'I ditched wifi and took my kids back to the 90s'

Today's families are online 24/7, so what happened when influencer Laura Dove, her husband and children switched off for a week?

- INTERVIEW BY JACKIE ANNETT

Rewind 30 years to 1995 and you may remember a time before the internet really took off when we had landlines, children played out all day and only returned home when the streetlights came on.

So if you were asked to give up the internet and embrace those ways for five days, could you?

Social media influencer Laura, 44, from Lancashire, who shares the best bits of her family life with her 107,000 Instagram followers, agreed to take on the challenge of switching off the wifi from Monday to Friday.

All the Dove children have grown up in a world with the internet. Her eldest, Lewis, 21, was three when the iPhone was introduced so even he doesn’t remember a time without it.

Meanwhile, Eva, 12, Megan, 11, and Harrison, 10, are avid internet users with unlimited access to Nintendo and EA Sports FC games, Disney +, Netflix and SnapChat.

DOOM-SCROLLING

Laura is all too familiar with how much time she spends online, although she’s not alone.

Communication company Openreach found that 43% of people feel they waste time online, and 37% are concerned about the amount of time they spend doom-scrolling.

A third (34%) said if they spent less time on their devices, they’d be able to communicate better with their families.

Like most families today, the internet is woven into the fabric of the Doves’ daily life.

“After school, the kids are sometimes out at sports clubs or playing out with their friends, but when they are not they will often be straight on their phones,” Laura says.

“Harry will be playing Nintendo with his friends and the girls could easily spend a few hours talking to their friends on FaceTime. The

REWIND

Introducing the children to the Spice Girls

But surprisingly, when Laura told the kids they were going to be going without wifi, data or their phones for five days, there was a sense of excitement - as well as worry.