Screenagers Blog

This week we suggest discussing writing a contract. What 5 things would you like to put into your kid's contract? What 5 things would your kids want to put in their own contract?

Each week we will share ideas for you to talk with your family around the dinner table--and if a family dinner won't happen due to busy schedules, try a 5 minute pow wow before bed. We'll have live chats, simple written tips, guest speakers and more coming soon.

Do you want to take a survey to see if you or your child has an internet addition? In Screenagers we follow a college kid named Andrew who drops out of college because he is addicted to playing video games. His addiction to video games takes over and he games until the middle of the night and stops doing his school work. His mom takes this survey below and realizes that Andrew is addicted to video games. Andrew's family ends up putting him in an internet rehab center to recover. Click here to take the test

This week, how about a tech inventory? Ask each other about what you are doing on your devices on a given day. It could be fun to have everyone write on a piece of paper their estimated use on things like email, Twitter, Snapchat, games, or Instagram. Then have the other family members guess what they think the person wrote down.

We know that tweens and teens love their smartphones, social media feeds and video games. But just how pervasive? Both Common Sense Media and Pew Research released extensive, in-depth research in 2015 that attach, concrete data to this social phenomenon. Here are high points of their findings.

Research on teen media points to a clear divide between boys and girls. Girls like to relate and boys like to shoot guns, crash cars and blow things up. In the digital world, this means girls spend more time on social media and boys spend more time on video games. A recent report from Pew Research, 91 percent of boys have a video game console. A recent New York TImes article references surveys that found

The ding of incoming texts on your kid’s phone is more than an annoyance and distraction. It could actually be a sign of compulsive or addictive behavior. Here are a few indicators of compulsive texting from a study

Are you a good Digital Citizen? Are your kids? How can you tell? Digital citizenship refers to the norms of appropriate behavior regarding technology use. The terms has been used primarily in school settings where classes and workshops address issues such as email etiquette, avoiding online cruelty, device use during class, avoiding copyright infringement and other such topics.

Teens spend on average 6.5 hours a day on screens of all sizes, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Foundation. Kids spend an average of 9 hours a day on media--so this includes listening to music, which is not included in the screen time figure (Common Sense Media recent survey). To reduce screen time, the screen time hours need to be replaced with other activities. After school programs are one solution to helping kids find interests outside of social media, online content and video games.

From the moment I brought my first child home from the hospital, sleep, for both him and me, took center stage. We spent years with him, and then my daughter, working on getting to sleep, sleeping through the night, sleeping in a big bed, going to sleep alone, and more.