“You are always on the iPad,” I said as I rounded the corner into the dining room and spotted my son on his device. As soon as I said it, I knew it wouldn’t lead to a productive conversation about my kid’s tech habits. I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t hear a response like, “Oh,… Read More →
“Broken!” Miles exclaimed. “It’s broken!” he repeated, his frustration building. It took me a moment to catch on. My nearly three-year-old was standing in front of the TV, furiously trying to swipe at Daniel Tiger with his index finger. Then it clicked—he was trying to move the character like he would on a tablet. And… Read More →
“What is the site or platform you wouldn’t want to live without?” For years, researchers at Common Sense Media have asked kids and teens this question. It’s a revealing one—it cuts through the noise of ever-evolving platforms and trends to uncover the digital spaces that truly matter to young people. While news cycles tend to… Read More →
1. Can We Hold These Three Truths About Tech and Teens at the Same Time? This is an important moment. We have an opportunity to move forward with adolescent needs and development in mind. However, doing so requires that we step up to a challenge: We need to take steps guided by both attention to… Read More →
The school year starts and, it’s easy to get caught up in logistics—schedules, transportation, supplies, before and after school care, and on and on. I approach these tasks with mixed feelings: on one hand, I’m already nostalgic for the more relaxed pace of summer; on the other, I’m slightly desperate for routine. Hence my focus… Read More →
There are moments when I look at my phone and think, “What a time to be alive!” The device in my hand is one thousand times faster than the last generation’s supercomputers. Our lives benefit from this small device’s connection, information, and efficiency. There are other moments when I long to slow down all that… Read More →
“I wasn’t surprised that my kid looked at inappropriate content online. I know it comes with the territory,” a parent recently confided. “What upset me more is that he lied about it.” “This is always so tricky,” I sympathized. “We only see a little snapshot of what is going on. And it can be hard… Read More →
I can still remember the poster hanging in my fourth-grade classroom. Against the backdrop of a star-studded night sky, a comet blazed across the image accompanied by text that read, “You can be a star!” As a child of the eighties, I grew up during the self-esteem movement. Posters, programs, and books consistently communicated, “‘If… Read More →
“But who is going to help her?” Jacob asked. Jacob was a seven-year-old we had just met on the playground. He, along with several other kids including one of my own, had been playing the tag game “Sandman” on the play structure. Suddenly one of the kids tried to take a shortcut off the side… Read More →
If you have ever spent any time with a preschooler, you know that their curious minds are always active. “Why is that bird sitting on that branch? What do birds think about? Can birds understand us? Where are the other birds? Why? Where? How come?” While charming, these endless questions can also get exasperating. At… Read More →
