Digital Devices

In partnership with the CDC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, Apple recently launched a new website and app for COVID-19 symptom screenings. The screening tools ask users questions about recent exposure, symptoms and risk factors and recommends next steps, including testing if warranted. Although developed through Apple, you do not need an Apple account to access the tools.

Staying in with perhaps with more free time, many people are sharing tips for organizing your home and your life, but something different you may not have thought of is your organizing digital device. Consider rearranging the apps on your phone to create a F-pattern. Experts say that creating an F-pattern can help you be more productive with your phone and keep you away from the apps that may suck up your time, and give you more access to those that can make you more productive. It actually comes down to the way our brains scan print and pictorial pages.

Technology is a lifeline for many during the stay at home orders of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is allowing people to work and go to school remotely, stay entertained, and instantly check in with those we care about. It is also makes it possible for scientists to look at real time data about outbreaks and model everything from best to worst case scenarios.

In addition, a vast array of technology resources for keeping kids busy at home are being offered online, but a few words of caution. While there are lots of resources coming from vetted sources, it is still important to make sure you know what your children are viewing and to check in with them on a regular basis. Check out the Common Sense Media site for free reviews and ratings of movies, TV shows, apps and games. While you may have to relax your screen time restrictions to get through your “work from home” day, it is important to keep their day as varied as possible. You can break up those screen time binges with a few minutes outside, a clean up the house project (there are lots of great ideas for making cleaning fun for kids), a craft project, cooking, baking, 15 minutes of family exercises, playing a board or card game, a walk with the dog, or anything that does not involve looking at a screen.

Now is also a great time to help your elementary and older kids use technology in a more engaging way. Instead of having screen time where they are strict consumers of content, try introducing projects where they use the technology in creative ways. For younger kids, look for printables that they can use to make things such as masks, puppets, model buildings, and so much more. There are also loads of inexpensive or free apps for phones and laptops for activities such as composing music or making and editing short movies, comic strips or stop action snippets. Some other ideas:

• Make Your Own Game: Ask them to make up a board game on a subject of interest to them and have them find, resize and use graphics from online sources.
• Travel Research: Have them to do some research on places to consider for your next family trip. You could even have them create their own travel brochure.
• Make a Photo Book: Put together a family cookbook complete with pictures or create a photo album of a notable day, sports team they were on, or trip.
• Make Something Special for Somone: Got birthdays or other special occasions coming up? Have your kids create magazine covers featuring a picture of the person being celebrated and come up with “featured” article tag lines to describe the person or what they do.
• “Visit” Museums, Zoos or Aquariums: Start by searching for your local museum, zoo or aquarium online for lessons and supplemental materials as they may have things specific to your state’s science curriculum. On the national level, the Smithsonian has science, art history and culture activities for kids of all ages. For a cross section look at what museums all over the world feature try the link  “Cool Online Museums for Curious Kids.”
• Virtual Art Lessons: Looking for something to break up the day? Do a search for Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems from The Kennedy Center. Or the Art for Kids Hub

In short, look for activities where kids use the technology to create and are not just being entertained by staring at a screen. In addition, here are some categories of resources, with specific examples, you may want to look at just for fun or to supplement online lessons your children are doing.

Lastly, if you are struggling to balance work and life with taking care of your kids at home, give yourself some grace and remember there is a distinction between “working from home” and continuing to do your job at home during a crisis.

Security and ease of use of digital devices are often positioned as being diametrically opposed, with tech companies saying they can’t implement more security if users keep demanding ease of use. But it doesn’t have to be like that, writes Rania Molla in a commentary in Vox. There will always be some trade-offs between ease of use and security, he argues, but none of that should prevent tech companies from aiming for a reasonable balance and meeting basic standards instead of blaming users for security breaches. Molla suggests that companies are beginning to move in the right direction with technologies such as Apple's Face ID and Google's pop-up alerts on phones for two-factor authentication.

The first Friday of March every year is the National Day of Unplugging (this year from sundown March 6 to sundown March 7). It is a chance to carve out time to relax, reflect, be active, be outdoors and connect with loved ones by “unplugging” from your digital devices. You may even find the desire to unplug and recharge more often. The scientifically proven merits of unplugging can be enjoyed any time. Choose a specific period of the day to intentionally power-down – you could try the first hour of the day, or the last… or even lunch, dinner, or the hours just before your kids go to bed. The specific time of the day is not important. What is important is the discipline of learning when and how to power-down. Choose something that works for your family and lifestyle and stick to it.

Some benefits found from unplugging:

• Students that participated in a research study say that unplugging for 24 hours upped their productivity, helped them stay focused, and made them unexpectedly aware of aspects of their life to which they had become oblivious (like face to face interactions). Participants in other similar studies talk about how they felt they had an improved quality of life – more time with friends, more outdoor and exercise time, and even cooking more often and enjoying healthier food.
• Unplugging can help you sleep better. Being woken up by notifications and alerts on news, random memes, and funny tweets is likely not doing much for your sleep patterns. You also should give those work emails a rest, because without recharging it is more likely you will make snap judgments or worse. Some of the most recent research also shows that for adolescents, sleep quality was negatively influenced by mobile phone use in general and social media use in particular.  Other research suggests that the blue light from the screens in our computers and phones also makes it difficult for our bodies to fall asleep, implying that we should disconnect before bed, rather than falling asleep while staring at our laptops and phones.
• Multiple studies have shown that unplugging from technology might benefit your in-person communication and interpersonal relationships because it encourages you to communicate outside of the screen- and text-based medium. While technology makes communication super fast and convenient, it also removes body language, tone, and other things that help us understand one another and form bonds. Adolescents, in particular, need practice in reading and interpreting body language - something social media can’t help with, and in fact, often hinders. Unplugging can also mitigate FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) syndrome that so many adolescents suffer from.

When it comes to digital safety, a lot comes down to modeling the kind of behavior you would like to see your kids follow as well as setting rules and expectations for everyone in your household, including visitors. One way to do that it is to let other parents know when they drop off their kids at your house what kind of rules you follow when it comes to television, movies, games and apps. Here is how to do that:

• Clearly state your media dos and don’ts. Be as specific as possible about the time limits, types of media, and content you allow and don't allow.
• Share the titles. If your kid is currently into a certain show or game, it's likely they'll want to enjoy it with their friend. Tell the other parent that you're comfortable with, for example, the kids watching two episodes of The Mandalorian after they get back from riding bikes.
• Check out their response to your rules. Remember, the other parent may not like your media rules. And if you want them to respect yours, you need to return the favor.
• Make sure your kids know the rules. Discuss any media rules with your kid in advance and make sure they know that playdates depend on them being responsible about sticking to the rules.
• Be consistent. The more you set the ground rules at your home around media and tech, the more other parents will start to expect it from you. And if you're lucky, they'll start following your lead.

And remember…. If your kid ends up seeing something at someone else's house that you wouldn't have approved of, it's not likely to do much damage. Restate your rules with your kid, but don't put too much pressure on them to uphold them when you are not around. They're still learning how to do that. And if you freak out because their friend showed them an off-limits video, they might not tell you about it next time. If it was egregious (porn, explicit R-rated movie, etc.), you might consider having an open, nonjudgmental conversation with the other parent and next time, invite the other kid to your place!

The old joke of “yes, there is an app for that” is proving to be even more true with the development of an app that monitors other apps to alert you when they are functioning/collecting data. The Internet of Things (IoT) Assistant app, developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, lets you know when IoT devices (Amazon Alexas, Internet connected refrigerators, baby monitors, etc.) are operating around you and what data they are collecting. And the app doesn't just let you know about voice assistants, it also alerts users about devices like public cameras with facial recognition technology, doorbells and Bluetooth beacons. The app is free and available for both iOS and Android phones.

There are a myriad of stories floating around online about laptop cameras, security cameras, and baby monitor cameras being hacked, allowing hackers to both spy on or communicate with unsuspecting adults and children. While these attacks do happen, they are preventable. Here are a few tips if you have these devices in your home:

• If you haven’t already, you probably should cover the camera lens on your desktop or laptop, even if you just fold a piece of paper or put a sticky note. For most of us, chances of being spied on this way will never happen, but it is easy to eliminate all risk.
• Secure your wireless router so that you can disable remote access to your router. This will prevent it from being configured from anywhere but inside your house and connected to your network. This is especially important id you have Internet protocol (IP) cameras in your household, including your baby monitor. These devices use the Internet and your local area network to communicate with your smart phone.
• Next you need to add layers of protection – one is not enough. First and foremost, all cameras in your household should have a strong password. It is important to treat your cameras with the same attention to security that you do with your laptop, tablet and phone. You will also want to make sure your network itself is protected by enabling encryption and disabling remote access. Another good tip is to change the name of your home network – leaving it as default can tip off a cybercriminal onto what type of router you have. If they know the manufacturer of your router, they will know the vulnerabilities that model has and can try to exploit them, according to Ioana Rijnetu from the Heimdal Security blog.
• Stay vigilant and make sure your keep the firmware – the pre-installed software that runs your camera – updated. Since the steps for doing that vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, make sure you know the name and model of your camera if you need to consult with the manufacturer.
• Beyond that, follow this Video Baby Monitor Security checklist that works for most any kind of camera in your home.

Efforts by school districts to supply students with computers or tablets are meeting resistance from parents who are concerned about the amount of time their children are spending in front of a screen. Parents have expressed various concerns, including changes in classroom instruction, access to inappropriate online content, and how the use of electronics is weakening student handwriting, eyesight and posture. One of the biggest issues with districts taking steps to distribute digital devices to their student community has been a lack of teacher training on how to make the best use of these devices and take full advantage of what the technology has to offer, rather than using them as a classroom diversion. Schools and parents alike are caught between making sure students are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow and being mindful that life and learning also takes place in places other than in front of a screen.

What does a balanced tech life for your children look like? A recent article in Martha Stewart Living discusses the framework of Dr. Mike Brooks, author of Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in a Hyper-Connected World, who points out that thinking about how technology could become a problem - before it does - is the way to keep communication open with your children. He emphasizes the importance of being a good role model in your own use of technology, and setting screen limits for every family member. In his way of thinking, there is no one size fits all standard for limiting screen use. 

While parents should know what the recommendations for screen use are from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and Common Sense Media, Brooks points out that parents need to trust their parenting skills and teach children how to self regulate, pointing out that "Autonomy is a developmental need for children—they want greater independence. And if we're micromanaging all these aspects of their lives, screen time included, they're going to resent it." He argues that heightened anxiety over screen time amongst parents can actually be damaging to the child-parent relationship, and more harmful than screens themselves. 

If you’re looking for some immediate ways to limit screen time for kids, this recent short video from Good Morning America interviews teens and highlights the problem of addiction, while offering some quick tips on limiting screen time. Practical suggestions include no devices at meal times or in bedrooms or bathrooms. They recommend setting up a central charging station so kids have no excuse to have their phones in their rooms at bedtime. Experts also suggest becoming familiar with and using timers and parental control apps. For the long term, think about investing in a router that can help you regulate the time each family member can use the Internet as well as nurturing your kid’s interests in sports, art, music and other activities outside of digital devices.