We’re hosting a “Dangerous Camp for Boys” this week, a take-off on the best-selling The Dangerous Book for Boys. For the week, Andy and his a few of his buddies get to do all sorts of dangerous and old-fashioned boy stuff. (They’re off fishing as I write this.) Today I happened to stumble upon this old clip from Esquire (always one of the cleverest mags out there, imho) that instructs on some really dangerous activities for boys. It’s a hoot. The last one, which…

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

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Last night, everyone in my house went to bed early–except me. So, with an unexpected hour alone, I sat down at the computer with the intention of hunting online for a freelance writer based in Zurich (for work). Which led me to the magazine of SWISS International Air Lines. Which led me to a blog post about Swiss bloggers. Which led me to a lecture by an American about the slow movement. By this time, I looked up and it was high time for me to go to bed, too. An…

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…

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…