Category: digital life

Posted in 21st Century life, advertising, data collecting, digital life, online tracking, privacy

How I Try to Maintain Privacy (or at Least Some) in My Digital World

Posted on by Marti Weston
Screen Shot 2018-03-26 at 9.30.32 PM

Today a person’s personal information is a commodity, and privacy is a struggle to maintain. I want to stop (or at least slow down) Facebook, Google and all their advertisers (not to mention Cambridge Analytica) from vacuuming up my information.

Of course I’ve turned on the privacy controls on all my accounts and apps, and I recheck them on a regular basis, but that’s only one small part of the personal privacy picture. Below are 14 more steps that I take to ensure that at least some of my personal information is less available.               Continue reading “How I Try to Maintain Privacy (or at Least Some) in My Digital World” →

Posted in cell phones, digital devices and exercise, digital life, mobile phones, modeling for kids, parents and technology

Exercise & Phones — Why Do People Do It?

Posted on by Marti Weston

IMG_8335There are times when cell phones should be put away.  Shouldn’t exercise time be one of those times?

I walk several miles almost every day, sometimes outside and sometimes in, and no matter where I am, I observe lots of people talking on the phone while they move. They may be walking, pushing strollers, on treadmills, or various elliptical trainers or on the street or jogging path — but there they are talking on mobile devices.

The last time I went to the track — my goal that day was to walk three miles —  I observed an individual on the phone while pushing a stroller with a wide-awake baby. For as long as I was watching — and I looped the person and the stroller many times on the track —  there was no interaction with the child. Moreover, her slowness, trudging and talking in the middle of the track lanes —  was an issue with many other exercisers, who needed to give her wide berth every time they approached the stroller.
Continue reading “Exercise & Phones — Why Do People Do It?” →

Posted in 21st Century life, acceptable use, digital life, modeling for kids

Can the New York Times Social Media Policy Become a Teaching Tool?

Posted on by Marti Weston

Today, October 13, 2017, the New York Times introduced its new social media policy for people who work in the Times newsroom. Not only is it interesting to read — it may will also become a useful document for educators to share with students. The policy clearly illustrates the advice educators share over and over with 21st Century young people, basically that anything a person puts online can become a public story.

Times Social Media
Click on the headline to read the article about the new policy..

Continue reading “Can the New York Times Social Media Policy Become a Teaching Tool?” →

Posted in 21st Century life, digital citizenship, digital kids, digital life, family life, monitoring kids online, parent child conversations, parents and technology

Can You & Your Kids Balance Life With So Much Social Media & Tech?

Posted on by Marti Weston

Image from Pixabay.

Take a few minutes to read Five Ways Parents Can Help Kids Balance Social Media With the Real World, appearing in the July 11, 2017 Washington Post.

Written by Adrienne Wichard-Edds, the Post article offers common-sense suggestion that parents can use to establish a sense of balance between digital endeavors and the rest of a family’s activities. Most of the ideas come from Ana Homayoun’s, Social Media Wellness:  Helping Tweens and Teens Thrive in an Unbalanced Digital World.                     Continue reading “Can You & Your Kids Balance Life With So Much Social Media & Tech?” →

Posted in 21st Century life, digital change, digital life, digital world challenges, parents and technology, tech ethics, values in digital life

Are You Sometimes “Botified” When You Communicate Online?

Posted on by Marti Weston

Watch David Ryan Polgar’s video below.

Take some time to watch an interesting video, Are We Becoming Bots, presented by tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar. In his video Polgar describes how in today’s digital age, each person is connected to many, many other people. Too many connections can lead individuals to send “botified” responses —  meaning that we sometimes behave more like robots and less like people. “Botified” behavior occurs because of the digital world challenges that arise when we try to accommodate way too many online connections.                                Continue reading “Are You Sometimes “Botified” When You Communicate Online?” →

Posted in 21st Century life, acceptable use, digital change, digital citizenship, digital devices, digital kids, digital life, parents and technology

Digital Kids to Parents — Don’t Break Your Own Rules! A Poem

Posted on by Marti Weston

Several years ago I uploaded a post, Advice from Digital Kids to Parents, including some of the thoughts that kids in grades 3-6 shared with me about adults’ digital activities. My students often commented that it was unfair when parents asked their kids to sign a digital life contract or agreement because adults then proceeded to break many of the common sense rules.

For some time I’ve felt those children’s voices bubbling up with their ideas, and since today (Sunday) is the last day of National Poetry Month 2017, I listened to those voices, penning this poem about kids, parents, contracts, and common sense.

So here’s my second, and I hope amusing poem about digital life from kids’ perspectives. (Read my first poem.) Children have brought up all these events in discussions with during digital citizenship activities.

Hey Mom and Dad…

I’m really glad I got my phone,
It’s cool and lots of fun.
I’m texting friends and playing games,
It seems I’m never done.

I signed your contract with my name,
Yes, it was right to do.
But I wish you’d take the time
To follow those rules too!

Continue reading “Digital Kids to Parents — Don’t Break Your Own Rules! A Poem” →