The Screenagers Blog

The home of "Tech Talk Tuesdays"

Screenagers Blog Tech Talk Tuesdays

“Having calm, consistent conversations has greatly improved screen balance in my home and I have written hundreds of articles to help others through my weekly Tech Talk Tuesdays newsletter and blog.”— Delaney Ruston, MD Physician/Filmmaker"

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tech talk tuesdays
July 11, 2017
Reading

Does e-reader reading count as screen time?

School may be out, but summer reading is just heating up. I often get asked by kids in Screenagers’ audiences whether reading on an e-reader counts as screen time. While a screen is a screen, I highly encourage kids to read, whether it’s paper or electronic.

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July 4, 2017
Screen Time Reduction Skills

Top apps to help limit screen time for your kids

We've all lost track of time when using our phones. So many parents, myself included, want to make sure the screen time limits we've set are being followed by ourselves and our children. Luckily for us, there are several apps out there designed to manage screen time limits so we don't always have to.

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June 27, 2017
Challenging Conversations

A smartphone ban for kids, do you think there should be a law?

I received a few emails this week about the appropriate age to buy a young person a smartphone. Data shows that younger and younger kids are getting smartphones —what is too young?

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June 27, 2017
Creativity

Not all screen time is created equal

If your child’s life has included a Minecraft phase, you know what I’m talking about. There’s the beginner level of the game that you play, walking from place to place collecting resources for survival, and there are the deeper levels, that can include creating entire neighborhoods to programming your own action sequences and building tools that you make available to other players.

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June 20, 2017
Social Media

Do you know what your kids are reading on Snapchat?

I am upset. Yesterday my teenage son Chase showed me the Discover feature on Snapchat. The Discover feature grabs content from a variety of sources — Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, CNN among many others and makes it accessible to anyone, including our kids. But what makes me so mad is that there is no way to remove or block the Discover Story feature on the app. So what do we do?

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June 13, 2017
Social Media

Colleges are watching, what do your kids post?

Last week, Harvard rescinded the acceptances of 10 incoming freshmen for posting racist, sexually offensive material on Facebook. As intense as the consequence may seem, this is an important reminder that nothing on the web is private, even private chat groups.

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June 6, 2017
Away For The Day

Survey update and... do you know the cell phone policy on field trips?

In the past couple of months, I visited schools where the teachers talked to me about concerns over kids and cell phones during field trips.

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May 30, 2017
School Environments

Do you know the cell phone policy at your child's school?

When I visit schools across the country, I am consistently surprised that students, parents and even teachers are frequently unsure of the cell phone policies at their school. Wouldn't it be great if we had data on how often middle schools allow students to have cell phones with them all day? And wouldn’t it be great if we knew what policies parents want?

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May 23, 2017
Video Games

What app developers learn from casinos

One of the most interesting screenings of Screenagers was at a conference for addiction professionals. Did you know that about 1% of the U.S. population has a gambling disorder? It is almost double that in Hong Kong.

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May 16, 2017
Video Games

The upside of video games...

I strongly believe that one of the most powerful aspects of Tech Talk Tuesday is starting the discussion with something positive about the tech in our lives. If we really want to have effective dialogue that creates a lasting tech balance with our kids, we need to talk about the positives too. Believe me, your kids will want to hear this week’s TTT.

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May 9, 2017
Social and Interpersonal Development

Do your kids have Mentor Moms?

As Mother’s Day approaches I have been thinking about my mom and her support over the years, and I am also thinking of non-family important women who have also helped me when I was growing up. I call these women Mentor Moms.

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May 4, 2017
Screen Time Rules

New study finds speech delay in babies and toddlers correlates to screen time

A new study being presented this week at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting found that tablet and smartphone use by babies and toddlers correlates with a speech delay.

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