Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / 1275 - How Tech Can Make Our Lives Better (Yes, Really!)

Transcript

1275 - How Tech Can Make Our Lives Better (Yes, Really!) · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:06
Speaker 1: On the Happy Families podcasts, I spend a lot of
0:08
Speaker 1: time railing against the tech giants and their impure motives,
0:12
Speaker 1: their duplicitous, mendacious motives when it comes to our children
0:15
Speaker 1: and addiction. So today's podcast may come as a surprise
0:19
Speaker 1: because I'm not always against tech. In fact, there are
0:22
Speaker 1: some times in some places where I think tech serves
0:25
Speaker 1: wonderful purposes and can really enhance and improve our lives,
0:28
Speaker 1: and I'm pro tech in those situations. Today a conversation
0:33
Speaker 1: about how tech can change our lives for the better.
0:36
Speaker 1: Welcome to Happy Families Podcast, Real Parenting Solutions every Day.
0:39
Speaker 1: This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. My name is
0:42
Speaker 1: doctor Justin Coulson, and today I'm joined by a couple
0:45
Speaker 1: of teachers from Sydney, Matt and Brianna Donaldson. I'm chatting
0:49
Speaker 1: with them because I saw them on Telly recently and
0:53
Speaker 1: was surprised by what they were saying. I was also
0:55
Speaker 1: intrigued by it, and shortly thereafter I was asked to
0:58
Speaker 1: have a chat on the Today Show about the very
1:01
Speaker 1: thing they were discussing. I was so captivated I thought
1:03
Speaker 1: I've got to know more about this, so I've reached
1:06
Speaker 1: out and I've managed to get hold of the Donsons
1:08
Speaker 1: to talk with them about some recent stats and what
1:11
Speaker 1: they're doing in their homes. So first the stats about
1:16
Speaker 1: eighty percent, let me say that again, eighty percent of
1:20
Speaker 1: millennial and gen Z parents are using smart devices in
1:25
Speaker 1: their homes to make life easier. So we're talking about
1:29
Speaker 1: smart devices for monitoring what's happening in the home and
1:31
Speaker 1: even for controlling the way the home works. And Matt
1:35
Speaker 1: and Brianna, you guys are the poster child of this
1:40
Speaker 1: gen Z millennial cohort doing this stuff. I'm amazed at
1:45
Speaker 1: what you're doing and how you're doing it. I don't
1:48
Speaker 1: mind where you start here. Matt, Let's start with you.
1:51
Speaker 1: What are you doing in your home? From a tech
1:54
Speaker 1: point of view? That has obviously got me so captured
1:57
Speaker 1: and so one amid and wondering how much money I
1:59
Speaker 1: have to spend to do this in my life house?
2:01
Speaker 2: Well, what are the.
2:01
Speaker 3: Big things that we do is the routines and the
2:05
Speaker 3: smart lights in our house. It just allows us to
2:08
Speaker 3: have more time together as a family when you're not
2:10
Speaker 3: worried about having to turn lights on an off or
2:14
Speaker 3: going manually dim them or tell Google to do it automatically.
2:17
Speaker 3: So like we use the Samsung Smart Things app, which
2:20
Speaker 3: is fantastic. Like I've used other apps before, but this
2:23
Speaker 3: one's so much better in the sense it feels more
2:25
Speaker 3: like coding that you can say to it, Hey, when
2:27
Speaker 3: the time gets to this and if the TV is
2:29
Speaker 3: on and starts to dimmer lights to this percentage, or
2:32
Speaker 3: you know, if the if it gets to this time,
2:34
Speaker 3: turn the electric blanket on so that's ready and toast
2:36
Speaker 3: you when we get into bed. So I think I
2:39
Speaker 3: think just having those sorts of things, they seem really small,
2:42
Speaker 3: but it really does add up eventually when you start
2:45
Speaker 3: to not having to think about it, it just sort of happens.
2:48
Speaker 4: We use it a lot for our son in preparing
2:50
Speaker 4: him for bed, and particularly with those routines. We've got
2:54
Speaker 4: a lot of research into obviously melotonin and screen time
2:58
Speaker 4: and the impact that that has before beds.
3:00
Speaker 2: We have very strict rules around dinner time.
3:02
Speaker 4: Phones go away once it hit six pm, our lights
3:06
Speaker 4: automatically start to dim and they change that more ambient light,
3:09
Speaker 4: and then we sometimes have coming music that automatically comes
3:12
Speaker 4: on and that's when we start our bedtime routine. With
3:14
Speaker 4: our son, we've seen a massive impact that that's had
3:17
Speaker 4: in preparing him for sleep, and we are very lucky
3:20
Speaker 4: that when it comes to that six thirty six forty five,
3:23
Speaker 4: he's ready to transition and we've seen that change in
3:25
Speaker 4: his body language to then tradition transition.
3:27
Speaker 2: Into his bedtime sleep stories, et cetera. And it's really
3:31
Speaker 2: helped with that wind down.
3:33
Speaker 4: So using technology to benefit us to then help our
3:36
Speaker 4: son get a good nuts sleep.
3:37
Speaker 1: So, like most parents, my brain is exploding right now.
3:41
Speaker 1: I'm just a switch light on our off kind of
3:43
Speaker 1: guy and hearing you talk about technology where you can
3:46
Speaker 1: literally tell an app, Sorry, which one did you say
3:48
Speaker 1: you use? You said that you several in your film on.
3:50
Speaker 3: That you really want smart things app. This is the
3:52
Speaker 3: Samsung smart Things app. It's their like poster app that
3:55
Speaker 3: does all of the all the Samsung smart text and
3:57
Speaker 3: even other things that aren't Samsung based can ad them
4:00
Speaker 3: into the device.
4:01
Speaker 1: Right, So, yeah, I was going to ask that. So
4:02
Speaker 1: if I've got like a Sinos music system, it'll still
4:05
Speaker 1: talk to that. Yeah, as long as it's got like
4:07
Speaker 1: it can talk to Google or other amazing smart home beaches,
4:11
Speaker 1: you can connect to the same sung it's incredible. So,
4:14
Speaker 1: like I said, my brain is exploding. I've heard you
4:16
Speaker 1: talk about this before, and I've been on TV talking
4:18
Speaker 1: about how people like you were doing this, but I
4:20
Speaker 1: still don't have a clue how it actually works. I'm
4:23
Speaker 1: not a boomer, I promise I'm not a boomer, but
4:25
Speaker 1: I am very much gen X and and I kind
4:28
Speaker 1: of I'm struggling to understand how you can say to
4:31
Speaker 1: an app, if the TV's on and it's this time
4:35
Speaker 1: of night, I want you to do this. But if
4:37
Speaker 1: the TV's not on and it's this time and I
4:40
Speaker 1: want you to do that. Like, the complexity around that
4:43
Speaker 1: and the thinking through it is it'sooing my head in.
4:46
Speaker 1: But also the fact that an app can turn on
4:49
Speaker 1: an electric blanket so that the bed is warm. I mean,
4:51
Speaker 1: it's freezing at the moment, and we all need that.
4:54
Speaker 1: But what's the tech setup? What do I need to
4:57
Speaker 1: do in my house? If I'm just running the stand
5:00
Speaker 1: electrical setup that most houses have had for decades, how
5:04
Speaker 1: do I get my electric blanket to turn on through
5:07
Speaker 1: an app?
5:07
Speaker 3: Well, the smart electric blanket we have is not actually smart,
5:10
Speaker 3: it's actually we've got a smart switch, so it interfaces
5:13
Speaker 3: between the electric blanket and your power socket. That switch
5:15
Speaker 3: connects to the Wi Fi which then you then connect
5:18
Speaker 3: to the smart things app and then you say you
5:20
Speaker 3: give it a label and say this is my electric blanket,
5:23
Speaker 3: so the app knows this electric blanket, and so then
5:25
Speaker 3: you tell it, hey, turn this switch on, which then
5:27
Speaker 3: turns it on and powers on the electric blanket and
5:29
Speaker 3: the electric blanket. Thankfully, R one just sort of turns
5:32
Speaker 3: on for an hour, so we can do it an
5:34
Speaker 3: hour before we go to bed.
5:35
Speaker 5: It just sort of turns on and starts warming the bed.
5:37
Speaker 1: Or you're driving home, you've had a night out and
5:39
Speaker 1: you know that it's late and everyone wants to get
5:41
Speaker 1: to bed, So before you even drive home, you jump
5:44
Speaker 1: onto the what is it smart things app and say,
5:47
Speaker 1: turn on that smart switch because I want a warm
5:49
Speaker 1: bed when I get home, and it does it for you.
5:51
Speaker 3: And if you've got a Samsung phone, you can actually
5:54
Speaker 3: talk to it and tell you your phone, hey, turn
5:56
Speaker 3: on my electric blanket, and it will do that, so
5:58
Speaker 3: that way hands free while driving.
6:01
Speaker 1: I mean, it just keeps on getting better and better,
6:03
Speaker 1: and I'm blown away by it, Like I said, even
6:05
Speaker 1: though I've talked about it before. If I don't know
6:07
Speaker 1: what a smart switch is, I'm putting up my hand
6:10
Speaker 1: right now. What is a smart switch? And how do
6:15
Speaker 1: I get those installed? Like what's the money involved in that?
6:18
Speaker 4: Smart switches aren't very expensive and you can just go
6:21
Speaker 4: to Cama Jbhi Fi just say you need a smart
6:24
Speaker 4: switch and it's literally just plugging your normal power socket
6:27
Speaker 4: into that and then that goes into the wall. So
6:29
Speaker 4: it's not a very complicated device and they're not expensive
6:32
Speaker 4: at all. But they are compatible with the app, which
6:35
Speaker 4: is why it works so well, in the fact that
6:37
Speaker 4: Samsung's allowed you to use a whole range of different devices.
6:41
Speaker 2: Through their one app.
6:42
Speaker 4: And like the o awesome thing is is we have
6:44
Speaker 4: the Samsung Smart TV and as we know, Todlins can
6:48
Speaker 4: get very addicted to television and we have very very
6:51
Speaker 4: very strict boundaries within our house and thirty minutes while
6:54
Speaker 4: we're prepping dinner, he can watch his favorite episode of
6:56
Speaker 4: Bluey or he's very interested in the shakt documentaries as
6:59
Speaker 4: we have in our Samsung feature. He loves watching them
7:02
Speaker 4: with our cat, Truffle. But if he decides, he's very
7:06
Speaker 4: used to the routine and he will often allow us
7:08
Speaker 4: to turn it off or we're trying to give him
7:10
Speaker 4: that autonomy to get him to turn the TV off,
7:12
Speaker 4: so he's part of that process. But if he doesn't,
7:15
Speaker 4: we can use that Samsung smart things actually control the
7:17
Speaker 4: TV to turn it off ourselves, and so then we
7:20
Speaker 4: can have that. Now, yes, that sometimes comes with a tantrum,
7:23
Speaker 4: but obviously we're supporting him through that and developing that
7:26
Speaker 4: understanding with there's now no more TV time. We're transitioning
7:29
Speaker 4: to dinner and then family time and bed and so
7:32
Speaker 4: it just gives us more of that control over our house.
7:35
Speaker 1: After the break, I want to talk to you about
7:38
Speaker 1: where somebody who's never done any of this before and
7:40
Speaker 1: whose mind is just exploding right now where they're supposed
7:44
Speaker 1: to start. I've also got a hypothesis that I want
7:46
Speaker 1: to run by you and see if your experience is
7:48
Speaker 1: consistent with what my hypothesis is. And we'll wrap it
7:52
Speaker 1: up by just talking about some healthy tech habits at home,
7:54
Speaker 1: especially since you guys are so ingrained with tech and
7:58
Speaker 1: yet you're using it in a way to decrease the
8:02
Speaker 1: negative impact of tech in your life. This thing is
8:05
Speaker 1: just so fascinating to me that's coming up after the
8:07
Speaker 1: break on The Happy Family's podcast, Matt and Brianna Donaldson,
8:18
Speaker 1: I don't know what to call you. I feel like
8:20
Speaker 1: you're these tech aficionados who are expanding our minds in
8:24
Speaker 1: terms of what you can do with a home. You
8:25
Speaker 1: were talking before about smart lights. The lights can dim
8:28
Speaker 1: as well. Initially, when I saw what you were doing,
8:30
Speaker 1: I was thinking, Oh, my goodness, to do this, I'm
8:32
Speaker 1: going to have to spend thousands and thousands and thousands
8:34
Speaker 1: of dollars and completely rewire my house so that I
8:37
Speaker 1: can plug it all into an app and do this
8:39
Speaker 1: cool stuff. Because I actually really like the idea of
8:41
Speaker 1: doing it, and I'll explain why I'm sold on it shortly.
8:44
Speaker 1: You've talked about the smart switches. What do I do
8:46
Speaker 1: about lights? How do I get my lights to dim
8:48
Speaker 1: based on what the app says?
8:50
Speaker 3: So what we did we started small, so it's not
8:52
Speaker 3: something you have to jump straight in and go right.
8:53
Speaker 5: I've got to replace every single light globe in.
8:55
Speaker 3: My house, and as you said, if you did that,
8:57
Speaker 3: it would cost thousands of dollars. So maybe you get
9:01
Speaker 3: start with just your bedside lamps and then maybe you
9:03
Speaker 3: move on to doing the down lights in your bedroom.
9:06
Speaker 3: Just start small, and that way it gives you some
9:08
Speaker 3: time to acclimatize to how you actually get them to
9:11
Speaker 3: communicate with your with your phone. So let's say you
9:14
Speaker 3: did your bedside lights to start with. Maybe you've already
9:16
Speaker 3: got some bedside laps you love. You just get a
9:18
Speaker 3: smart globe that it fixes appropriately, so whether to screw
9:21
Speaker 3: or obey in it pop that in.
9:23
Speaker 5: You then go to the.
9:25
Speaker 3: Website for the particular light that you've got and tell
9:29
Speaker 3: it to connect up to the Wi Fi so you
9:31
Speaker 3: give it permission to connect to your WiFi router and
9:34
Speaker 3: then that means it's discoverable on your network. So then
9:37
Speaker 3: when you go to the Samsung Smart Things app, you
9:40
Speaker 3: can then go look for all the device I'm looking for.
9:43
Speaker 3: It will appear because you've set it up, and then
9:45
Speaker 3: it will appear in your smart Things up.
9:48
Speaker 2: The priorite is what you want as a family.
9:50
Speaker 4: So our big priority was that transitioning to bedtime for
9:54
Speaker 4: a toddler and providing that space for him and helping
9:57
Speaker 4: him transition from his busy day into a calming environment.
10:01
Speaker 4: So we really focus on the bedroom spaces as the priority,
10:05
Speaker 4: and then we're slowly expanded into our living spaces and
10:08
Speaker 4: other areas of the house.
10:09
Speaker 1: I really like the way that you said that as well,
10:11
Speaker 1: because if you're trying to learn how to use all
10:13
Speaker 1: of this new technology with a house full of change,
10:17
Speaker 1: it's too much. But just connecting one device learning how
10:20
Speaker 1: to connect that, they're moving on to the next one
10:22
Speaker 1: bit by bit, month by month, nice and slow. It's
10:25
Speaker 1: really a really good way to get into it. Here's
10:26
Speaker 1: my hypothesis. My hypothesis follows even though Brownie, you mentioned
10:30
Speaker 1: that every now and again your child will have a
10:33
Speaker 1: tantrum when the TV turns off automatically, my sense is
10:37
Speaker 1: that when the house tells you that it's bedtime because
10:40
Speaker 1: the lights are dimming and soft music is playing, and
10:44
Speaker 1: the TV has switched off automatically, like you've got no
10:47
Speaker 1: control over it. It's switched off because you've set it
10:49
Speaker 1: up ahead of time, there will actually be fewer fights
10:52
Speaker 1: than when the parents are saying it's time to turn
10:54
Speaker 1: off the TV, switch off the light. We're done. You
10:57
Speaker 1: guys are still fairly early in your parents journey, but
11:01
Speaker 1: you clearly are doing this. Does that hypothesis resonate for
11:05
Speaker 1: you or am I missing the mark somewhere? What's your reaction.
11:08
Speaker 2: I think that's one hundred percent correct.
11:10
Speaker 4: Like as I said, we see the change in our
11:12
Speaker 4: son's body language.
11:13
Speaker 2: If we've been out, we've had a busy day, and we're.
11:15
Speaker 4: Coming home and we're rushing that bedroom routine, tore pare
11:19
Speaker 4: him for sleep because we've been out for dinner or
11:21
Speaker 4: whatever it is. There's definitely a lot more of those
11:23
Speaker 4: bedtime battles. But when we've taken the time, we are
11:27
Speaker 4: already home and he's soho ViOS that routine. We've been
11:29
Speaker 4: doing it since he.
11:30
Speaker 2: Was a baby.
11:30
Speaker 4: We originally had white Noise integrated as well. Now he
11:33
Speaker 4: has a Tony Box and he does stories on that
11:36
Speaker 4: so that he can if he wants to listen to
11:38
Speaker 4: audiobooks and stories, he can do that through his Tony Box,
11:41
Speaker 4: which has been a wonderful edition because it's tech without
11:43
Speaker 4: a screen, and so he can lie in bed and
11:46
Speaker 4: listen to that, which was his choice to transition to that.
11:48
Speaker 4: But we don't have those bedroom battles, and you can
11:51
Speaker 4: see that change in his body language when he gets
11:54
Speaker 4: out of the bath.
11:55
Speaker 2: It's a calming atmosphere that he's entering into.
11:58
Speaker 4: And then he's transitioning into bed, and we obviously still
12:00
Speaker 4: support him with that. We do his prayers and we
12:02
Speaker 4: read him stories and we help with that, but within
12:05
Speaker 4: tens of fifteen minutes most nights, he's in bed, asleep
12:09
Speaker 4: or transitioning through that on his own.
12:12
Speaker 3: I'll find it funny how as you're saying, like when
12:15
Speaker 3: the house sort of turns everything off, it takes the
12:18
Speaker 3: ownership off of the parents, so it's like, oh my gosh,
12:20
Speaker 3: you turned off the TV and you turning down the lights, like, well, no,
12:23
Speaker 3: the house knows it's bad time, And for a three
12:26
Speaker 3: four year old he doesn't understand the concept of time,
12:29
Speaker 3: it's a good cue for him as opposed to just
12:31
Speaker 3: having the lights outside when maybe it's daylight savings and
12:34
Speaker 3: it's still right outside, so he doesn't know, oh, it's
12:36
Speaker 3: getting close to bed time. The house is telling him, look,
12:39
Speaker 3: you don't know the time, but I know the time,
12:41
Speaker 3: and now it's time to get ready for bed.
12:43
Speaker 1: It's so smart. I mean, technically it is so smart
12:46
Speaker 1: because that's the idea of it, But I just love
12:49
Speaker 1: the way that it can smooth transitions and make family
12:53
Speaker 1: life feel better, which is what enhabbed me with it,
12:55
Speaker 1: and with what you guys have done in the first place,
12:58
Speaker 1: What do you reckon of the most important things. You
13:00
Speaker 1: guys have got so much tech involvement in the home.
13:04
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit the opposite. I'm trying to eliminate
13:06
Speaker 1: tech in my home, or at least reduce it and
13:09
Speaker 1: minimize it as much as I can. If you're going
13:11
Speaker 1: to have this level of tech in the home, what
13:14
Speaker 1: do you do as parents to create healthy tech habits.
13:19
Speaker 2: The thing that depends obviously on the tech.
13:21
Speaker 4: We've talked obviously a lot about the TV, the Samsung
13:23
Speaker 4: Smart TV in the lights. We also have a vacuum,
13:26
Speaker 4: the Samsung Respoke Jet dot Combo vacuum, which we named
13:29
Speaker 4: nom knov.
13:31
Speaker 1: And you sound like your I've heard of Apple fanboys.
13:34
Speaker 1: It sounds like you guys are just the Samsung, like
13:39
Speaker 1: like reps or something. I know your teachers, but this
13:41
Speaker 1: is anyway. Sorry, So you've got this Samsung What is
13:43
Speaker 1: that a robot vac Yeah.
13:45
Speaker 4: So that bespoke Jet dot Combo. It's named nom nov
13:49
Speaker 4: because he is everything before. But the part is he's
13:54
Speaker 4: on automated routines as well. So he's also the Samsung
13:58
Speaker 4: Smart Things app.
13:59
Speaker 2: And that's text.
14:00
Speaker 4: That's actually allowed us to have more family time because
14:03
Speaker 4: what happens is he cleans and mocks our house three
14:06
Speaker 4: times a week. So on the weekends we're not stop
14:09
Speaker 4: doing those mundane cleaning things that no one likes to
14:12
Speaker 4: do anyway, And so what it means is we have
14:16
Speaker 4: more time with our son. And so we're using tech
14:18
Speaker 4: to really try and gain back that family time. Obviously,
14:21
Speaker 4: as big, busy working parents, you're just rushing so much
14:25
Speaker 4: during the week and so it's like, well, how can
14:26
Speaker 4: we gain that time back on the weekends as a family,
14:29
Speaker 4: And so we've tried to find technology that's allowed us
14:32
Speaker 4: to do that. And then within obviously other technology like
14:37
Speaker 4: our smart TV. It's just about having those boundaries, which
14:40
Speaker 4: I know you've talked a lot about having those boundaries.
14:42
Speaker 4: So our son it's like thirty minutes only watching TV.
14:46
Speaker 4: We're very strict around what he can watch, so like
14:49
Speaker 4: he loves his Blue episodes and he learns a lot
14:51
Speaker 4: from Bluish, which is great. But I think having those
14:55
Speaker 4: boundaries in place is such an important thing because as
14:58
Speaker 4: soon as you let the they know, oh, I can
15:01
Speaker 4: push the boundaries. Like I know they're only toddlers, but
15:03
Speaker 4: they can turn around and.
15:04
Speaker 6: Go, oh, if I either say one more episode or
15:06
Speaker 6: just don't listen when the TV gets turned off, then
15:09
Speaker 6: I won't listen, right, And they know from such a
15:11
Speaker 6: young age how to do that, and so we're really
15:13
Speaker 6: strict us to watch TV in the mornings.
15:15
Speaker 2: The answer is no, we.
15:16
Speaker 7: Don't watch TV in the mornings in our household. We're
15:18
Speaker 7: getting ready, we're spending time as a family. So it's
15:20
Speaker 7: really that later afternoon while we're prepping dinner, and he
15:23
Speaker 7: knows as soon as we start cooking, oh, can I
15:25
Speaker 7: watch Bluey Now It's like, yes, you can, because we
15:28
Speaker 7: have that routine in our house and as he's getting older,
15:31
Speaker 7: he's having a little bit more autonomy around that and
15:34
Speaker 7: a bit more of a voice.
15:35
Speaker 2: But we've paid very strict boundaries in our household around technology.
15:39
Speaker 1: It just emphasizes, I guess, the importance of structure, boundaries, frameworks,
15:43
Speaker 1: systems that makes the house go better. Matt Brianna, it's
15:47
Speaker 1: just been such a fascinating conversation. My mind has really
15:51
Speaker 1: been blown talking to you about the logistics and the
15:53
Speaker 1: practicalities of how you've done it. Thanks for taking some
15:56
Speaker 1: time out to chat with me on the podcast. About this, Well,
15:58
Speaker 1: that's all right, thanks for having us a little bit
16:00
Speaker 1: different than what we normally do. But but what a
16:02
Speaker 1: delightful conversation. And I feel like I need to go
16:05
Speaker 1: down to JB's or Kmart and pick up some smart
16:08
Speaker 1: switches and hook them up to my WiFi. I like
16:11
Speaker 1: the owner of the house telling my kids what to do
16:13
Speaker 1: instead of me. The Happy Families podcast is produced by
16:16
Speaker 1: Justin Rouland from Bridge Media. For more information and more
16:19
Speaker 1: resources about making your family happier, visit happyfamilies dot com
16:23
Speaker 1: dot au.