SNA, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Tech Tip: Lower The Ratio

Parents can make healthier decisions when it comes to kids, screens and socializing. In-person hangout time has dropped 50 percent for kids/teens since the year 2000 and it’s easy to assume that on-screen socializing (rather than in-person) is just “how kids are today.” But the latest research shows that there’s a big developmental benefit to hanging out in-person. Kids and teens are missing out on crucial growing experiences when they spend hours on a screen. 50 percent less time in-person means 50 percent less practice reading body language, looking people in the eye, and mastering the social skills necessary to thrive in relationships and careers. It also means 50 percent less of the positive mental health benefits that in-person friendships bring. With all the technology choices parents have to make today, we will always be making a healthier choice if we “Lower The Ratio” between the number of kids vs. the number of houses and screens.

Let’s imagine the common scenario of our kid or teen coming home from school and spending the afternoon and evening gaming with five friends on Discord. Here, we have six kids, six separate houses and six different screens. Aside from the opportunity cost of fewer hours practicing social skills, socializing over a screen also wraps a child in a perfect cocoon of ease and comfort for many hours at a time.

It turns out that kids actually need a steady dose of small hardships, difficulties, and awkwardnesses to develop resilience and the ability to manage in the world. Think back to being at a friend’s house as a kid or teen. Remember how much fun it was AND remember all the small discomforts? Talking to your friend’s parents, dealing with annoying younger siblings or intimidating older ones, coping with different pets, eating unfamiliar food, and adjusting to another family’s rules and parenting styles—not to mention the challenge of getting yourself there, often on foot, bike or public transportation. It is exactly this kind of constant, low-level challenge that protects kids and teens against anxiety. Excessive screen time can keep kids from getting enough of these small in-person discomforts. In this way, on-screen socializing is a lot like the empty calories of highly processed food; it’s missing lots of necessary and important nutrients but still fills you up, leaving no appetite for more “nutritious” socializing.

Imagine instead that our kid invites five fellow gamers to the house for a big gaming session in the living room. It’s still six kids and six different screens, but only one house. Now the kids are gaming AND practicing their social skills. Want to go one step healthier? Lower The Ratio even further. What if these six kids decide to watch a movie instead? Now we’ve got six kids, one house, and only one screen. Movies and TV shows are healthier screen choices for kids because in 2007, tech companies started adding lots of addictive elements like push notifications or the “like” or “comment” features (called Persuasive Technology) to social media. (At the same time, they added similar features to gaming.) In fact, most of the social media and games our kids use today have the same behaviorally addictive elements that casinos use in their slot machines. Movies and TV shows don’t have them. When the movie ends and the kids are in the living room talking and eating snacks, you’ve now got six kids, one house, and zero screens, which is the healthiest option of all!

Hint: You can also Lower The Ratio in your house with your family. Just think of lowering the ratio between the number of people vs. the number of rooms and screens. A family movie night is much healthier than everyone in different rooms on separate screens.

Megan Orton founded mindful-media.net in 2020 to help parents create healthy technology habits with their families.

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

As I write, February is upon us and everyone is wondering—is winter here yet?! This year it has been difficult to tell. Each day we get a couple more minutes of light reminding us that soon enough there will also be warmer days to come. Yet, there is always the chance of one of those yearly Portland snow chaos winter wonderlands that thankfully only lasts a few days.

Thank you to those who joined us for the fantastic Riparian Festival. Every year I am astounded by the thought and creativity that goes into each project. The classrooms and hallways are transformed by the students’ ideas and knowledge. We have some fun events coming up at SES this month. We look forward to seeing you there!

February 4–Winter Walk and Roll to School Day

PBOT Safe Routes to School is hosting the Winter Walk and Roll to School Day on February 4th. Check the weather before you go and make sure you’ve got the right gear. As the old Swedish saying goes, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.” It is a day to celebrate the environment which is so important to us at SES and to remind our students of one of the many ways we can take care of our planet—like skipping the car for a day.

February 17– Last day of Read-A-Thon

Every year the entire school participates in the Read-A-Thon. This event lasts for three weeks. Students have the opportunity to read, read, read in order to earn money for the school. There are many different reading competitions within the school that make the event a blast, and with the hard work of the PTSA the student prizes are phenomenal. Why does it matter? It encourages the love of books and all students get to immerse themselves in reading. For every line they read, they earn funds for the school. To build a buzz, the school invites local authors to speak to the students about their books. This year eight authors will visit our halls and spread the love of books. You can buy a signed copy of books from the visiting authors online. Check this link at give.mybooster.com/sunnyside-environmental-school-2 for more information. If you know a Sunnyside student be sure to ask them if they need more pledges. You can sponsor them with a flat donation or pay by the amount of minutes they have read. They can read anything including articles, graphic novels, magazines, newspapers; they can even listen to audio books.

February 17– K-5 open house 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Are you interested in sending your child to our beloved Sunnyside Environmental School? Join Principal Eryn Berg and others on February 17th to learn about the SES experience. As a Sunnyside parent I can tell you that the school lives up to the hype. If you are looking for an experience for your child that is outside of the humdrum of the usual public school experience, if you are looking for a school that puts community building at the forefront of everything it does, if you and your child are interested in the environment and learning more about it, this is the right place for you. Come to the open house to learn more. We hope to see you there!

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

Getting to Know your Neighbors

Q&A with Judi Brandel, Sunnyside resident for 60+ years

From my back window, I can see the backyard of the house Judi Brandel grew up in with her parents and older sister. She moved out of her parent’s house in the late 1960s, but returned to Sunnyside as a homeowner and mother in 1980, just a couple of blocks away from her childhood home. Brandel is a retired photography and art history teacher who learned to play the accordion from YouTube. As one of Sunnyside’s longtime residents, she’s seen a lot change in this neighborhood.

Conversation has been edited for time and clarity.

How long have you lived in the Sunnyside neighborhood?

Judi: When I was born, we lived over on Washington, between 34th and 35th, in a little house and it’s still there. There’s another one just like it up on Salmon. My uncle owned that house and the one on Washington and rented it for $60.

Then my parents found the house on Taylor; it had been empty and it was all overgrown. But, that house had really good bones. It was really well built. I remember it cost $6,500 in 1960 and so we moved in with a trailer on the car. I rode in the trailer, and we did all these trips between that house and this house, and I got my own bedroom. It was so exciting.

I moved out of my parents’ house in 1969, and we moved into this house in 1980. I was still in Portland, but I wasn’t living here. Portland, 75 years, but Sunnyside, 64 years.

What would you say was your earliest memory of living in Sunnyside?

Judi: I have memories of kindergarten. I really liked my kindergarten teacher. We had full day kindergarten, so we took naps, did the whole thing—I have a vague memory of going home for lunch. So my earliest memory of this neighborhood would have been that, ‘cause I remember going to the school and it was the same as it is now.

So you went to Sunnyside [School], and I heard your kids went to Sunnyside.

Judi: My sister and I both went to K-8 there. Then we went to Washington [High School, which is now Revolution Hall] and my daughter went there as well. Our mother was the cook at Sunnyside. She started substituting and then she got the job as head cook. When I had our daughter, I would go in there and get lunch sometimes if I was out somewhere. And then our granddaughter went there too.

What is your favorite thing about Sunnyside as a neighborhood?

Judi: It’s so centrally located. Growing up, when I lived on Washington, all summer long we’d go to the kids’ park at Laurelhurst.

Up on Belmont, the grocery store, the barber shop, the hardware store, the dime store and all the things were right there. I was always able to walk. Living in this neighborhood, for me, there’s always been such great access, to this day. I like that I can leave my house and pretty much walk anywhere I need to go.

You know where Stumptown is? There’s Stumptown, and then right next to Stumptown is the bar [Aalto Lounge]. That entire space was the Grocerteria, and that’s where we went shopping when I was a kid. Then you could walk through it, and where Tantrum is, was the butcher shop.

Tell me a little bit about how you’ve seen the neighborhood change.

Judi: When I was first living here, my mom was pretty fearful. She was a fearful person. When we first lived here, it was my first exposure to people that were weird and creepy. There were definitely strange people and strange situations.

When we moved in in 1980, there was an arsonist going around this neighborhood. Families were leaving, and Sunnyside was having trouble. People were sending their kids to different schools. I don’t know what happened. It just kind of bottomed out. And then the environmental school moved in and all of a sudden everybody wanted

to live in this neighborhood and all the families came back and now it’s amazing, I mean, all these young families and all the kids. It’s so fun watching them go to school, and the bike bus!

What could be improved in Sunnyside?

Judi: Parking, and that’s true for Portland in general. Portland always feels like it’s a day late and a dollar short. You know, it’s like all of a sudden it goes, ‘Oh, maybe we shouldn’t have built all those big apartment buildings next to the neighborhoods where there’s no street parking.’ My mom used to get so outraged when someone would park in front of her house and I’d say, “Well, mom, it’s a public street.” But I’m the same way. Like, people, come on, can you at least park well?”

What is your favorite place in Sunnyside?

Judi: I love the library, I can’t wait for it to come back. As a kid growing up, that was one of my favorite places to go. I read every single Beverly Cleary book. I read all the Nancy Drew books. I went there and checked books out all the time. When I was big enough to go by myself, I went and did my homework there. I loved that library and I still do. I feel so lucky to have it–that it’s one of the old libraries and they’re keeping that part of it and that it’s still so close.