Sandbox Summit: WHERE THE WIRED THINGS ARE: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MODERN FAMILY

WHERE THE WIRED THINGS ARE: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MODERN FAMILY
Vanessa Van Petten, Youthologist and Author


Website: Radical Parenting – a website for parents written by kids.
- Her website has 120 teen interns.
- Created term ‘Youthology’ – aggregate the best studies from around the world, - translate into bite sized pieces to give to parents, educators and educators.

What technology do her readers find has most changed family routine? These were based on reader submissions, here were some of the common devices / sites mentioned.

MORNING
- sites like relishrelish.com (meal planner and tracker).
- Facebook, Twitter for checking updates
- Xbox – incorporating games during daily routine
- Skype
- SmartPhones (reading updates, watch videos, play games).
- iKibble (tracks pet food, meds etc)
- Zimride app for car pools
- Everyone checks their PlumLife! It’s a family online management system. Even sends out individual schedule notices such as ‘take out the trash’

AFTER SCHOOL
- RedRover or Skype Playdate (RedRover is an app that lets school families notify if you want to have a playdate).
- Virtual Worlds and games
- Drawing or playing on phone or iPad.
- Tech is also changing religious endeavours (eg. Bar Mitzvah with cantor in other states)
- TeacherTube / Khan Academy to help with homework.
- SAT prep via Adapster (vocab tracker)
- Tigertext is very popular amongst tweens – as soon as text is received it’s deleted after 4 minutes from BOTH phones.
- Some moms use SticKK – if you don’t achieve your goals you need to pay money to charity.
- WebMD.
- Texting (used examples of texting a child that dinner is ready so they didn’t have to scream)
- iGuardian is an app that tracks your child’s driving and sends reports back to parents.
- iCurfew is a similar app – but once you get to a location it sends the location automatically to your parents.

AFTER DINNER
- play Wii or Kinect
- use rottentomatoes to check out ratings for movies.
- Set up a ‘Synch-Tube’ - Chatting alongside watching vides –
- RunPee.com – tells you the best time to go to the toilet during a movie.


BEDTIME
- bedtime stories app
- skype (for family members away from home)


SOME FACEBOOK FACTS
60% of people stalk crushes
40% decide not to date someone if profile not cool
21% would break up with someone by changing facebook status
10% of people have been dumped over facebook.
Many people loved ex-blocker – an app that removes all mentions of your ex from facebook!



HOW THE DIGITAL DAY IS CHANGING US

The Good:
- ease and efficiency
- access
- help
- connectivity
- new kind of family together time.

The Bad:
- no off-time
- less mind wandering (daydreaming time)
- no boundaries – no off time between social life, home life and school life.
- Insomnia – kids text in the middle of the night. Average of 34 texts after bedtime.
- Kids are having trouble defining the difference between quality connections vs quantity (no undersanding value of ‘true’ friends vs ‘technology-made’ friends)
- Studies showed the more screen-time, there were more feelings reported of sadness and negativity. Online, they feel like they are connecting but there is nothing of substance being said. Compared it to cotton candy!
- Social illiteracy and miscues – need to teach social and digital literacy. Social miscues are astounding .
- New social cues – referred it to ‘flirting’ vs ‘e-flirting’.

WHAT WE CAN DO

- design digital play to be more enduring – need to work at it.
- Digital literacy must be taught alongside social literacy
- Help bring back boundaries and balance:
o Sleep should stay precious. Keep devices downstairs.
o No Electronic Zones (eg dining room) and Awesome Electronic Zones (eg play room).
o No Electronic Times and Creative Electronic Times.
- use and make technology that is imaginative and interactive (cited geo-caching), games that are online/real life back and forth, creating your own rules with the device, hide and seek apps.
- parent integration and spaces for parental involvement.