Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Popplet brings mind mapping to the iPad
"It's only for content consumers, not content creators." That charge was leveled at the iPad even before it hit the stores. Now that it's in all our grubby little hands, there seems to be some truth to the argument. My husband has gotten great mileage out of his iPad...
5 questions that will change how your grown (or little) kid thinks about technology
If you want to affect your kids’ relationship to technology, you need to do it through conversation, and not by handing down edicts or advice. Here are five questions you can ask your kids to start a meaningful conversation about technology, whatever their age.
How to use your RSS reader to enhance community
How to use your RSS reader so that it strengthens your connection to community, and helps build the kind of society you want to live in.
Your social media friends are your real friends
Diana Adams is one of a growing number of social media junkies who have experimented with taking some time off from the web. She describes "hitting a wall" with her social media use and online relationships, and taking 8 days off from the net so that she could put...
Techsperiment day 1: the difficulty of unplugging with kids
24 hours into our vow to unplug -- for just 3 hours a day! -- and I am the weakest link. We've sworn to give up computers, iPhones and iPads between 6-9 every night ("family time") but it's day one and I'm already struggling. And that's after our daughter did a good...
How to unplug as a parent: a techsperiment
The best site for reviews of kids’ games & movies now has apps too!
A few friends have recently asked me for iPhone app recommendations for kids. My friend Annemarie took suggestions from me and others, and wrote up a fantastic list of iPhone apps for kids and parents on yoyomama. I shared my own list of 12 iPhone apps for toddlers...
Online activities reinforce offline social connections
How did I miss this one? In 2008, StatsCan published a very useful paper on How Canadians' Use of the Internet Affects Social Life and Civic Participation. It speaks directly to the questions about the Internet's impact on social capital that have been a big part of...
Your therapist’s Facebook page could be harming your mental health
I've been part of many recent conversations about whether Facebook is harmful to our mental health -- and perhaps a new source of business for psychotherapists. Now I've discovered the other side of the coin: a debate about whether therapists' use of social media is...
Strategies for managing online distraction from Steven Pinker
Psychologist Steven Pinker has a terrific op-ed in the New York Times this morning, responding to the recent flurry of press about how the Internet is destroying the quality of our attention and thinking. Here's my favorite part of his article: Yes, the constant...
The Harvard Business Review
Popplet brings mind mapping to the iPad
"It's only for content consumers, not content creators." That charge was leveled at the iPad even before it hit the stores. Now that it's in all our grubby little hands, there seems to be some truth to the argument. My husband has gotten great mileage out of his iPad...
5 questions that will change how your grown (or little) kid thinks about technology
If you want to affect your kids’ relationship to technology, you need to do it through conversation, and not by handing down edicts or advice. Here are five questions you can ask your kids to start a meaningful conversation about technology, whatever their age.
How to use your RSS reader to enhance community
How to use your RSS reader so that it strengthens your connection to community, and helps build the kind of society you want to live in.
Your social media friends are your real friends
Diana Adams is one of a growing number of social media junkies who have experimented with taking some time off from the web. She describes "hitting a wall" with her social media use and online relationships, and taking 8 days off from the net so that she could put...
Techsperiment day 1: the difficulty of unplugging with kids
24 hours into our vow to unplug -- for just 3 hours a day! -- and I am the weakest link. We've sworn to give up computers, iPhones and iPads between 6-9 every night ("family time") but it's day one and I'm already struggling. And that's after our daughter did a good...
How to unplug as a parent: a techsperiment
The best site for reviews of kids’ games & movies now has apps too!
A few friends have recently asked me for iPhone app recommendations for kids. My friend Annemarie took suggestions from me and others, and wrote up a fantastic list of iPhone apps for kids and parents on yoyomama. I shared my own list of 12 iPhone apps for toddlers...
Online activities reinforce offline social connections
How did I miss this one? In 2008, StatsCan published a very useful paper on How Canadians' Use of the Internet Affects Social Life and Civic Participation. It speaks directly to the questions about the Internet's impact on social capital that have been a big part of...
Your therapist’s Facebook page could be harming your mental health
I've been part of many recent conversations about whether Facebook is harmful to our mental health -- and perhaps a new source of business for psychotherapists. Now I've discovered the other side of the coin: a debate about whether therapists' use of social media is...
Strategies for managing online distraction from Steven Pinker
Psychologist Steven Pinker has a terrific op-ed in the New York Times this morning, responding to the recent flurry of press about how the Internet is destroying the quality of our attention and thinking. Here's my favorite part of his article: Yes, the constant...
OneZero
How to create Gmail labels that help empty your e-mail inbox
Day 6: Stop using your e-mail inbox as a post-it
TV for multi-tasking: 10 shows to help process your e-mail
21 Gmail filters that will empty your e-mail inbox
Empty your inbox with Gmail filters
5 steps to emptying your e-mail inbox
Fix: How to prevent Chrome from hanging or freezing with WordPress and TinyMCE
In recent weeks I've had trouble using Chrome to post to my WordPress blog: after typing just a few words, Chrome froze and asked me to kill the page. Today I discovered that this is the result of a known issue with TinyMCE, which WordPress uses for WYSIWYG editing....
Reduce the volume of your incoming e-mail with an e-mail “vacation”
JSTOR DAILY
How to create Gmail labels that help empty your e-mail inbox
Day 6: Stop using your e-mail inbox as a post-it
TV for multi-tasking: 10 shows to help process your e-mail
21 Gmail filters that will empty your e-mail inbox
Empty your inbox with Gmail filters
5 steps to emptying your e-mail inbox
Fix: How to prevent Chrome from hanging or freezing with WordPress and TinyMCE
In recent weeks I've had trouble using Chrome to post to my WordPress blog: after typing just a few words, Chrome froze and asked me to kill the page. Today I discovered that this is the result of a known issue with TinyMCE, which WordPress uses for WYSIWYG editing....
Reduce the volume of your incoming e-mail with an e-mail “vacation”
THE VERGE
Stop worrying about your kids’ online future
I'm one of more than a thousand Internet experts who contributed thoughts about our emergent digital world to the 2012 Elon University-Pew Internet & American Life study on the future of the Internet. My comments were picked up in the Globe and Mail and MindShift,...
3 reasons to check out the latest research on social media and food
In the past, ethnicity and family traditions dictated the foods we prepared; we bought our groceries at a neighborhood store; we learned our recipes from “mom” or a cookbook; and we ate our meals together around a table. In contrast, today social media introduces us...
Save your laptop from reclining airplane seats
I live in fear of my laptop getting crunched on an airplane. How many times have I been working away when the person in front of me suddenly reclines, threatening to trap the top edge of my laptop and break my screen? I thought my 11" MacBook Air would save me, but...
S.E.O. is payback for teenage freaks
Today I was catching up with my colleague Haig Armen when he asked me if I knew Steve Andersen. "You mean, Steve Andersen from Salesforce?" I asked. ["You mean, Steve Anderson of Open Media?" my husband asked later.] "No, Steve Anderson of Get Mental Notes," Haig...