Digital Wellbeing & Raising Resilient Kids with Dr Sajita Setia

SHOW NOTES

Episode Summary

Technology is transforming childhood faster than ever before. In this episode, Dr Ron Ehrlich sits down with physician and digital wellbeing researcher Dr Sajita Setia to discuss how smartphones, social media and AI are affecting children’s mental health, sleep, behaviour and family relationships.

Drawing on research and lived experience, Dr Setia explains why education, compassionate parenting and healthy boundaries are more effective than fear or punishment. Together they explore practical strategies every family can adopt to build healthier digital habits while preparing children for a technology-driven future.

Topics Discussed

• Digital wellbeing and family health
• Social media and mental health
• AI’s impact on young minds
• Sleep and screen time
• Healthy digital boundaries
• Digital detox strategies
• Parenting in the AI era
• Schools and digital education
• Family communication
• Practical wellbeing tips

Guest Name: Dr Sajita Setia

🌐𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲

• https://sajitasetia.com/

🎦𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajita-setia
• https://www.instagram.com/drsajitasetia/
• https://www.facebook.com/sajita.setia/

📚𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘀 & 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀:

• Digital Wellbeing International
• Success4Life (S4L) Youth Empowerment
• Transform Medical Communication

“ Digital Wellbeing & Raising Resilient Kids with Dr Sajita Setia ”

00:00 – The Hidden Dangers of Social Media

01:47 – Why Dr Sajita Pivoted to Digital Wellbeing

07:06 – Technology: The Greatest Parenting Challenge

08:10 – Why Education Beats Banning

12:13 – Screen Time, Sleep & Mental Health

16:50 – Parents Must Model Healthy Habits

20:27 – AI: From Attention Economy to Attachment Economy

24:58 – Boys vs Girls: Different Digital Risks

27:15 – Practical Advice for Parents

31:30 – What Schools & Governments Should Do

35:07 – One Small Change Every Family Can Make

37:15 – Final Thoughts

Dr Sajita Setia (00:00)

None of the young girls have been told how detrimental Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat is to their health. What does the research say? What does the meta-internal research, which is now available on NYU website, for anybody to look at? The statistics are alarming. 10 to 15 percent of the girls are shown self-harm content through social media. And once girls come to know about it, young girls as young as 11.

A lot of them do not want to be on social media. They don’t want to be a victim of peer pressure and they are willing to delay. So this is the difference between banning and educating.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (00:45)

Hello and welcome to Unstress Health. My name is Dr. Ron Ehrlich. Well, digital nutrition. Well, it’s not exactly that technology. Arguably, I believe, the greatest challenge to our next generation of parents, navigating the digital world for growing minds, and arguably the biggest challenge, not just for our children, teenagers, and young adults, but for all of us. But they, of course, are particularly vulnerable. My guest today addresses those issues.

My guest is Dr. Sajita Setia, a physician with twenty years of experience and a researcher in digital well being. Now Sajita is based in New Zealand. She works at the intersection of medicine, implementation science, and family life, and she helps parents and children navigate the very real health consequences of screen culture. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Dr. Sajita Setia.

Welcome to the show, Sajita.

Dr Sajita Setia (01:46)

Thank you.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (01:47)

Sajita, you spent two decades in medicine and you’ve worked in in the pharmaceutical industry as a physician, head of medical affairs, providing you know, before pivoting to this digital well-being area, what was the moment or the realization that made you pivot and feel that it wasn’t not just interesting, but it was actually urgent?

Dr Sajita Setia (02:11)

Thanks, Ron. First it’s a pleasure to be here with you and I’m really looking forward to our discussion today. I’m glad you asked that and that’s a common question by many people and experts. So the pivot movement I would say happened around five years back when my son, who is fifteen years old now, he was a preteen.

And it was around the start of the pandemic. We were in first lockdown. My husband had to be in Singapore and he was just stuck there because of the lockdown and I was alone with my two children. And it was virtual learning. It was a tough time for everybody. My son, who was eleven at that time, between ten and eleven years old, he got really fascinated with chess. Now, because of lockdown, it was just online chess. So I enrolled him in a virtual chess holiday program. And he would play online chess for plenty of time. I would say ranging between five to eight hours every day. He had a school laptop. 

He was too young for phone. and he used to play chess on his school laptop. And I didn’t have any boundaries in place. I was naive as most parents. And I noticed mood disruption, disrupted sleep, behavior issues.

So I started asking my fellow physician friends, pediatricians, educators, and I was assured there’s nothing wrong. It’s just puberty. as a mother I knew something is wrong. So I started researching about digital health and I c uncovered a lot of facts. 

I started fine-tuning the environment, the sleep, making some rules, boundaries in place, which is difficult starting from Preteen years when children are they have their own opinion and they want to retaliate. It was not easy. And then I started to initiate this research on looking into children’s mental well being. I started partnering with universities and schools. 

At that time I had an idea related to digital health, digital well-being, and we are aware as physical physicians, still the definition of health does not include digital health. I didn’t want to bias myself, so I looked at all the possible risk factors in children and young people, even young adults. So we started creating modules and workshops for students.

And we notice improvement in their well-being through the validated questionnaires. And the easiest factor which I found can be controlled by us, not just physicians, by parents, by educators, is the digital well-being in improving mental well-being of young people, especially in girls. So I also ran some scoping reviews partnered with researchers in looking at the evidence because it can be debated. 

So my research can be debated. Existing research can be debated. I think right now there are two schools of thoughts. Some experts would say that social media and technology is the culprit. Some physicians and experts would say no it is not. So I would say we absolutely need a balance with regarding using technology in our lives, especially for young people, and families are struggling. 

Through my own lived experience as a mom, as an educator and researcher, I found that this is the lowest hanging fruit in improving family harmony and mental well being for parents and children, yet it is so underappreciated, it is so under discussed.

And there are conflicting opinions and sometimes clinicians also are advocating that it’s not social media, it’s something else. so we need a unified voice in reaching to parents who are struggling because of lack of accountability, lack of medical guides matching to the extent how technology and now especially AI has penetrated the entire world and we need to top up.

I I’m so right now I’m partnering with other parents, educators, physicians in making sure we are re able to reach to families who need us the most and they’re already living with lots of guilt and self blame due to screen time.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (07:06)

Yeah. Wow, Jutsu, you’ve opened up so much in that statement there, Sajita. I mean, interesting to hear you talk about low hanging fruit suggesting this is easy picking. but I you know, one could certainly argue it’s a great challenge. It’s it’s it’s easy to talk, not not so easy to walk the walk. I mean, the whole business model of technology is engage is is attention. 

Engagement and attention. And this is this is you know, we we don’t hand our children heroin, knowing that that is very addictive, and yet here we are handing them devices and actually modeling those behaviors to a very addictive

A very addictive th thing. you know, so w where do we start?

Dr Sajita Setia (08:10)

You’re right, it’s not easy and you’re also right in asking me how is it the long lowest hanging fruit. I’m sure you would feel that it’s not easy. I would argue that it’s not difficult. We starting from ten years of age or even nine, from nine to eighteen, these are tough years because of preteen and the adolescence and the brain development, but these are also the time points when children become independent and they own their decisions. 

We can’t really dictate parents what to do, we can advise and suggest. And especially the socioeconomic status also is a big determinant, as we know, for health, for well being. And that’s how I came when I said that it’s the lowest hanging fruit because it’s way harder to improve socio economic status and family harmony. 

But technology plays a very important role in family harmony, in in motivation, in making good steps towards one own health. And through working with children, many of the children are open in making a difference in their lifestyle, provided the tone and discussion is non judgmental.

It’s compassionate and it’s empowering for for the children. So for all the workshops that we conducted in in in Auckland, in New Zealand, fifty percent of the children are ready without any parental intervention to leave their devices outside their bedroom. When they come to know that technology makes money.

They lose focus, they don’t know how to play a safe game with technology and they’re losing. When we talk to children in their own terms, who love playing games, who love winning, a lot of children are willing to take action. None of the young girls have been told how detrimental Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat is to their health.

What does the research say? What does the meta internal research, which is now available on NYU website for anybody to look at? The statistics are alarming. So ten to fifteen percent of the girls are shown self-harm content through social media. And it’s coming from meta. And once girls come to know about it, young girls as young as eleven.

A lot of them do not want to be on social media. They don’t want to be a victim of peer pressure. And they are willing to delay. So this is the difference between banning and educating. I am not pro or against ban. It’s too early to say. I would commend Australia for leading that initiative, being one of the few countries, the first country, and very few right now. But I am way pro education.

I think the reason why social media is banned is not well understood. Nobody has told young people and families why social media was banned. So of course they are craving for it. They don’t know what the research says. And young people are not stupid. 

Yes, they are emotional. That’s how their brain works. But once they come to know they are just a target, nobody has told them how to use technology which actually benef in a way that benefits them.

School is using technology, they are supposed to use technology, and we all know how addictive and manipulative technology is. Once they understand both sides of the story, a lot of children are willing to take action. Now, yes, you could argue we really don’t know how many children would actually take action, but it’s a great start. And it needs to be included in the mainstream education, just like math, English, science.

The good, bad and the ugly side of technology needs to be shared with all the children.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (12:13)

Hmm. Well, I I love I love this initiative, Sajita, and I and and I know that you’ve described what we’re what we’re all exposed to as this massive unplanned experiment, and and you’ve just shared quite a shocking statistic just there. Ten to fifteen percent of content on meta show is exposing children, young girls particularly to self harm.

What does the evidence reveal about some of the other issues, some of the effects of this excessive screen time, this algorithmic design? How’s it affecting children’s sleep, their focus, their mental health?

Dr Sajita Setia (12:55)

It’s it has a big impact on their sleep. and thanks for highlighting that. I would say a lot of problems, especially behavior problems, and we know as physicians, can be sorted by a good night’s sleep in children. A lot of times the ADHD symptoms they they are manifested because of lack of sleep. And young people in particular are chronically sleep deprived. And unfortunately when we parents and educators, they come out with strategies and behavior regulation and punishments. 

Nobody takes into account how much sleep deprived that tired brain is. And that tired brain is not naughty. That tired brain just needs rest. So I highly recommend all parents, before you lay out boundaries or rules, make sure your child has gotten enough rest for a few nights.

So target the sleep first. And from our own discussions and workshops and research, I would say majority of the children have never been taught or told not to take their device to their bedroom. A lot of them scroll till late. They tell me they can’t fall asleep. They can’t fall asleep without their phone. So it’s a vicious cycle. We know phone is the technology or phone, even laptop, forget about phone. 

So research says that mere presence of a device in the bedroom can delay sleep or lead to sleep disturbances, especially in young people. it could be a laptop. It’s tempting, it’s like keeping a chocolate cake when you’re exercising. It’s mean to test somebody’s self-control like that. And often parents are not aware. So leaving the device outside as a collective action by family, which is not easy.

When I try to convince families to leave your laptop and device outside, older teens generally don’t agree to that because they don’t know the downside and often parents struggle to convince their children to do that. But once they have achieved it, then you start laying out with ground rules, but again acknowledging that it’s the technology that is manipulative, it’s not a weak willpower or behavior issue in children. the moment we liberate children of guilt, they are ready to take action. 

That’s the first step. The problem is not in children, the problem is how technology is designed. And now, as you said, with AI, everything is way faster, way powerful, it’s 100% algorithmic, and even the meta research says if a young girl

Takes a selfie, puts it on Instagram, and then immediately deletes it. She is shown way more beauty ads, way more body figure related videos. So we know how algorithms work. Algorithms they care, they don’t care about anybody’s well-being. And anybody who argues that social media does not lead to any decline in mental health, I would say just be on Instagram and spend five hours a day.

And in 10 days you will know whether social media impacts mental health or not. It’s universal, it impacts everybody’s mental health. If you really don’t know how to compare doom scrolling or with bloom scrolling, but even if you are 90% doing your own bloom scrolling, listening to motivational content, algorithm will find one way to keep feeding the content which is still way highly addictive. Somehow it will trick you into being with the phone technology or the app way more.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (16:50)

I mean, I we’ve we’ve done programs. A regular guest on our program is psychologist Jocelyn Brewer. And initially, when she joined me on as a guest, she had 3M model that our technology should be meaningful, moderate, and mindful. And I suggested to her that there was a fourth which was modeling, and arguably the most important one, because children may look to their parents to see what kind of behaviour is being modelled. I mean this this is not just about children’s health. It’s a much bigger issue than that, isn’t it?

Dr Sajita Setia (17:32)

Absolutely, I would 100% agree with you. Role modeling is critical. So if parents spend lots of time doom scrolling or just in general spend lots of time on screen, even if they are working, but they don’t maintain eye contact with their children. When their children come and talk with them, children are going to get a subtle message first that they don’t matter. And we are pack animals. We need to be in touch.

Face to face to thrive. We saw what happened during lockdown. Even if we were safe, we were not affected by COVID, just the lack of social isolation drove people crazy. And now a lot of children, and I’m not saying it’s anybody’s fault. It’s not parents’ fault. We know how technology is. Most of the parents are struggling to keep food on table and they need to work. And unfortunately, children get neglected. It’s happen, It’s the harsh reality that is happening. Parents love their children. They don’t want to even unconsciously hurt their children. But children do get a message that

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Dr Sajita Setia (19:51)

My mom’s, my daddy’s work is more important than me, starting from a young age, or their leisure, entertaining social media or screens are way more important than me. Sometimes, even when a mom is breastfeeding, the mom is just scrolling. Indirectly, the cues and the message which is sent to starting from a very young age is that I do not matter as much as screens.

And that cascades the relationship, a poor relationship with digital habits and screens also for the children.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (20:27)

It’s also interesting that over the last twenty years it it’s been our attention it’s arguably an attention economy, but now with AI it’s it’s ramped it up to actually be an an attachment economy. And you mentioned we are pack animals, we love attachment, da da da. Well, AI provides a very arguably well not arguably, a very sycophantic you are terrific, aren’t you? 

You are always right. What a great question, you know, how wonderful you are. I mean, who wouldn’t be attracted to that? We’ve moved from attention to attachment, and we’re still struggling to catch up with the first business model. How do we how do we even approach this next one? Again, I guess

Dr Sajita Setia (21:19)

It’s a very harsh and sad reality. When social media first came, it was something similar. We thought we found connection. We are now connected to our long lost lost friends. Nobody could predict the downsides of so social media. It took us a decade or half a decade to understand the mental health effects. 

And it’s the same with AI. We were not unprepared at that time and we are way less prepared now because social media still took some time to penetrate each and every sector of work, education, and society. AI is way faster. The way it has engulfed all the jobs, all the roles, even schools are now willing to use AI for education and probably they need to. I’m not against AI. AI can be very helpful for ideas, also helpful for students. But the relationship for children.

And AI is way tricky because AI is yes, man, and it is not difficult, even in secure homes, very well protected, loving families, for young people, especially teenagers, to become emotionally dependent on AI. Asking each and every question, which should be rather addressed to their parents, or they should take some time to think critically for themselves.

So AI is not for that role. It has to be clearly understood to families and to children. I think schools play an important role, especially if schools hand down AI to be a mentor or to be involved in learning. It needs to be communicated very clearly to children that AI is not a friend.

Absolutely not a therapist. AI is not a friend. It can act like a dumb bot. It’s just a bot. So I I saw from my own example, like my 15 year old, because of our lived experience, I’m very mindful. He’s not on any social media and he’s a really good boy. He is quite motivated. We have lived through the hard part and he has very good relationship with technology. 

And I’m really proud to say that so he asked for Chat GPT app and I felt fine. His school is is now fine with it. So he has very few apps. He just uses chess, which I also moderate, and he uses Duolingo. These are the only two apps and transport. There are some essential apps like transport for using public transport. So I gave it to him, but he was talking to Chat GPT twenty four seven. I even thought he has a girlfriend. I’m like, then I realize it’s it’s GPT. So I alerted him.

I said, I’ll give you one week’s notice because I think it’s not good for your development. And then we take from there, I may have to remove access to chat GPT. And he understood. So in the next two days, he told me that he has removed himself because he realized that it has affected his critical thinking. 

Sometimes, you know, all for silly reasons. It’s not good for brain development to outsource everything to AI. So Technology is evolving so fast. Like all the modules I created for my workshops, I have to update them because I wasn’t prepared for AI. And I think the updates should happen like every three months because technology is evolving way faster than education.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (24:58)

Yes, well I I think that’s an understatement. You’ve pulled out the difference and coming back to some of the potential harms because you’ve mentioned girls with self harm and your son boys you know as a boy who spent wow five to eight hours playing chess a day is incredible. wha what are some of the differences between boys and girls and how they are being affected by technology? What does the research show us?

Dr Sajita Setia (25:25)

So as we know, women and girls are in general more prone for depression and anxiety. The same also applies to their relationship with technology. So when we look universally one can argue that the evidence is really weak for problematic technology use and mental health disorders. But especially when we narrow down to gender and age, young girls the difference is humongous.

So girls are in general more prone for depression and anxiety due to problematic use of technology. Generally, the technology is social media for girls, the problematic aspect, while for boys it’s often online gaming or pornography. It could be either way, I’m not saying that it’s always these, but in general, girls also have way more body concerns, body image concerns, which I would say to some extent is thrown by social media.

We are saying early onset of puberty and there are many reasons. so of course the exposure to to neoestrogens and other environmental causes do exist, but as per the research, social media has played a big role in early sexualization of girls. And I’m not surprised. So if we are not monitoring the accounts that our children follow on social media, we are not in good shape.

We we need to have that consent from them somehow through our robust communication and shared decision making that we should be able to check what exactly they are seeing online even for older teens. I would string strict I would definitely recommend all parents to be mindful of what exactly is their child watching.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (27:15)

Hm. Which is that in itself is such a huge challenge, isn’t it? Because although well done your son for having removed ChatGPT, but I think there’s probably a fair chance that many of his friends at school would be would have access to that and many other platforms. Technology is so ubiquitous nowadays, isn’t it, that what we do in our own home is one thing how that translates out into the real world is is quite another.

Dr Sajita Setia (27:48)

Yeah, he so AI is used for education. I’m not against it. He still has Chat GPT and even some other AI apps on his laptop, which is fine. I think it’s also important to differentiate phone, what goes on the phone, and laptops. Phones are sneaky. They are like a constant companion. They should not be, but often for young people.

They reach to their phone whenever they want to avoid a social interaction. So we have seen the social behavior in young people is way different than our generation. and I know it’s not easy to convince teenagers to change their behavior. So we need to start early. If you have if a parent has never provided phone to their children, delay it as long as possible. 

But as a parent, I know it’s hard although there are recommendations, like less no phone less than 15, but in today’s practice it’s really difficult. We want to keep our child safe. so providing a phone is fine. There are also very limited options for parents. like for my son, somehow we got a smartwatch. There is like Space Talk Adventurer from Australia, it has lots of issues, the signal is never good somehow we survived one or two years. 

It’s also expensive compared to the quality that it like a dump phone works way better. So smartwatches used to exist as LTE, meaning you don’t need a phone to use a smartwatch. And smartwatch is good. Texting is harder. most smartwatches you can there’s no n social media does not exist or it’s way harder and you can easily control it.

But nowadays it’s very expensive to afford a smartwatch because you need to get a subscription, the highest planned subscription of a smartphone to own a smartwatch. So you see there’s so few options for parents who unfortunately still get most of the guilt and the blame for if children misuse technology. And there are dump phones which you apparently often have to order because nobody uses them. And dump phones are great.

So those parents who are considering giving a phone to their children, dump phone is an excellent choice if your child agrees. My eleven year old recently got a dump phone. It wasn’t easy convincing her, but I somehow succeeded. I don’t know till how long it would last because she’s very different from my son. Every child is different. if your child already has a smartphone, then you need to work

On building your connection with your child before you convince your child for any behavior change. But it is worth it. You will become a better version of yourself as a human being and as a parent in doing so. You need to work on your connection, which is really important for overall well-being of the child, not just for digital health, for overall well-being. Parents need to spend more time if.

Child doesn’t want to spend time with parents, which I often hear, do whatever your child does. If your child is into online gaming, do online gaming. Just spend 10 to 15 minutes with your child every day so that your child opens op opens up and is ready to spend more time with you. Involve them in chores and walking together, cooking together. You could start with any activity, but parents have to start with this before they can convince their child to take any action.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (31:30)

Now I know you’ve piloted programs in schools across the US and India and even in New Zealand as well. what do you wish schools, tech companies and governments truly understood about what families are facing at home, balancing this off against so many of the pressures from tech companies to deregulate and all that? What what what what do you wish schools and and what will what could we do better?

Dr Sajita Setia (32:01)

I wish schools know that just banning phones in schools is not going to change a child’s behavior. It’s a plaster, it’s a band aid, it will just fix the problems in school, but home is the main battlefield. And it will just come on parents’ head to handle everything. 

And parents are not equipped, as a parent myself that I shared with you, there are so limited choices for parents to be to communicate with their children through non-smartphone ways. And I would plead to technology, the big tech companies and the governments in thinking about solutions which are parent friendly. Like just a cool smart watch which is cheap, which most parents can afford, which is trendy. It it doesn’t look like you know the ordinary watches.

Which children are willing to use, which has no social media and it’s for texting and calling and maybe some other fancy stuff like music, no camera, it keeps children safe. But it’s just for twenty-five bucks or fifty dollars that most families can afford. Making sure dump phones are everywhere, Nokia is everywhere. Before you walk into any tech store, it’s just Apple and Samsung. They are expensive. Dump phones are cheap, but they’re not widely available.

Parents have not even told that these options exist. schools use laptops for education, but they do not teach parents and children how to use them mindfully, how to lay out basic ground rules before Chromebooks and laptops are given to children.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (33:49)

I’m assuming, Sajita, that you’re your you have some programmes for that kind of s that kind of education, not just for schools, but also for individual families.

Dr Sajita Setia (34:00)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we are starting up working with educational centers before we can work with schools because there’s a long process. I tried to work with through teachers but it’s extra workload on them, which I understand. We even tried peer mentor based programs in public schools to ease the workload, which were quite well received by students, they still have challenges. So I’m trying to work with private educational centers. and if if your educational center is interested, we come to train the trainers to run workshops and these are very simple workshops. We do not need the trainer to be highly educated as long as we have any compassionate kind person, adult who can run the program. Even parent volunteers are running the program

And I also offer private consultation to families, to children and parents for fixing family family harmony, connection and digital habits for the entire family.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (35:07)

So if the family d wanted to make just one change this week, a small shift, what would you recommend? I mean, w and why does that well matter more than people realise? I think you mentioned sleep was was one thing. What would be another thing that you would after we’ve got the sleep in in place?

Dr Sajita Setia (35:28)

So yeah, for sleep again, all devices outside bedroom for everybody, not just children, also parents. An hour of digital sunset. So digital detox basically means temporary break from technology because permanent does not exist in modern world.

So digital detox in any form, if you can do over weekend, even parents, you would see dramatic improvement in your quality of life and well being if you take a break from technology. Same applies to your family and children. if an hour is difficult, I would say start with 10 minutes or 15 minutes of spending time with your family with no devices, and it has to be positive. It cannot be a lecture. So a parent lecturing a child of poor digital habit, that doesn’t count.

Really quality time, you share what you’re grateful for and include your children in the list. You remove the built and the guilt and blame from your children. That’s positive. You tell them how manipulative technology is, but you believe in them. And even if this is difficult, if you have really strong knots in the connection, I would say just tell your child, I will always forgive you. If you feel lost.

Whether offline, online, if you feel you need to talk to somebody, even if you have made a terrible mistake, I will forgive you. From my coaching, what I understood is that children are afraid of parents. It’s not like they don’t want to share, but they’re afraid that they’ll be judged and misunderstood. 

Just telling that to your child will protect your child from all the pr predators and online exploitation because they know that they can trust you and they can reach out to you when they need help.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (37:15)

Well, Sajita, I think that’s a wonderful message and note for us to finish on and a very powerful one for what I think arguably is our biggest challenge moving forward in society in in general. So thank you so much for everything you’re doing and sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us here today.

Dr Sajita Setia (37:34)

It was such a pleasure. Thank you so much, Ron.

Dr Ron Ehrlich (37:37)

It’s so interesting to consider that having non-judgmental conversations is a great foundation for having conversations with children in this particular day and age. In fact, it was probably always like that, but it’s never been in more important than now because there are so many other influences external that we have very little control of on our children today. That was always the case in the past. You never knew who your children’s friends were.

But now this has taken on a whole new world and level, not just in our attachment engagement economy, but and our attention economy, but as we move into the world of AI, our attachment economy. And these are going to be very important questions which we have to face as individuals as we model behaviour for our children moving forward.

We’ll have links to Sajita’s website. I’d refer you back to the podcasts and many podcasts we’ve done with psychologist Jocelyn Brewer on digital nutrition. She has some great courses as well. I’d also encourage you to join our Unstress Health community. And while you’re at it, I’ll encourage you to leave a review about Unstress Health on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or any other platform. You may be listening to this. I hope this finds you well. Until next time. This is Dr. Ron Ehrlich. Be well. 

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