into the real world where you can physically share in the game or
implement learning from the episode. Play School’s crafts and recipes, or The Wiggles songs and
dances are also resources for co-viewing leading to connected non-viewing time.
This idea of breaking screen time up into balanced diet categories helps families to see and evaluate
how they are consuming technology in their daily lives. Fiona Scott says, “it’s the idea of
remembering that not all digital practices or digital activities are the same, but that they may
support different kinds of outcomes”. Just like in a balanced diet where different foods give you different nutrients, so too different technologies will provide different digital and real-world opportunities.
Recognising that not all digital time needs to be about learning or playing is also valuable. Video
calling parents who are working interstate or extended family who live overseas, and playing
peekaboo or having them read a story over a device is a valuable digital engagement. Recording
voice notes or videos are also wonderful tools, as children can rewatch them repeatedly as a form of
connection when they miss loved ones.
As children get older, it is also of note to consider that they can not only consume digital content,
but they can also produce it. My primary aged children will often borrow a tablet to make a short
film or choreograph a dance and record the moment. They then practice valuable digital skills to edit
and produce the movie to share with family and friends and have a record of the playdate. They now
even include a blooper reel at the end! This “screen time” is engaging, building on imaginary play,
while also increasing their critical digital literacy. Learning, playing, connecting and producing, not
merely consuming.
By broadening our view of screen time from good or bad, to a mixed digital diet we can take it out of
the forbidden fruit category into a tool that certainly in the right circumstances can be used for good
or bad, but that in and of itself is simply a tool. As families we need to align our digital practices with
our day-to-day family values. The key is to build a plan for what a mixed digital diet looks like in your
home, and as Kate Hatfield says toward the end of the ECA Podcast episode, “have ongoing
conversations, because as children age their tech expectations will also change”. Just as we gradually
introduce appropriate first foods to our babies, or have sometimes foods occasionally, and include a
colourful variety in our actual day-to-day diets, deliberate choices are needed in out digital diets.
The key is open and ongoing conversations, controlled and intentional exposure to a broad and
varied digital diet to create the best future digital citizens we can.
Resources: ECA Podcast, Season 4, Episode 3: What every parent needs to know – top tips,
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/eca-podcast-series/id1652273665?i=1000638376576
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