How to Parent in a Digital World: Resources
Family Minecraft Policy (Google Docs version here)
Family Support Form Responses (copy this to your Google Drive so you can adapt it to your family’s needs. For help, see How to copy a Google Form)
iOS 12: Getting to Know Screen Time & Stronger Parental Controls (for iPhone/iPad)
The Complete Guide to Setting up Parental Controls in Windows
How to use Parental Controls in Windows 8
How to Use Parental Controls in OS X to Protect Your Kids
4 Ways to Set up Parental Controls on Your Home Network
Parental Control Tools That Cover Every Device In Your Home
10 ways spam taught us to focus our attention
First seen in 1978, spam has become the vaccine for your attention span. It’s the toxin that has stimulated our immunity system’s defenses. Thanks to spam, we’ve had to find technical, social and personal ways of keeping our eyes on the 22% of e-mail that isn’t pure junk, and to avoid the 78% that is.
10 ways you can help to build the Internet
You can help to create the Internet without writing a single line of code. You can help create the online world in which you and your children are going to live. This post maps out 10 ways you can help with that important and rewarding work.
Dittos remind us of the pleasures of obsolescence
How my custom URL shortener taught me the 10 principles of tech support
The computer that set the standard for tech support in MY house was invented in 1975. Over the years, I’ve come to see that good tech support makes all the difference between having a great time online, and feeling awful every time you switch on a machine.
Waiting for your life online
1974 was the beginning of the end for waiting, as home computer kits and time-sharing systems started to cut into all those hours waiting for the mainframe. Over the years, we wait less and less, as our computers and Internet connections and smartphones get better and better. But waiting may just be something worth waiting for.
7 rules for rule-breakers
The Internet may be based on standards, but it hates rules. Thanks to the Internet we are now faced with almost daily choices about when to obey, and when to defy. If you’re going to be an online rule-breaker (and you probably should be, at least some of the time) these 7 rules can help with your rule-breaking.
1972: ELIZA, IANA and the search for (in)finite attention online
The 1972 Internet gave us ELIZA, a computer therapist, and IANA, which allocates IP addresses. Together they structure our contemporary dilemma: how do we get scarce, human attention in a world of infinite online distraction?
Another view of the Internet in 1971
Rob Cottingham, who was actually around in 1971, remembers the early Internet a little differently. He's annotated the Computer History Museum's 1971 ARPAnet map, which I included in my kick-off on my 40 years of looking back on the Internet: Thanks, Rob, for this...
One 40-year-old looks back on the Internet, c. 1971
As I approach my 40th birthday, I look back on 40 years of life online.
Why I’m happy to pay for the New York Times
My latest blog post for the Harvard Business Review is a celebration of the New York Times' new paywall. OK, maybe not a celebration of the paywall itself, but a celebration of the decision to alpha test the paywall on Canadian readers. This news gave me the same rush...