Clare Morell on the Tech Exit: How Smartphones Undermine Our Parenting—and How to Reverse Course

The ever-changing tech landscape and the ever-growing research on interactive screens means that the topic must come up anew year after year. For parents trying to keep pace, Clare Morell has compiled the most up-to-date research into her recent release, The Tech Exit. Armed with the facts and interviews with dozens of Tech Exit families, she encourages parents that it's never too late to reverse course on smartphones. United with other families trying to do the same, we can replace the new "smartphone milestone" with real milestones that emphasize the goods of the real world.

Chapters:

00:03:56 Getting the metaphor right 00:08:32 The myth of time limits, parental controls 00:11:24 Boys and online extortion 00:14:23 A culture inherent to smartphone use 00:17:51 A parent's willpower vs. Big Tech 00:22:30 The alternatives: feature phones, landlines 00:31:25 Not your mama's internet 00:34:43 Brain drain: new research on attention, making memories 00:39:41 How to reverse course with teens 00:43:01 The 30-day digital fast 00:47:17 A new digital paradigm: F.E.A.S.T. 00:56:13 Digital accountability in the home 01:00:30 Morell's personal tech use 01:05:22 The father's role 01:09:56 Encouragement to start

Links:

The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones by Clare Morell

The Tech Exit Supplementary Resources by Clare Morell

Reset Your Child's Brain by Victoria Dunckley

Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

'Sextortion' Scams Involving Apple Messages Ended in Tragedy for These Boys, 7 June 2025, WSJ

How Broken Are Apple's Parental Controls? It Took 3 Years to Fix an X-Rated Loophole, 5 June 2024, WSJ

Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity, April 2017, UChicago Press

Also on the Forum:

Dumb Phones, Feature Phones, and the New Tech Landscape featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Technology in the Home: Perspective, Principles, and Practices by Michael Moynihan

Smart Phones: A New Mythos by George Martin

On Self-Mastery, Technology, and Parental Discernment featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Smart Phones: Why Wait When He's "The Only One" featuring Joe Cardenas

Featured opportunities:

Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)