Digital Dopamine Dispenser
Make room for life beyond the next scroll.
Concerned that phone use keeps interrupting meals, homework, or bedtime? Start with one situation you can change together. Use a free planning tool or bring a practical lesson into the classroom.
No purchase or account required. Print and use the materials.
A useful place to start
Notice the situation
Describe what is happening: a meal keeps stopping, a task is hard to begin, or messages carry on after bedtime. A specific observation is more useful than labeling a child.
Protect what matters
Choose a small boundary that supports the activity. Keep necessary communication, learning, medical, and accessibility functions available. Adults should explain and follow the agreement too.
Review what changed
Ask whether the meal, task, or evening went better. Keep the useful part and change an obstacle. A screen-time number does not tell the whole story.
Understand the evidence
A screen-time headline is only the start.
Compare a family trial, a bedtime study, and a school-policy study. See what each measured, what it found, and where the conclusion stops.
Read the evidence comparisonMake a practical change
Which notifications should still get through?
Choose a device and a situation, preserve essential access, and use a checklist to test the change before making it a routine.
Build a notification planGuidance for real situations
01 / For parents
When a favorite video is also an advertisement
Help children notice commercial messages inside videos and games, separate enthusiasm from evidence, and pause before a purchase.
Read guide & use worksheet
02 / Understand app design
“Just one more video”: autoplay and the missing stopping point
Help children notice when an app chooses the next video. Understand autoplay, check its settings, and create a stopping point without turning it into a test of willpower.
Read guide & use worksheet
03 / For families
A family phone agreement you can actually use
Build a specific, fair phone agreement with an example conversation, exceptions, and a weekly review worksheet.
Read guide & use worksheet
04 / For students & families
Make homework easier to start—and easier to return to
A practical homework routine for school-device use, distracting messages, difficult assignments, and useful breaks.
Read guide & use worksheet
05 / For families
Move the last phone check out of bedtime
Plan an evening phone handoff with charging arrangements, urgent-contact exceptions, and a simple morning review.
Read guide & use worksheet
06 / For educators
A classroom phone routine without a daily showdown
Design clear device transitions, private reminders, accessible alternatives, and a classroom media-literacy exercise.
Read guide & use worksheet
07 / Understand the science
Dopamine and phone habits: what the shorthand leaves out
Understand the limits of “dopamine hits,” distinguish habits from diagnoses, and examine phone-use claims more carefully.
Read guide & use worksheet
Why this project exists
This project began to raise awareness about the risks of children spending too much time on phones. We turn that concern into practical questions, shared agreements, and media-literacy activities.
The name is shorthand, not a scientific measurement. Different activities and circumstances matter. The resources do not diagnose addiction or promise a dopamine reset.
Read our purpose and editorial approachWhat is new
October 12, 2026
- New: When a favorite video is also an advertisement.
- New: “Just one more video”—autoplay and the missing stopping point.
- A complete classroom lesson with scenario cards and student sheets.
- A comparison of three studies, including their methods and limits.
- A notification setup checklist with access tests and a way to undo changes.
Used a resource? Tell us which instruction helped or where it fell short. Please leave out children’s names and other private details.
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