How to Turn a Teenager's Phone Into a Creative Tool
- Maja Kerin
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
Using the camera to nurture curiosity, attention and connection instead of only consumption.
This subject sits very close to my heart because I have two daughters.
I still see their natural creativity everywhere. In the things they make, the stories they invent, the details they notice and the questions they ask.
But I also see how easily a phone can take over the empty spaces where that creativity once had room to appear.
A few spare minutes can quickly become a stream of videos, recommendations and other people's ideas. Their own curiosity has less space to speak.
I believe strongly in boundaries. There is content I do not want my children consuming, and habits around phones that concern me deeply.
But I have also started asking a different question.
When we tell young people to put the phone down, what are we inviting them to do instead?
My daughters are ten and twelve, so this is not an abstract concern in our home. I see the pull of the screen every day, and I try to resist it. It is not easy.
A phone offers immediate entertainment. Creativity asks for something different: a little time, some space and permission not to know exactly what comes next.
As parents, we are often told to set limits and reduce screen time. Those boundaries matter. But few of us have been shown what to place in the space that remains.
What We Know So Far
In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that childhood has shifted from being predominantly play-based towards becoming increasingly phone-based. His concern is not only how long young people spend on screens, but what that time may displace: free play, independence, face-to-face connection and engagement with the physical world.
The reality is more complex. A major review by the National Academies recognised that some young people face real risks, including unhealthy comparison, disrupted sleep and exposure to harmful content. The effects depend greatly on the child, the content and the way the platform is used.
This matters because using a phone to consume and using a phone to create are not the same experience.
The Difference Between Consuming and Creating
When a young person scrolls through an endless feed, their attention is continually being directed for them. The next image, opinion or video has already been selected.
When they open the camera and look for a colour, a reflection or a particular kind of light, they have to make their own choices.
They look up. They move through the world. They decide what interests them.
The phone is still in their hand, but its purpose has changed. It is no longer only a doorway into other people’s lives. It has become a reason to pay attention to their own, to play and to create.
What Mindful Photography Looks Like in Practice
This is where mindful photography can offer something simple and practical.
By mindful photography, I mean using the camera as a reason to slow down, look carefully and create without pressure. It does not require technical knowledge, special equipment or a perfect result.
Choose one prompt for the day or the week. Look for one colour. Notice reflections in windows, water or mirrors. Photograph unusual shapes, small details or the way light falls across an ordinary room.
Do it together.
It becomes shared family time rather than another rule imposed from above. There is no need to turn it into a lesson or judge the photographs afterwards. The purpose is to look, talk and discover what each person notices.
Often, the most interesting part happens after the photographs have been taken.
Your child may continue pointing out the chosen colour later that day, notice another reflection on the way home or draw your attention to a detail you might both usually pass.
The prompt has finished, but the noticing continues.
What Stays With You
I know this from my own experience.
Mindful photography began for me as a reason to pause, step outside and pay attention. At first, I needed the camera. It gave me something to look for and a reason to slow down.
Over time, the practice stayed with me even when I was not taking photographs.
I began noticing light differently. I saw small moments I might once have missed. Even when I do not have time to bring my camera or take a photograph, I still find myself framing moments in my mind.
The photograph is not always the point.
The point is that you begin to look up more often. You spend less time disappearing into a screen and more time noticing the life already happening around you.
Capturing the moment is optional. Seeing it is what matters.
The phone may begin the practice, but eventually the practice teaches you to look beyond the phone.
This is not a complete answer to the challenges of smartphones, or a replacement for sensible boundaries and serious conversations about online safety.
It is simply one meaningful alternative.
We cannot keep asking young people to step away from passive consumption without helping them discover something worthwhile to move towards.
Sometimes that may be sport, music, friendship, time in nature or making something with their hands.
And sometimes it might begin with the camera already in their pocket.
This is one of the ideas at the heart of Your Daily Pause: helping young people use their phones to create, not only consume.
Their creativity has not disappeared. It is still there, waiting for time, attention and a simple invitation to begin.
If this resonates, A Four-Week Creative Pause is a self-guided mindful photography workbook with twelve simple prompts to help your family slow down, notice and create — using the phone or camera already in your hands. No deadlines, no pressure to create perfect photographs, and nothing that needs to be shared online.
"Creativity is not something you find. It is something you return to. It was always there, waiting." — Maja Kerin
