Screenagers Blog

I find myself at the frontlines of both the medical pandemic and the challenges of parenting. I will be working hard to connect with all of you and to help all of you connect as we move forward about COVID-19, loss of school and screen time issues.

When people get asked to rank their level of perceived stress, teens on average report higher levels than adults. Screen time and stress can be intertwined.

Four days from now, it is National Day of Unplugging. Now is a perfect opportunity to talk with youth about how they (and you) would feel about putting tech away for 24 hours for this National Day of Unplugging.

Recently I was with a teen who was jumping up and down as she exclaimed how she now had 10,000 followers and some 400,000 views on a video she had posted on TikTok. What does this increased chance of quickly getting a massive number of followers and views mean for our youth?

Why are a higher percentage of tweens and teens reporting depression symptoms than in the past? Today I want to talk about all the reasons why we might be seeing this rise, and I hope you will discuss these ideas with kids and students in your lives.

One of the central goals I have in my work is to help parents find ways to better give health knowledge and science literacy skills to their kids and teens. Today I share what medical providers use to help identify symptoms of depression.

Read my New York Times ‘ Letter to the Editor in response to a recent article that builds a case headlines that are confusing parents on what to do around screen time for their kids and the potential harm of these types of headlines …and provide a few solutions.

There are many ways our teens regularly experience rejection online. Today I give some ideas for ways to help them through those emotionally rough times.

I wholeheartedly believe that raising kids who can ask for help is one of the best resiliency skills we provide our children and teens. Today I write about many organizations and types of people that can lend support during emotionally hard times for your youth, and you.

One of the main ways that I stay grounded while raising emerging adults during our tech revolution is by reminding myself of the power of values. Today I go into what I call the Three C’s that help to guide my parenting.

Instagram recently started testing hiding Likes in the US. Today I explore what that looks like, and why they are interested in implementing this new view. Celebrities and others have talked about the positive emotional effect of hiding Likes. Are you your kids part of this experiment?

In SCREENAGERS: Growing Up in the Digital Age, you witness me trying to make a set of rules happen in our home. I made a contract, but I soon realized that to make it work, I needed to find ways to get my kids to participate in setting the guidelines.