What if ...

we mashed together the idea of old-school TV with YouTube?
and families were happier watching even more YouTube?
and our kids viewed only the content we scheduled?
and like, old-school TV, YouTube started/stopped at predefined times?
When we designed FamTiVi these were the questions we asked.

It seemed like we were purposefully moving in the opposite direction of technology! Everything is so on demand now, so convenient, the concept of scarcity (for entertainment) doesn't seem to exist anymore. Yet, I think all the data out there is strongly suggesting that families need help, they need better tools to keep tech-in-check, especially for their kids.

From the previous post, here are some of the valuable elements of old-school TV:

1) Healthier Habits, 2) Elements of Family & Friends Time, 3) TV Schedule Curation, and 4) public TV was psychologically and cognitively safer for kids.

We are definitely working hard on tools to enable these elements in your home, and also make FamTiVi relatable/desirable for your kids as well.

Here, we list out attributes of old-school TV that we are trying to foster, and we discuss features of FamTiVi that support the attributes:

1) Healthier Habits :
Scheduler: The scheduler feature works a lot like a calendar – you create an event, give it a start date/time and duration, and invite others to your event. In the case of FamTiVi, you will invite a Topic from your Library (e.g. Legos, Dinosaurs, Minecraft) to your scheduled event & choose a TiVi Channel to place your event. It's that simple. And with the TiVi app, when it is the right time and if the child chooses that TiVi Channel, the YouTube videos associated with the Topic will play. With the scheduler, YouTube starts/stops without any intervention from you.

Mobile Apps: We have developed FamTiVi apps for Apple and Android mobile devices (phones and tablets). These Apps are designed to provide a distraction free viewing environment for your kids. No ads, no disruptions. And with existing device-enabled parental controls, you can really make sure your kids do not navigate away from FamTiVi (if you so choose). Done right, the only thing your kids can do is press channel up / channel down.

Altogether - these two features - help to ensure that kids with healthier digital habits. They have autonomy to turn on/off the device when they choose. However, the YouTube content in FamTiVi is completely determined by you. And the time they start and stop watching is predefined. So no more issues having to ask your kids to "get off that screen!". Additionally, we have designed FamTiVi so if a YouTube show is stopped half-way through viewing, it will start from the same place in the video again next time. This helps children to eventually feel safe and that their show won't last forever - it will just be a cliff-hanger - and they will just have to wait to continue.

2) Elements of Family & Friends Time:
Small Social Circles: We have developed the concept of Teams in FamTiVi. It is a space in the App where you may invite other parents (and their kids) to participate in watching the same Topics as your kids. Say your kid has two or three really close friends, and if they just happen to be watching the same YouTube videos, the chances that they will discuss those videos will be much higher. It is a way to encourage a group of kids to try new things, or collectively get better at a subject ... it could be sports, learning instruments, languages, skateboarding, math, or just laughing together.

Scheduler: Use the scheduler to enable specific YouTube creators and content during times when you know playdates will occur. Possibly videos that you know a group of kids will love watching together. Additionally, schedule certain YouTube topics during family downtime ... when everyone is sitting in a room together and you want to encourage watching certain shows. I would do it for anything StarTrek related myself!

Research has shown that watching as a family and discussing what your kid sees is correlated with mitigating negative effects of screentime and enhancement of learning.

3) TV Schedule Curation:
Back in the day, TV stations had professionals who worked hard to ensure "programming" was balanced throughout the day and shows, on average, were appropriate and entertaining for the age group most likely watching at that time.

TiVi Topics: Today, parents & kids in the house will know what Topics suite them best. With our Topic creation and editing tools, it is trivial to curate a custom TiVi schedule that contains 1000's of hours of content that is appropriate for your family. If a Topic is scheduled for every Monday between 2 and 3 pm, FamTiVi will show 1 hour of the Topic's content each time. What this means is that if you have a Topic that contained, 1000 hours of content, and that Topic was scheduled for 1 hour every day. The Topic would show non-repeating content for around 3 years!

Public Topics: We developed a "Public Topics" space where users could share their curated Topics with the all FamTiVi users. If you found that someone has already made a nice Topic that contained 100's of videos already, you could just link that to your account, and instantly start scheduling that Topic to be viewed.

We have tried hard to make the process of YouTube video curation to be fun & simple, yet powerful & flexible.

4) Mental Health:
There has been much research on the effects of YouTube on the well-being of users. While there are numerous positive aspects to YouTube, some care must be taken around various aspects of YouTube offerings: short-form content and rapid-pacing within videos, social comparisons and the effects of influencers, potential for anxiety & sleep disruption, modeling behaviors seen in videos, and potential for misinformation.

Each of these aspects are incredibly complex within themselves. But without getting into complex theses, we believe addition tools could smoothen the YouTube experience for your kids ... you could purposefully choose videos that are longer, dive deeper in topics, are based on facts & expertise, help your kids to grew in directions that are interesting to them.

It is our hope, that by spending a bit of time to look at the creators and the video content before scheduling them for your kids, you are already helping them. Additional, linking Public Topics into your library that have been shown to be trustworthy can save you time and produce results as well. Schedule certain topics during family time is also a great way to promote learning, laughing, bonding within the family. Ultimately, as parents, while our kids are still young, they are incredibly impressionable. FamTiVi gives you all the tools – you just need to put in a bit of time to get it setup for your kids.