Read this three part series on the ways new technology is impacting kids and teens: Growing up digital: How the Internet affects teen identity.
- Part one: How digital culture is changing the way kids play
- Part two: How digital screens are changing the way we read
- Part three: How the Internet affects teen identity
Part three highlights:
- Experts say the fact that many teens view their online and real-time identities as identical can be a recipe for disaster.
- Then there is ‘digiphrenia’ which is the experience of trying to exist in more than one incarnation of yourself at the same time. There’s your Twitter profile, your Facebook profile, your email inbox.
- What about dependency on the Internet? Teens would no more be out and about without a phone then they’d go without underwear.
- Parents must be good digital role models. Treat devices at sleepovers the same as alcohol: Lock them up or put them out of sight. Parents can feel overwhelmed by technology challenges but, at the same time, “this is the age in which we are parenting.” Steiner-Adair