You too may fall in love with Alltop, if…
By Nancy | June 21, 2008
I recently fell in love with a blog/news aggregator called Alltop. Its brilliantly simple design makes sense of a gigantic online world, with sites (mostly blogs and news sites) organized by category. And it’s a great way for parents to get a glimpse into online worlds that touch kids and families alike. So, dare to fall in love with Alltop, if…
…you’re a parent: Check out the Moms and the Dads categories. There are so many Mommy blogs out there (and an increasing number of Daddy blogs), it’s a lovely luxury to have a curated list to explore (it’s still on the long side, for my liking). My classic fav is Dooce.com, which makes every list of blogs ever compiled, but I’m shopping for some newcomers for my daily read.
…you’re a teen: There’s a great gaming category, if you’re into that. And there’s something I haven’t seen before: an aggregation of sites developed for and by teens, from TeenVogue.com’s sophisticated outlet of the magazine to TheCloudDreamer/Stacy, who reports she just found a cockroach on the carpet.
…you’re a blogger: It’s a great way to get inspired about headline writing. Under each Web site listed, the most recent three to five post titles are shown, so you can scroll through hundreds in a few minutes. I mean, who can resist clicking on “I Saved Date Night” or “Are You Putting Cash in the Trash“?
But fair warning: You may start clicking and not look up again until tomorrow.
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IMing for Dummies
By Nancy | June 19, 2008
Even as I’m typing this, I’m installing YahooMessenger on my computer. Why? Because I’m just back from planning the annual technology issue of the magazine I work for, and it turns out that the hot thing that these adults, ages 25 - 55, were talking about was IMing in the work environment and the generational gap that it highlights. This is a topic that we will be covering in our issue, so I figured I should get better acquainted with the Instant Messenger concept and see what the buzz is about.
I pride myself with being an early adopter, but I rejected IMing long ago when it was a crude feature on aol and I found it distracting and strangely paced. And I swear, I have not heard another word about it for at least five years. Then all of a sudden, it’s “IM this” and “IM that,” everywhere I turn.
Like me, my son Andy is an early adopter–for a fifth grader–and as such he has totally eclipsed me in his tech cultural awareness. In fact, I just changed screens to see if my YahooMessenger had fully installed. It had, and when the IM screen popped up, Andy’s line (my only IM ”friend” currently) announced that he was at his friend’s house. Of course I knew that, but I wondered, how did he know how to do that? He has a little baseball player cartoon next to his name. How did he do that?
I start digging deeper. Hmm. So many features. I can invite a group of people to a conference. I can use a Web cam. There’s a launchcast so I can play a radio station. Oh! And buy the song that’s playing. And view the lyrics. And rate it. I can be invisible to everyone, or just certain people. I can go to a chat room. Change the skin. Send an SMS message. Invite someone to play a game with me. This is total overload for a baby-boomer.
Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for trying to get up-to-date. And then go down a couple of aspirins. But after a nap (just kidding, sort of), I’m guessing I’ll get a second wind and dive back into my new life as an IMer. If you’re into it, let me know how you use it and by all means, invite me to be your new IMBFF.
Topics: Instant Messaging, Tweens | No Comments » | Add Your Comment
My latest parenting mantra
By Nancy | May 29, 2008
I have a new and longreaching goal when it comes to technology in our family life: nonjudgment. Here’s why.
Several weeks ago, a friend and I attended a seminar on parenting and technology. The leaders opened up the evening by asking audience members to pose their questions up front, so the questions could be answered during the presentation. I was totally blown away by the intensity of the questions. In fact, three-fourths of the parents who raised their hands actually had very small questions but very large, impassioned rants that surrounded them. As my friend described it, they laid out all their baggage.
Now, I am well aware that I wouldn’t be blogging about parenting and technology if I didn’t have my own baggage and some deep-seated reasons why this particular topic gets under my skin. But it’s always easier to see what’s unproductive in other people, which is what happened to me at that seminar. Wow! I was them (though perhaps more discretely). And suddenly I could see how unproductive this emotional charge can be, especially in dealing with kids.
To me, nonjudgment doesn’t mean taking a “whatever” stance when it comes to use of electronics in our family. Limits and boundaries are important. It just means I’m striving to let go of the emotion that can sometimes infiltrate how I deal with screens. Carl Jung’s famous quote, ”What you resist, persists,” rings true here. TVs, computers, phones, XBoxes, Wiis are not good or bad. They are just machines. Children and their screen habits are not good or bad. They are just children. My own screen habits and parenting approaches are not good or bad. They are just me.
My Zen challenge going forward will be to enjoy what electronics have to offfer, to enforce limits without emotion and to quiet my interior judge. Take a deep breath, Nancy. And exhale. I’ll let you know how I do.
Topics: Teens, Tweens, By age, Setting limits | No Comments » | Add Your Comment
Click, meet your roommate
By Nancy | May 28, 2008
According to Wired Campus, social networks may be the perfect media for matching college students with roommates.
Tulane University recently announced a partnership with RoommateClick, a service that allows incoming students to select roommates through a closed social network.
RoommateClick provides about 10 colleges with customized roommate-choosing networks, where students fill out a questionnaire regarding their living habits (cleanliness, smoking, etc.) and provide profile photos and other open-ended profile information about themselves. Students can then search the closed network to choose roommates if they don’t wish to be assigned matches by the housing department.
Several other Web 2.0 companies also offer roommate selection matching. The school adopted the partnership because students were already using social networking in doing “background checks” on new roommates.
“Over the last few years we have seen such an increase in calls in July and August with requests to change rooms because of what students have seen on MySpace or Facebook,” said Marty Brantley, Tulane’s director of housing services.
Some truths remain eternal: Life can be treacherous for those not socially skilled - whether in the real world or virtual.
Topics: Teens, Analog lifestyle | No Comments » | Add Your Comment
Texting baby-steps
By Nancy | March 11, 2008
Andy and a circle of his friends suddenly want to do nothing but e-mail each other. It’s like they have a developmental urge to text, but have no cell phones. (They’ve come close to IM-ing, but it seems that whenever one friend figures out how to do it, the other forgets…so, frustrated with each other, they say, “Oh, let’s just email.”) A typical email dialogue goes like this:
Andy: That’s so funny.
Friend: What?
Andy: What you said before.
Friend: Yeah.
Andy: Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Keep in mind that, done with email, this meaningful exchange takes about 15 minutes to complete. Perplexing.
Topics: Tweens, Email | No Comments » | Add Your Comment
Don’t mess with my desk[top]
By Nancy | March 8, 2008
When Andy was three, I was chatting with a more experienced mom about her part-time job. “Do you enjoy it?” I asked. “What I love is that no one touches my desk when I’m gone.” At the time, I was too much of a newbie parent to understand. I said, “Oh!” but I thought, “Huh?” It didn’t take long, though, as my three-year-old got more adventurous, to totally appreciate her point. As a parent, your children gradually permeate every corner of your world until very little is left untouched. It’s nice to have a private corner or two. Like a desk.
Recently, one of my last private corners apparently became public property — a corner I hadn’t even noticed, until it was disturbed: It’s the computer desktop. I take for granted that when I sit down at the computer, it will always look the same: same programs, same arrangement of icons, same everything. In fact, this is the reason we set up Andy as his own Windows user: He can enjoy a unicorn background, while I can feel satisfied and content with “Windows Classic.”
But recently, the desktop was touched. Not on purpose by the kids, but by the demons in their programs. After a Nickjr game had its way with us, the display resolution was set on “gigantic,” which meant rejiggering the display settings to get back to our “look.” (Who knew there was such a difference between 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600?) Another day, I went online to find a new and improved home page. Children claimed innocence, as did our ISP. Another day, a new toolbar appeared. Enough of the tools already!
I guess I need to do some work on sharing. But until I’ve matured in this area, it’s fair warning to my kids and the universe: Don’t mess with my desktop!
Topics: Setting limits | No Comments » | Add Your Comment
What’s the password?
By Nancy | March 1, 2008
For me, one of the major aggravations of the digital age is that each of us must manage a collection of passwords, just to access what is ours. And now I’m finding even parenting is not immune from password issues.
Andy has a multitude of screen/user names for Web sites and a few different passwords. His password path has paralleled his parents’. He started out with one very easy password to use everywhere, but that has mutated in several directions depending on site requirements (too short, too long, not the right mix of letters and numbers, too easy to guess, etc.). At one point he developed a complex numerical password based on the ages of everyone in our family, not thinking a few years ahead to when (now) everyone had aged. Now he recreates it by taking all of our current ages and subtracting from each. That’s a lot of work just to get into Club Penguin.
Now Alex has set up his first online “account,” after receiving a Webkinz animal for his birthday. And I felt things really getting out of hand when I saw Andy sitting at the computer with Alex, guiding him in how to make a password.
With kids this age (11 and 5), privacy isn’t such an issue, but safety is. Last week, I wanted to verify the parental controls in Pirates of the Caribbean Online, but couldn’t do that until Andy came home from school because I couldn’t log on without his password. And sometimes functionality rules. Recently, Andy did not log out of his Windows user account and left the house with Word open, which I was not able to access because I didn’t have his password. Argh!
I think it’s time for the family to invest in password management software. Or at least have a thorough group think on password strategies. Unfortunately, organizing passwords sits on the same to-do list as the task of organizing our file cabinet (the metal one). And the computer file folders? Let’s not even go there. So many organizational challenges, so little time.
Topics: Parental controls | No Comments » | Add Your Comment