Musical.ly just may've replaced Instagram as kids' starter app. This is an educated guess. I remember a few years ago my friend Trudy Ludwig, the award-winning children's author, observing that, based on all the elementary schools she visits throughout the U.S., Instagram was huge with 4th and 5th graders. Don't get us wrong, we know the official minimum age of these apps is 13. The reality, … [Read more...] about Musical.ly inclined: App huge with younger users
adolescent development
Not defaulting to default thinking about social media
Ok, full disclosure: I know my antennae are up when I read the news. I've been questioning reflexively negative pronouncements about social media for years. But the reason is all the fear about the impact of social media on our children, not to mention the human race, that has been swirling in the air for a decade now. Negativity has become our default, and I don't think that's good for us, our … [Read more...] about Not defaulting to default thinking about social media
Social media literacy 101 (for adults)
"I can't even" possibly know what I'm seeing in teens' tweets, texts and posts. Not until I ask them. The very fact that I continued that sentence past the close quote demonstrates that. What do I mean? They hide meaning in plain site. Have you heard researcher danah boyd's term "social steganography"? It means hiding in plain view in social media. She wrote about that way back in 2010, and it's … [Read more...] about Social media literacy 101 (for adults)
‘Disconnected’: Crucial book for closing the ‘ethics gap’ online
I don't know about the millions of people in developing countries going online for the first time with mobile phones but, here in the developed world, something strange happened when we moved onto the Web nearly 20 years ago. It's as if we checked our thousands of years of social-norms and ethics development at the door of cyberspace. Somehow we saw that space as "technology" and got stuck there – … [Read more...] about ‘Disconnected’: Crucial book for closing the ‘ethics gap’ online
Takeaways from premier US anti-bullying conference
This Thanksgiving week in the US, I'm thankful to have heard the following from two outstanding researchers and a well-known author in the bullying prevention field speaking at the just-ended International Bullying Prevention Association's (IBPA's) annual conference in San Diego: "We don't talk enough about the ecosystem around kids," said educational psychology professor Dorothy Espelage at … [Read more...] about Takeaways from premier US anti-bullying conference