Ditching Tech: Finland Returns to Books and Sweden Says No to Screens for Toddlers
The Vikings are coming - but this time for our tablets, smartphones and screens...
It’s official. The Nordics are at it again - leading the world in a way that makes the rest of us question our life choices (just me?). This time, Finland and Sweden are collectively shaking their heads at screens and saying, “let’s go back to basics.”
In a move that has many parents eyeing their offspring’s tablets with newfound suspicion, Finland has declared that it’s moving away from digital learning tools in schools and refocusing on books. Sweden has taken things up a notch by telling parents that toddlers shouldn’t be allowed near screens at all. That’s right—zero screen time. None. Zilch.
Finland’s Back to Books (Because They Actually Work)
First to Finland - famed for fierce winters and an education system regularly ranked best in the world. This is largely thanks to the fact that academics led the country’s nationalist movement and since independence, almost 30 per cent of Finland’s heads of state and government have been university professors, as I learned while researching The Atlas of Happiness.
Education has always been a priority and there was even a 19th-century decree that a couple couldn’t marry in the Lutheran church before both passed a reading test. Sex for spelling = quite the incentive.
Since then, Finland has led the education world, topping every ranking. They’ve also embraced technology in a big way. The country’s Council for Creative Education boasts that: ‘Finland enjoys one of the most advanced and expansive applications of digital technology in education, starting from the first grade of primary school throughout the education system, and consisting of formal as well as extracurricular learning through technology.’
But just as they’ve finished digitising classrooms with all the coolest gadgets, there’s a plot twist: they’re ditching tech and going back to books. Why? Because after years of experimenting with digital learning tools, Finnish teachers have discovered that books work better.
Studies from the University of Helsinki show that we retain information more effectively when reading from books rather than screens (explaining why I can barely remember a thing I read on my phone, except that I somehow need new shoes…). Books also improve focus and comprehension, which is pretty handy when you’re trying to learn… well, anything.
Another study published by the OECD found that over-reliance on tech in the classroom doesn’t lead to better academic performance—quite the opposite, in fact. So now, Finland’s leading the charge back to old-school learning, proving once again that less can be more, especially when it comes to screens.
The decision to return to books in school isn’t a nostalgic nod to the past – it’s a carefully considered move based on new findings. Screens may provide instant access to a world of knowledge, but books offer focus, immersion, and the ability to think critically.
The Viking way of parenting, as I learned in How to Raise a Viking (Danish Secret to Happy Kids USA/CA) emphasises resilience through real-world experience - whether playing outdoors, solving problems without digital help, learning to be bored or to persevere. Vikings don’t rely on a device for instant results. The Nordic way of parenting is traditionally about preparing children for a life where they can cope with challenges and setbacks, rather than always expecting quick and easy solutions.
READ: HOW PLAY IS SO BIG IN THE NORDICS THEY NAMED IT TWICE
Sweden’s Screen Stance for Toddlers
Meanwhile, across the border, Sweden’s latest child-centric policy is to keep toddlers away from all screens, ever.
I can practically hear the collective gasp here, but bear with me. Because: ‘science’. Research from Karolinska Institute (where they hand out the Nobel Prizes, no biggie…) suggests that too much screen time in early childhood negatively impacts everything from language development to social skills.
Children found it harder to follow information on screens and a recent study linked screen time with tantrums in the toddler years – and beyond. Research published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that tablet use was associated with a higher number of expressions of anger and frustration in four- and five-year-olds, too. Early childhood tablet use “may contribute to a cycle” of problems in emotional regulation, the authors wrote.
Swedish experts argue that what toddlers need are real-world interactions, face-to-face conversations and messy play. Things that a screen simply can’t offer. This might seem radical in an era where screens are often used as default babysitter, but Sweden has always been progressive in terms of family policy.
This isn’t to guilt-trip caregivers elsewhere: Swedes can take this stance because of the structural support that parents have there. Swedes enjoy the most generous parental leave policies in the world and heavily subsidised childcare where parents pay just 10 per cent of the actual costs of daycare. It’s harder to eschew screen time for children when you’re working a 40-hour week with no childcare. Sweden’s family friendly policies make parenting easier. Not ‘easy’ (ever…) but ‘easier’. Or at least more manageable.
Swedes aren’t doing all this out of pure altruism either – it’s better for children, parents and the economy. The OECD, the European Union and the World Economic Forum all encourage member nations to guarantee their workers paid parental leave and subsidised daycare because shared parental leave has been unequivocally proven to be good for economic growth (let’s get t-shirts printed! Or tattoos! Who’s in?). The Norwegian government recently valued the contribution of working mothers to the country’s GDP at £626 billion – equivalent to the value added by its oil reserves.
So Swedish parents have a better chance of saying ‘no thanks’ to screens than those in many places around the world.
READ: FIELDS OF GOLD, FLORENCE SYNDROME AND SCREENS IN SCANDINAVIA
What the new Swedish guidelines say
Children under the age of two should be kept away from digital media and television completely, according to Sweden’s Public Health Agency. For children aged two to five years, the guidelines recommend that screen time be limited to one hour per day. Children aged six to 12 should have no more than two hours of screen time daily. Teenagers between 13 and 18 years old should restrict their screen use to three hours a day.
Similar recommendations have come out of other countries including the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and France - with the strictest guidelines advising against any screens for children under three.
“For too long, smartphones and other screens have been allowed to enter every aspect of our children’s lives,” Sweden's Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health, Jakob Forssmed announced this week. Swedish teens currently spend six and a half hours a day on average in front of their screens outside of school hours.
This doesn’t leave “a lot of time for communal activities, physical activity or adequate sleep”, said Forssmed, pointing to a Swedish “sleep crisis” with half of all 15-year-olds not get enough sleep. The health agency also cited research showing that excessive screen use can lead to poor sleep, depression and body dissatisfaction and counselled parents to examine their own screentime, too *gulps*.
Sweden's public health authority Folkhalsomyndigheten advised parents and guardians to think about how they use screens and to talk to children about what they are doing on their phones when used in their presence. Turns out it’s far harder to scroll mindlessly when you’re forced to articulate that you’re scrolling mindlessly to a small child looking up at you with saucer eyes (also just me?).
Denmark's Digital Blindspot
So what does Denmark make of all this? Well, the Danes are generally a bit more enthusiastic about tech than their Nordic neighbours. I’ve written before about Denmark’s digital blindspot—how they’ve embraced smart-everything, from phones to, without necessarily considering the long-term effects.
But there’s a growing sense that perhaps we’ve gone a bit too far. Just because you can digitise your life, doesn’t mean you should.
Earlier this year, Denmark’s Minister of Education Mattias Tesfaye announced 12 recommendations for the use of screens in primary schools, including introducing mobile-free schools, blocking access to irrelevant websites and putting away tablets and computers when not in use in class. He also wants to make more room for analogue learning.
READ: DENMARK’S DIGITAL ADDICTION
So how do we balance the benefits of technology with the need to stay grounded in the real world? Finland and Sweden seem to be leaning towards the “less is more” approach - a bold stance in our increasingly digital world. Technology is part of life - it’s not going anywhere - but it’s not a replacement for real-world experiences.
Books, face-to-face interaction, and outdoor play still matter— now more than ever.
The Viking approach to raising small people is all about friluftsliv or ‘outdoor life’ - long before it became an Instagram hashtag.
I’d love to press the pause button to reassess my own relationship with technology – let alone my children’s. I’m not sure my willpower is up to it but I’ll have a second coffee and let you know. And this weekend, I resolve to log off. To step back from my screens, pick up a book, or a pine cone, or a muddy child (my own, just to clarify). I want to reconnect with the analogue world around me. I hope you can too.
Until next time, vi ses,
Helen
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Excellent article, I work in education in the UK and there is indeed a move towards more digitalisation in schools, even though my experience has indeed shown that kids’ attention spam has never been lower. I feel like forwarding this article to all my colleagues.
Very interesting Helen, I am convinced that mobile phones and screens for kids are going to seem as weird as cigarettes and alcohol for kids very soon!