Kids are using their phones to do everything: Is this a good thing? 

“Can you please send that link to my email?” I ask, innocently. I prefer to open the link and order whatever it is my teen needs on my desktop rather than my phone.

Lost Skills of Old-Time Communication

The other day, a friend of my 11-year-old daughter called the house to make arrangements to get together for a group project.

What parents need to know about YouTube

YouTube is a window into a world of wonder. There is so much great material to be found there, whether it’s for education, entertainment, or inspiration.  But there’s also a lot of inappropriate stuff in amongst the cat videos and Kid President. Question is, how do we, as parents, help our kids safely navigate YouTube?

For kids, social media isn’t always social

Here’s a weird thing: my kids don’t use social media to be, you know, social.

The other day, I was scrolling through my own Instagram feed, while my youngest daughter was looking over my shoulder. She was asking why I follow every account I follow. I explained time and again that each account was a friend of mine – some closer than others, but, for the most part, people I’ve met at some point in life and who I wanted to keep in touch with.

Sick Days

I work from home, and I think that means my kids get more sick days than the average student. It’s pretty easy for them to convince me that they need a day of rest if they have a bit of a cough or a slight fever. I admit I’m probably too easily swayed and I do tend to cave in when they look up at me with big sad eyes from where they have swooned onto the couch.

When I was younger…

I’m at the age where I say, ‘when I was younger…’ or ‘back in my day...’ far more than I expected to and it’s often about technology. I don’t know when this transition happened, but here I am. It just started to come out. I now frequently regale the kids with stories of yesteryear as every generation before me has done.  

Hello world.

My name is Andrea Tomkins and I am the new MediaSmarts Mom. I am thrilled to be in this space and sharing my first post with you today.

Something to think about during your next family movie night!

My last post here was about balancing screen time over the summer months. This is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought, and I can summarize my feelings on the matter this way: my personal aim is to decrease the amount of time that my kids consume utter dreck**, and balance other free time with good quality viewing that we can enjoy as a family.

Internet memories and storytelling: what do you keep?

My middle daughter hates looking over my shoulder when I’m on my Instagram account and seeing that I have many, many unwatched “stories.”

Stories in Instagram are usually short video clips that are temporary – they exist for 24 hours and then they are gone. You can save favourite stories as ‘highlights’ that live on your profile, but for the most part they’re intended to disappear.

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.