Technology

Can new Snapchat features help troubled teens?

Snapchat has announced a new feature called “Here For You” that promises to “provide proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis”. The popular youth-oriented app is the latest to join a wave of social media platforms setting out to monitor and improve the well-being of their users. [...]

An 8-year-old made US$22 million on YouTube, but most social media influencers are like unpaid interns

Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch. Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained more than 35 billion views. This helped make him YouTube’s highest-earning star in 2018, earning US$22 million, according to [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:41:38+11:00November 18th, 2019|Categories: Social Media|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Is social media damaging to children and teens? We asked five experts

If you have kids, chances are you’ve worried about their presence on social media. Who are they talking to? What are they posting? Are they being bullied? Do they spend too much time on it? Do they realise their friends’ lives aren’t as good as they look on Instagram? We asked five experts if social [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:42:07+11:00November 18th, 2019|Categories: Social Media|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Too much screen time hinders brain development in preschoolers

It's fairly settled by now that too much screen time isn't good for kids, but for specifics we have to turn to science. A new study from researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center may have filled in some of the blanks, finding that preschool-aged children had lower levels of white matter in their [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:39:04+11:00November 11th, 2019|Categories: Screen Use, Technology|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Overall time on social media not related to teen anxiety and depression, study finds

The argument has raged back and forth in recent years on the presence and nature of a link between youth social media use and mental health outcomes. In an eight-year longitudinal study recently conducted by Brigham Young University, one finding stood out: the sheer amount of time spent using social media did not correlate to [...]

By |2021-03-03T16:26:45+11:00October 28th, 2019|Categories: Anxiety, Depression, Social Media|0 Comments

Kristy Goodwin: “Teachers have a ‘moral imperative’ to wean kids off tech”

Reporting from Generation Next's Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People seminar 2019, EducationHQ's Sarah Duggan wrote an article to relate the key messages from Kristy Goodwin's presentation, 'Managing Attention Span in the Age of Digital Distraction'. Kristy's main takeaway is that the ability to focus is a skill in its own right, and in [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:35:29+11:00September 16th, 2019|Categories: Social Media, Technology|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Youth with a disability face more risk online

Increased digital participation has provided many positives for young people with disabilities, but greater potential risks can also be found lurking online for those who live with a disability, according to latest research from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. The potential risks – such as exposure to inappropriate content, excessive use, and image-based abuse [...]

Fitness trackers and eating disorders – is there a link?

Fitness and health tracking devices are becoming increasingly popular and a huge variety of wearable tech and apps now exist. Indeed, many smartphones and smart watches now come primed and ready to track our activity, sleep and nutrition. Research has for a long time highlighted how monitoring behaviours can help to lead to positive changes [...]

Monotasking: A crucial skill for connected kids

When it comes to excessive device use, there’s nothing wrong with young people – they’re just the first generation ever to grow up with unprecedented access to technology that's been specifically designed to exploit weaknesses in human psychology, says digital wellbeing and learning researcher and educator Dr Kristy Goodwin. According to Dr Goodwin, who spoke [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:24:57+11:00July 29th, 2019|Categories: Technology|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Emoji are a natural substitute for gesture ???

We’re much more likely to be hanging out on social media than at the watercooler these days. But just because we’re no longer face-to-face when we chat, doesn’t mean our communication is completely disembodied. Over the last three decades, psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists, along with researchers from other traditions, have come together to understand how [...]

By |2021-02-25T15:14:32+11:00July 8th, 2019|Categories: Social Media, Technology|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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