{"id":77224,"date":"2026-10-20T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=77224"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:07:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:07:44","slug":"colket-families-screentime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/colket-families-screentime\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech Should Bring Us Closer\u2014and I Want to Fulfill that Promise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Frustrated by the limits of screens, I co-founded a start-up that aims to connect family members across the miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cornell-red-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cChime In\u201d comprises brief first-person essays by Cornellians. Do you have a topic in mind? Email us at <a href=\"&#x6d;&#97;i&#108;&#116;&#x6f;&#x3a;&#99;o&#114;&#110;&#x65;&#108;l&#x69;&#x61;&#110;&#x73;&#64;&#99;o&#x72;&#x6e;&#x65;&#108;&#108;&#x2e;&#x65;&#x64;&#x75;\">&#99;&#111;&#x72;n&#x65;&#x6c;&#108;&#105;&#97;&#x6e;&#x73;&#x40;&#99;o&#x72;&#110;&#101;l&#x6c;&#46;e&#100;&#117;<\/a>! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <strong>Alex Colket \u201901<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">Most Cornell students have families living far from Ithaca. I arrived on the Hill from Connecticut in the mid-1990s, right when the Internet was starting to promise it could make it easier to stay connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Email had been around a couple of years, AOL Instant Messenger had recently shown up, and there was a sense that distance from the people you loved was a problem that technology was about to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three decades later, I\u2019m still in Ithaca, and my family is scattered all over\u2014across states, and for a while across an ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"938\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-938x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Colket\" class=\"wp-image-77219 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-938x1024.jpg 938w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-275x300.jpg 275w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-768x838.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-1407x1536.jpg 1407w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-1264x1380.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-632x690.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-316x345.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-400x437.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-200x218.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A-100x109.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-headshot-1-A.jpg 1443w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 938px) 100vw, 938px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For several years, I watched my nephews growing up mostly on the other end of a screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I\u2019ve had a long time to watch that original promise\u2014that the tools would close the distance\u2014play out in real time, one platform at a time. And mostly, it hasn\u2019t delivered on its potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My family is scattered all over\u2014across states, and for a while across an ocean. For several years, I watched my nephews growing up mostly on the other end of a screen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A phone call, a FaceTime, a WhatsApp video chat\u2014they\u2019re something, but they\u2019re also missing so much, especially when kids are involved. It\u2019s nothing like actually hanging out together in the living room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The call is too short, the kid gets bored or shy or wanders off mid-sentence to go find a toy, and everyone hangs up a little unsatisfied, having technically \u201cconnected\u201d and somehow not connected at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Colket holding his young nephews in a green field\" class=\"wp-image-77220 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-1264x1264.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-632x632.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-316x316.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/alex-nephews-ithaca-beer-B.jpg 1575w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>The author with his nephews.<\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Somewhere in there, the thing that was supposed to be social stopped being very social at all. Most of what we do on these platforms, even when it\u2019s \u201cabout\u201d other people, is something we do alone: scrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More recently, the family group chat has quietly become the best tool we have. It\u2019s lower-commitment than an email thread, and easier to pop into and out of; it\u2019s kept my family looped in on each other\u2019s days in a way that actually works.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even that tends to top out at logistics and updates: photos, plans, the occasional joke. It\u2019s rarely the place where a six-year-old and a grandmother actually play together, make something, or share a moment that isn\u2019t just information passing between two screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s the piece I kept bumping into: the tools we have are good at transmitting facts and bad at transmitting play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of what we do on these platforms, even when it\u2019s &#8216;about&#8217; other people, is something we do alone: scrolling.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And play, it turns out, is most of what keeps a relationship between a kid and a distant relative alive. More than any update or piece of news, it\u2019s the shared joke, the game, the thing you build together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So a couple of years ago, my sister and I started building the thing we actually wanted for our own family: a shared digital space designed around play instead of posting, where a kid and a grandparent an ocean apart can genuinely do something together, not just report on their days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Alex Colket in a vintage family portrait with his two sisters\" class=\"wp-image-77222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-1264x948.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-632x474.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-316x237.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-200x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/family-portrait-gone-wrong-B.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A vintage &#8220;awkward family photo&#8221; of Colket and his sisters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We call it <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/kin-club.com\/\">KinClub<\/a>\u2014a private digital home with games, creative tools, a family chat, a shared calendar, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Family connection isn\u2019t just a nice-to-have. It\u2019s tied up with mental health, with a kid\u2019s sense of security, with the kind of support that helps someone actually get ahead in life. It\u2019s the stuff of belonging, not just convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Family connection isn\u2019t just a nice-to-have. It\u2019s tied up with mental health, with a kid\u2019s sense of security, with the kind of support that helps someone actually get ahead in life. It\u2019s the stuff of belonging, not just convenience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And for all its promise, technology has too often made that harder instead of easier: screen time has reportedly overtaken chores and homework as the number-one source of arguments between parents and kids in American households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"712\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-1024x712.jpg\" alt=\"A screenshot of a KinClub page showing &apos;active games&apos;\" class=\"wp-image-77223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-1024x712.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-768x534.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-1536x1068.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-1264x878.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-632x439.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-316x220.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-400x278.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-200x139.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A-100x70.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-24-095434-A.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> A sampling of the KinClub platform.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tools built to connect us across distance have, in a lot of homes, become the thing driving people apart even when they\u2019re in the same room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KinClub is my attempt to push back on that: to take the same screen that\u2019s causing so much friction, and use it to create real connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Alex Colket \u201901<\/em><\/strong> <em>majored in neurobiology and behavior in CALS. When he\u2019s not busy building products, he loves dancing, gardening, games, cooking, and spending time near water.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(All images provided.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Published October 20, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frustrated by the limits of screens, I co-founded a start-up that aims to connect family members across the miles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":77406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Frustrated by the limits of screens, I co-founded a start-up that aims to connect family members across the miles","alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[639],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-77224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - 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