Fans of the penguin would probably appreciate this a tad more than I. The video follows a  sad penguin, to the tune of “Bad Day.” But I am in awe of the innate ability — even for kids, especially for kids – to mash up worlds online.
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We just had our very first screen-free Wednesday, and it was quite a success. (True confessions: Last week we forgot, conveniently enough.) I found it very relaxing — so quiet. And it definitely made for more quality family time (mostly because I wasn’t constantly checking my email). Andy tried to circumvent it all by saying he needed to look up something online for his homework. That probably would have been OK, but I dug deeper. Turns out he needed to check the geography surrounding the battle of Bunker Hill, for a…

My children see the world through a digital lense, and I sometimes notice this in their language. When we take a short break from playing together, they say, “Let’s pause it.” Alex begs me to play a “two-player game” (translation: board game). A sentence crossed out in Andy’s homework becomes “deleted.” One of the first words Alex could read was “next.” (Too much software installation.)

My first inclination was to feel guilty about this: I’ve let them get too immersed. But then I reconsidered. For middle-aged adults, technology is a tool. You…

Have you seen this news item from the Washington Post about how fast storms can brew in the digital world? Dave Kori, a high school senior, phoned a public school administrator at home and left a message to express his dissatisfaction that a snow day had not been called (three inches), and to hear the administrator’s side of the story. The administrator’s wife returned the call and left a very irritated message (which she undoubtably regrets now). The message, posted on a

My good friend Sally (as mother of five fab kids from teens to adults, she has great street cred) tells me that her family has designated one night a week to be screen-free. Parents included. I really, really like this idea. (This in spite of the fact that we had one week during the summer when we went without screens, and by the end it was like our house was going to explode with frustration.) But I think one day per week is quite manageable.

My goal? I want…

I was scanning Ask.Metafilter.com today and came across what I thought was a profound thought. The user asked the community to suggest ways a father could prevent his daughter from going online after bedtime, and said he was open to either technology or social fixes to the problem. One fellow, “blue_beetle”, had a brilliant response:

Don’t look for technical solutions to behavioral problems. If you fix the technology, she’ll find a way around it. Fix the behavioral problem.

Must remember that…

I stepped into our local Apple store yesterday just a few minutes after it opened. Boy was that place hopping. Crazy busy. This, in sharp contrast to the soccer store I had visited the previous day — where I had to wait twelve minutes (but who’s counting?) after the posted opening time for the lights to finally go on and a groggy 20-year-old to reluctantly open the door for me. (I was the only foot-tapper waiting to buy soccer gear.) Hmm. I won’t draw the obvious conclusion about our culture here. But…