


Have you ever heard the term “ghosting”? According to the Urban Dictionary ghosting is:
"The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. ... Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. .."
This happens with both teens and adults, I first heard of this practice when an adult friend told me about another friend who had simply stopped responding to emails, texts and phone calls. According to a Huffington post poll about 10 percent of Americans have "ghosted" someone to break up with them. Using avoidance as a coping skill is not new, but online communication has made that an easier way to deal with uncomfortable situations.
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Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast

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Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Register your interest in bringing our new movie to your school or community
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast

Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Register your interest in bringing our new movie to your school or community
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Have you ever heard the term “ghosting”? According to the Urban Dictionary ghosting is:
"The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. ... Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. .."
This happens with both teens and adults, I first heard of this practice when an adult friend told me about another friend who had simply stopped responding to emails, texts and phone calls. According to a Huffington post poll about 10 percent of Americans have "ghosted" someone to break up with them. Using avoidance as a coping skill is not new, but online communication has made that an easier way to deal with uncomfortable situations.
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Have you ever heard the term “ghosting”? According to the Urban Dictionary ghosting is:
"The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. ... Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. .."
This happens with both teens and adults, I first heard of this practice when an adult friend told me about another friend who had simply stopped responding to emails, texts and phone calls. According to a Huffington post poll about 10 percent of Americans have "ghosted" someone to break up with them. Using avoidance as a coping skill is not new, but online communication has made that an easier way to deal with uncomfortable situations.

Meta's $17.1 billion settlement requires new safety measures for under-18 users, including a two-hour daily limit and blocking Instagram and Facebook overnight. I'm frustrated it took this long, and that an overnight block can falsely reassure parents when what we really need is a national push for screen-free sleep. I'm glad it happened. And with AI, we have to move much faster.
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The first of more than a thousand school district lawsuits against TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube has settled, with a small Kentucky district awarded $27 million. Discovery records made public showed the companies designed to reach kids during the school day, from in-class alerts to keeping notifications on against safety teams' advice, while research finds students spend about 1.5 hours of a 6.5-hour school day on their phones.
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The first of 1,200+ school district lawsuits against social media companies just settled, with Meta, YouTube, Snap, and TikTok all paying out rather than face a jury. Meta points to its Teen Accounts feature as proof of safety, but a study by former Meta safety lead Arturo Bejar found only 8 of 47 advertised features actually work as described.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
