Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Digitally Distracted Parenting

I love technology! I really, really love technology.  From the invention of the wheel, to the mass production of books with the printing press, to research on "beam of invisibility." However, without being an alarmist, it is also important to be informed on the unintended impact of technological advances.  Over the past fifteen years as a school counselor, I have seen many positive and many concerning changes in our children.  Below please find a link to a compelling blog post on this topic.  Let's commit to not being "Digitally Distracted" parents and help one another set sound boundaries on our children's access to technology, so they can develop solid life skills.

Excerpt from "The scary truth about what’s hurting our kids" by Becky (Your Modern Family)

CNN recently interviewed Dr. Jean Twenge, author of iGen and her interview worried me – because I saw the truth that I would be facing in just a few short years. Dr. Twenge started doing research 25 years ago on generational differences, but when 2011 -2012 hit, she saw something that would scare her to the core. This is the year when those having iPhones went over the 50% mark.

The results of that should scare all of us.
  • This was the year that more kids started to say that they felt “sad, hopeless, useless… that they couldn’t do anything right (depression).”
  • They felt left-out and lonely.
  • There is a 50% increase in a clinical level depression between 2011-2015.
  • A substantial increase in suicide rate.Before I give you any more, I want you to look at these graphs and look at how the information correlates to the iPhones being released. They aren’t hanging out with friends nearly as much.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Good Morning Around the World

As many of you know, it is a tradition at the Lowell School that we welcome our students by name in the mornings.  This year (kudos to Ms. Notaro), we are learning how to greet each other in different languages.  So far, we have learned Arabic, Spanish, and Armenian. (Thank you to all our parents and students for helping us with the pronunciation!)  This week, lucky for me, we are greeting each other in Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese used in southern China and Hong Kong, my hometown.