A lot of unusually thoughtful points about parenting in our collective, global social media environment are made in this recent New York Times article: "Cyberparenting and the Risk of T.M.I." Pamela Paul writes that, for this generation of teens, it's not Big Brother so much as Big Mother and/or Big Father. "Yes, we know contemporary parents are hyperinvolved in their children’s lives," she … [Read more...] about TMI for parents in social media – for now, anyway
Parenting
‘Healthy divas & divos’ good for social media culture too
They're "healthy divas," not drama queens, people. Two very different things, the Wall Street Journal points out. The distinction and the reported emergence of this positive kind of diva in media culture might be a positive for kids who, when they have time for entertainment, lean toward the celebrity-watch variety – not to mention for online and school communities. "Divas (and their male … [Read more...] about ‘Healthy divas & divos’ good for social media culture too
Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Remember Formspring.me? Three years ago some terrible trolling that reportedly involved teens in New Jersey made the site, which announced it was shutting down* last month, a national news story in the US. Teens' viral adoption of Formspring and its format (ask a question, get an anonymous answer) reportedly took the site by surprise. Disturbing news coverage and letters sent home by school … [Read more...] about Social cruelty on Ask.fm & the whack-a-mole tendency
Bullying: How an ‘authoritative’ parenting style can help
When my friend and colleague Jason Brand, a Berkeley, Calif.-based family therapist, points an article out to me, I pay attention. He and I were discussing resilience as a protective factor in children's use of social media, and Jason pointed out an article in Scientific American by psychologist Abigail Baird at Vassar College. She wrote it in 2010, when emotions around the tragic case of … [Read more...] about Bullying: How an ‘authoritative’ parenting style can help
A techie dad’s perspective on school
The subhead of this post might be: "Writing code as an extracurricular activity" or Venturebeat's headline, "Why your 8-year-old should be coding," or just "Let them learn code!" Another article about Harvard undergrads' extracurricular code-writing activity shows how that activity can enrich a whole lot of lives as well as open up careers for young code writers, but I'll get to that in a minute. … [Read more...] about A techie dad’s perspective on school