​Watching my 12-year-old change so much before my eyes has left me in such a state of anxiety and desperation. I feel like he’s slipping away from us and I can do nothing about it.

​I know that the teenage years are a time when it’s natural to pull away from your parents, but when I look at kids today, there is definitely something darker that pulls them from us.

Screens, by design, are programmed to steal their precious little brains and fill them with a uselessness and violence that we were never exposed to.

​It envelopes them to the point where they really don’t have control over their reactions. All logical sense flies away, creating a generation of spoilt brats who speak to each other, their parents, and authority figures with no respect or control.

It is very disturbing, especially when you are supposed to be their mentor and teacher, and it feels like nothing you do can stop this steamroller, driven by tech giants who only think of the bottom line.

​I created a writing journal the other day to give away as a freebie on my Buy Me a Coffee website for 8–10-year-olds. It’s got space for writing and drawing, as I was thinking about how little minds are so curious and naturally creative.

I remembered how much I enjoyed writing stories at that age; how free you are with your thoughts, how innocent it is, and how it comes so naturally. Screens rob kids by programming them with nothingness and erasing that joy.

​I am now in the process of creating a small booklet to download with the writing pages that will ignite the imagination for young writers, but what do we do with our teenagers?

​How do we encourage natural creativity enough to win the war with tech?

I think it’s so important for us as parents, teachers, and schools to keep that spark in them with actual writing, not on tablets or computers, using prompts to help them and getting them outside in nature to increase their imagination in wholesome, peaceful settings. Maybe we could even create writing camps or dedicated imagination days at school, especially in the more senior years.

Is creativity the antidote? Let me know your thoughts.

Cally