Notes from the field.
Workshops, panels, launches, and what we’re learning about kids and technology, written for the grown-ups in their lives.
Introducing Inside the Game
Last month we launched the Video Game Minimap, and the most common question we got was some version of “can you do Roblox?” We could, sort of. A report covered Roblox the platform: its chat, its spending, and its parental controls, but it couldn’t cover the game your child actually opened.
The Video Game Minimap
We love video games and we’re advocates for play. We’re also realists about the modern tech industry. This exists to move the household conversation beyond “ban them all” and “it’s just a game.”
Coming to a Toy Story Near You
If you’ve ever had to pry a tablet out of your kid’s hands when it’s time for dinner, you already know the underlying conflict of Toy Story 5.
Cracking the Code: Talking Tech with Teens
Teenagers can spot an adult lecture from a mile away. If you walk into a room with a slide deck just to tell them to put their phones down, you’ve already lost them.
The National PTA Pitch: Stop Banning Video Games
Talk to parents about video games, and they usually fall into one of two camps: the exhausted “Ban It All” approach, or the overwhelmed “Wild West” approach where kids navigate digital lobbies alone.
The Developer’s Lens: Our Message to NAMLE
Presenting to parents is about household survival, but leading a workshop for the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) required a different approach.
LA Maker Faire: Creation vs. Consumption
How does a media literacy organization dedicated to fighting the attention economy fit into a festival celebrating technology and engineering?
Sundance: Reclaiming Storytelling
Health-e-Habits was invited to participate in a Sundance panel that focused on a much darker reality of modern media: the fact that we are drowning in “Content” while starving for “Story.”
