My Connected Life

In today's day and age, social media is everywhere. If you own a smartphone or computer of any sort, odds are you have at least one social media account and checking it is a part of your everyday routine. In high school, you’re constantly surrounded by social media! Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, high school life nowadays revolves around these three entities. It’s a great way to connect with friends, make plans, help spread information if you’re in a school club or sport, and it can even help you meet new people. Although there are many great things social media can offer, there can be a couple downsides too.

Digital Citizenship, Digital Health, Internet & Mobile, Online Ethics, Social Networking, Video Games

With a little help from my friends

Third entry in a series looks at sites that help users create content. In the last instalment of this series we looked at some of examples of user-created media such as mashups, fan movies and machinima.

Internet & Mobile, Media Production, Resources, Video Games

Electronic gifts for preteens and teens (other than video games)

As your kids grow older, their gift requests may start to look a lot different than when they were younger. While they once circled all the toys in the holiday catalogues that arrived at the door, now they are sending parents text messages or Google Docs with links to their wish list items.

Digital Health, Marketing & Consumerism, Media Production, Parents, Video Games

Pyramid Power: How Hate Spreads Online

The last few weeks have shed an unprecedented light on the use of digital media to spread and inspire hatred. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the perpetrator in the attacks on Canada’s National War Memorial and Parliament buildings, appears to have been motivated in part by exposure to online postings by a self-described member of the Islamic state[1], and the Federal government has already stated that it intends to create tools to remove online content that promotes the “proliferation of terrorism.”[2]

Cyberbullying, Online Ethics, Online Hate, Video Games

The Summer Screen Challenge

In a house full of Lego, board games, basketballs and sidewalk chalk, it’s amazing how quickly boredom can set in. The magical screen seems to fix all – it’s like a siren song, constantly calling them, beckoning them with its flickering blue light.

Parents, Video Games

2SLGBTQ+ Representation in Other Media

2SLGBTQ+ people have been involved in producing their own media for as long as alternative media has existed, but with the advent of the electronic age and cheaper and more accessible electronic devices for production, there has been an explosion of 2SLGBTQ+-produced media of all kinds. The following section explores the ways that 2SLGBTQ+ people have sought to claim space for themselves within media and culture.

Blogging, Comics, Diversity in Media, 2SLGBTQ+ Representation, Stereotyping, Video Games

Movie soundtrack albums – a lost art

Rebecca Stanisic

Which movie soundtracks did you own when you were younger? Do you still stream them or purchase them?

Music, Parents

The Spotify Problem

We have a few smartphone rules in our house: no phones after 9:30 p.m., no phones at the dinner table or other family events, and no phones in bedrooms.

Cell Phones and Texting, Digital Health, Excessive Internet Use, Instant Messaging, Music, Parents, Social Networking

Pop Quiz

People who make their living producing images, such as photographers, stylists, publicists, directors and pop idols, learn how to use those signs to convey the impression they want to make. Although teen girls who are trying to send a signal to their circle of friends and pop music producers who are trying to send a signal to an audience of millions are working on different scales, the principle is very much the same. Depending on your audience, you need to tailor the signals you send out very carefully. Even your age can have a certain amount of wiggle room when dressed in the right signs.

Body Image, Marketing & Consumerism, Media Production, Music, Resources

10 Tiny Ways You Can Make the World a Better Place Today

Today is Pink Shirt Day, a national initiative to end bullying both offline and online. Since 2007, Canadians have been donning pink shirts to show their commitment to ending bullying in all forms.

Cyberbullying, Digital Citizenship, Internet & Mobile, Online Ethics, Social Networking, Video Games