Digital Wellness

Educators and caregivers who look to Fred Rogers for inspiration often ask the question, “how would Fred Rogers respond to today’s landscape of social media and personal devices?” Fred Rogers was certainly a pioneer in using technology for the benefit of young children, but the reality is we simply do not know what he would think, say, or do in response to our current experience with technology. What we can do is look to Fred Rogers’ careful attention to the lives of children as an example as we chart our own course through our present reality.

The book Mister Rogers Talks with Parents, written by Fred Rogers and Barry Head and first published in 1983, lists the “six fundamentals of learning” - a sense of self-worth, a sense of trust, curiosity, the capacity to look and listen carefully, the capacity to play, and solitude. These six concepts are introduced as essential for learning in a chapter about television and the way it can hinder or promote learning readiness. In this resource, we consider the technological and digital landscape of today through the lens of these timeless fundamentals.

Resources like the Family Digital Wellness Toolkit from the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance can support you in thinking through the way you protect yourself and children from digital dangers and practice positive and useful interactions with technology and personal devices. This resource is meant as an additional support for caring adults to consider technology, their use of it, and their values in sharing a digital world with children.