Parent Tips
September 13th, 2023
It’s become a staple of our social media feeds: the back-to-school photo. Often the kids in the pictures—smiling on a front step, full of excitement—are holding a sign showing their name, grade, and school. It’s a milestone moment, worthy of a photo, and invariably sweet.
Posting these pics is understandable, but it’s also risky. In an age of mass data-collection and tracking (and less often but more alarming, cyber-stalking), these posts offer up…... Continue reading >
June 7th, 2023
Parents, to help your kids stay safe online, to help them make good decisions as they scroll, click, and tap, talk to them. Establish an open and honest line of communication with them about how and when they use their devices. And now is a good time to begin that conversation. The school year is ending, summer vacation is approaching, and the devices are beckoning. To get started, ask your kids to join you in taking our…... Continue reading >
June 6th, 2023
Social media has a hold on us. Not many of us can resist the urge to check our phones for the latest post, especially when we hear that notification “ding” from one of our social media accounts. There’s a good reason for that, and it’s not just a taste for gossip. It’s dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and reward in our brains.
When a social media notification sounds, a dopamine-induced loop is…... Continue reading >
May 24th, 2023
A “profound risk.” That’s what the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, says social media use can pose to the mental health of children and adolescents. Yes, social media can have benefits—helping people feel isolated make meaningful connections among them—but the downsides, Murthy argues in an advisory, are significant: sleep disruption, repeated exposure to inappropriate content that can “normalize” self-harm, cyberbullying, and on and on. In addition to cautioning parents about their kids’ use of social media,…... Continue reading >
May 10th, 2023
Interesting piece in the Washington Post about schools across the country doing their best to prohibit students from staring at their phones while in class. Some schools instruct students to leave their phones in a locker; others require them to store their phones in Yonder bags, which open when students leave campus at the end of the day. Why? Because phones are so distracting, they’re getting in the way of kids’ learning. As students try to…... Continue reading >
April 11th, 2023
Face filters, in-app features that allow you to alter your appearance, present themselves as innocuous fun. Look! I have puppy eyes! But like just about everything app-related (and like most topics we cover here) there’s a downside. Two, really: They can be creepy—especially “age filters”—and they’re awful when it comes to users’ privacy, providing permanent “faceprints” to the companies that own them.
Let’s focus on those age filters. These are filters that allow…... Continue reading >
March 23rd, 2023
You may have suspected this already, but deepfake videos, in which footage is heavily manipulated, are here. And, predictably, they’re alarming. Students in a school about an hour north of New York City recently fabricated a video that showed—even though it never happened—a middle school principal going on a racist rant. To be clear, the principal didn’t say what the video showed him saying. And that, of course, is what’s so alarming.
It offers…... Continue reading >
March 1st, 2023
It seems even Tik Tok realizes staring at a phone for hours on end isn’t good for developing minds. The company behind the app announced on March 3 it would limit use of Tik Tok to 60 minutes a day. It’s a good start, and it hints at a growing understanding that spending hours on social media is unhealthy.
... Continue reading >
February 26th, 2023
Your infant grandson sitting on the (endlessly patient) family dog. His older sister’s kindergarten portrait. The giddy dance they perform every time you play “Yellow Submarine.” They’re all moments you cherish and want to remember. And you know your friends would love them, too. So you do what so many of us do now. You share them. Not just with your closest confidants, but with hundreds of “friends” and countless people you’ll never meet.
... Continue reading >
February 1st, 2023
Even our government is making money off of your personal data. Sure, it’s legal, but is it right?
You likely know that mega businesses, such as Amazon, social media and search engine companies, collect vast amounts of data about us. That’s so they can target their goods and services more precisely to customers. It’s all in the name of helping advertisers reach specific audiences and demographics.
And…... Continue reading >