The Anxious Generation: Rethinking Screen Time for a Healthier Future
As children’s mental health challenges surge, the link between excessive screen time and rising anxiety has never been more urgent. As a speaker for The Anxious Generation campaign, KATHERINE MARTINKO helps parents and educators navigate the digital landscape with a balanced, practical approach—one that isn’t anti-tech but prioritizes intentional and mindful technology use. Drawing from research and personal experience as a mother of three, she explains how screen exposure affects cognitive development, attention spans, and emotional resilience, offering real-world strategies to delay smartphone use, set screen boundaries without constant conflict, and foster independent play.
Martinko also tackles the social pressures children and parents face—from FOMO (“Everyone else has a phone!”) to the challenge of limiting screens in a hyper-connected world. Beyond individual choices, she emphasizes the collective responsibility of parents, educators, and policymakers to shift how digital media is integrated into childhood—ensuring it remains a tool rather than a dominant force in young lives. Through her engaging and research-backed insights, she empowers families to create a healthier, less anxious generation in an era of digital distraction.
Author Talk: 'Childhood Unplugged'
Author KATHERINE MARTINKO draws on her own family's experience, plus interviews with digital minimalists, educators, and child development experts to bring back the magic of being a kid in Childhood Unplugged. Taking a calming, nonjudgmental approach, Martinko's talk is a lifeline for parents, caregivers, educators, and anyone who questions the role of digital media and yearns for the young people in their life to experience the profound beauty and magic of childhood.
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Katherine Martinko's Childhood Unplugged is a calming, nonjudgemental lifeline for the magic of childhood in a world of screens
In her essential guide to taking back childhood from screens, Childhood Unplugged, KATHERINE MARTINKO draws on her own family's experience, plus interviews with digital minimalists, educators, and child development experts to bring back the magic of being a kid. She advocates for creating space for children to experience the world in a more tactile, nature-based way, fostering better mental health and development.
Martinko's talks inspire action to reduce the digital footprint in families' daily routines and focus on building healthier habits for future generations. Her knowledge, practical advice, and genuine passion for improving mental well-being make her a powerful voice for those seeking to reclaim balance in the digital age.
Watch Katherine Martinko discuss digital minimalism at St. Richard's Episcopal School >>
Katherine Martinko is a writer, editor, and speaker. She is the author of Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance (2023) and creator of a fast-growing Substack newsletter called The Analog Family.
As a public speaker, Katherine strives to empower parents, teens, and other adults to limit screen time using the philosophy of “digital minimalism.” Her approach is not anti-tech, but strives to put digital media in its rightful place—as a tool, not a toy. She offers smart guidance on tough topics like when to give a kid a smartphone, how to handle social media, how to say no and deal with a teen’s FOMO, how to get comfortable with giving kids more independent play, and why we all have a responsibility to help solve this collection action problem.
A former senior editor at Dotdash Meredith, Katherine is a speaker on behalf of Jonathan Haidt's Anxious Generation campaign. She is a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper, and appears regularly on national radio, TV, talk shows, and podcasts, including CBC The National and Global TV. Her editorial experience spans notable brands such as Martha Stewart, Allrecipes, Angi, Discovery, Treehugger, Huffington Post, Motherly, and the Toronto Star.
A graduate of the University of Toronto, Katherine lives with her family in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the edge of beautiful Lake Huron.
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