Screenagers

Today's children and teens, with their rapid-fire thumbs and six-second attention spans, sometimes appear to be scrolling through life. Recognizing the symptoms in her own kids, physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston researched the problem and discovered that the average child spends a shocking 6.5 hours a day looking at screens. What was the impact of all this time spent staring at phones, tablets, computers, and video games? In "Screenagers," Ruston takes a deeply personal approach to answering that question, probing into the dark corners of family life, including her own, to explore struggles over social media, video games, and Internet addiction. Sharing both poignant and unexpectedly funny stories and offering valuable insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, "Screenagers" reveals the many ways in which tech time affects kids' development. The film also provides practical solutions for empowering kids to better navigate the digital world and find the necessary balance between the real and the virtual. (St. Louis International Film Festival)