Fast Company Highlights Parent.tech

Many parents want to use tech more intentionally

Author

Andrew Hogan
October 19, 2025

Learning More, Worrying Less

Last week, Fast Company writer Nicole Gull McElroy wrote an interesting article on a range of new products aimed at parents thinking about kids and tech use, especially phones. I was glad to be included and to share a bit about my path toward being more intentional. An excerpt:

“I want to be a better dad, and Parent.Tech was a path to doing that,” Hogan says. “It’s given me some scaffolding and context to make decisions.”

Hogan is parenting children who are on the back end of the “anxious generation,” named for a book written by social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt. Touted by Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric, the book links the steep decline in adolescent mental health to the increased reliance on screens and technology, calling this period in our culture “the great re-wiring of childhood.”

Nicole Gull McElroy, The Fast Growth Entrepreneurs Helping Kids Break Their Screen Time Addiction

The article highlighted both the concern and optimism I feel—and my belief that by understanding more about what’s happening, we can make better choices for our kids and ourselves. From my post on “Why Parent Tech Matters”:

Now, parents are swimming in a sea of tech options—screen time debates, gadgets that track your kid’s every move, and AI parenting coaches. It can feel like too much.

That’s why I started Parent Tech—not to cram technology into every corner of our lives, but to ask thoughtful questions that help guide its role in our families. What are we trying to achieve? Can technology help us get there? And what can we learn from other parents about what works—and what doesn’t?

Since then, the questions haven’t stopped: Why is phone use so controversial? What about toddlers and iPads? How should we think about kids AI use? What about their exposure to AI-generated content?

Answers are rarely as simple as headlines suggest, but we’re never without options.

Finding Trusted Sources, Products And Advice

The idea behind Parent Tech is that by examining the evidence and talking to experts, we can develop more intentional paths forward. And by learning from parents with kids in different stages, we can make decisions that feel more grounded that get us the benefits of technology while minimizing downsides.

What’s also become clear to me is just how many new products exist—and how vulnerable we are to their promises. Marketing around parenting is powerful. It often speaks directly to our anxieties, and it’s easy to get caught in cycles of overcorrection.

Sources I typically turn to for product research like Reddit and Facebook can move from helpful to overwhelming in a single thread. And, often advice starts in a helpful place while gradually sliding to something unreasonable. Books about legitimate issues can lose nuance once their ideas are streamlined into a clean, persuasive story.

Our kids probably aren’t falling behind and there are reasonable times to hand over an iPad. Sometimes kids genuinely need the connectivity of a phone because of their schedule, and video games can offer real opportunities to build skills.

The question, then, is how we get the benefits of what’s possible without the downsides. Is it about the design philosophy behind the products? Boundaries? Something else?

I’ve found a lot of balance through sources like Pok Pok’s Melissa Cash and Esther Huybreghts, Dr. Becky’s Good Inside, Ash Brandin’s book and philosophy, Emily Oster (Parent Data) and Common Sense Media. And I’ve learned just as much from talking to other parents, as Dr. Susan Walker suggested in our interview, especially experts in my life like my friend KD.

Like most things, the more we understand the forces at play, the better our decisions can be. I’m grateful to have so many of you thinking about this with me, learning as we go, and sharing what’s working.

I’m proud that Fast Company included Parent Tech, and I’m thankful for everyone who’s helped make it what it is so far—experts, friends, readers, and other parents who keep asking good questions.

Looking forward to continuing to explore how families can thrive with more intentional technology use.