From TikTok Ban To Imaginative Fox Play

The TikTok ban was hours away. My wife and I weren’t sure if it would happen, but we felt the urge to preserve a piece of history. It’s a little silly, but the thought of losing access to our favorite videos from the 2020 lockdown—a time capsule of creativity, sadness, and frustration—felt significant.

While scrolling, my 3-year-old daughter saw one of the thumbnails and wanted to watch. It was a fox video from 2020.

Our TikTok days are mostly behind us, but animal videos make it into the rotation occasionally, so her request wasn’t surprising.

However, what happened next caught us off guard.

Our daughter took the cute fox behaviors and sounds and started acting them out. Instead of acting like Elsa from Frozen, Bluey, or a generic “kitty” she was Juniper the fox.

We’ve watched videos featuring seals, hippos, monkeys, dung beetles, and, of course, cats. But none of them spawned this kind of make-believe where she was the character—complete with a name.

Within a few minutes she was crawling around the living room, curling up in corners, and asking us to call her “Juniper.” The video didn’t stay as passive consumption—it became a springboard for her creativity.

We played along and it went on for hours.

There’s always a debate about whether kids (and adults) are just mindlessly consuming when they watch screens. But Juniper the fox reminded me that sometimes, what looks like consumption on the surface can quietly lead to creation. Watching can inspire doing. And those moments of play and pretending can be just as rich when the source material is a rescue fox as when it’s a Disney princess, a lion, or a blue heeler.

It’s a small moment, but it left me wondering: how often do we dismiss what our kids watch as unimportant? And what other unexpected sources of creativity are we overlooking?

Most importantly, how can we encourage our kids to create more based on what they see?

Recently, another parent shared his family’s philosophy around technology, balancing consumption with creation. His kids are older, so his insights felt like a glimpse into the future. I’ve been exploring this idea: not just scrolling, but also writing. Not just watching, but also playing—as a fox, in this case.

When I first became a parent, I never imagined I’d allow any short-form video for my child. But if you squint really hard, it has surprising similarities to watching a full nature documentary or observing foxes at the zoo. We can all be honest that those activities also often happen in :60s increments. Short-form video is just more accessible, and it can spark a shared experience full of wonder and creativity.

From talking to others it’s clear older kids—and their parents—have their own unique, and often complicated, relationships with technology. It sounds really hard. Unchecked consumption can be a real struggle, especially when it’s tough to enforce screen limits or kids find ways around parental controls.

But one of the bright spots I hear about most often is the inspiration kids find online—videos, music, writing, entrepreneurship, and art—that they turn into something new. They watch a video to learn a dance, then create their own version. They use now ubiquitous tools to produce songs, films, or entirely new types of art. They can create apps and animations that bring their ideas to life. And it all starts with a spark of curiosity or someone else’s creativity, transformed into something uniquely their own.

For now, I’m excited to see what my daughter dreams up next. And even with the inevitable complexity of device usage ahead, I can’t wait to see what she’ll create as she grows. It’ll probably be a little terrifying, but hopefully, she’ll still let me play.

Interesting links:

• “Certainly, it’s not healthy for kids to just be passively ingesting stuff on the internet. Doom scrolling isn't healthy for anyone. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good as an adult if I spend five hours doom scrolling, right? Why would that be good for a kid? It's not. But there's no strong evidence that active, interactive technology use is harmful. Many of the studies that do exist are outdated.” How Two Child Psychiatrists Approach Technology With Our Own Twins 

• “While pediatricians are invaluable partners in your children's health, many are not asking proactively about your kid’s digital habits. It’s not because they don't care, but more likely it’s because their training might not have extensively covered the relationship between technology and your child’s health…” Why Doctors Are Missing The Mark on Tech and Your Kid's Wellbeing & What You Can Do About It

(Thanks N. for sending the first link to me and leading me to the other!)