ARTICLES BY DELANEY RUSTON
What teens do to reduce screen time
For years now kids and teens spontaneously tell me how they feel like they spend too much time on screens. But many of them also tell me ways they work to cut down on screen time.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 2 MONTHS AGO
E-Readers or Books: What is Best?
Reading is one of those great summer pastimes that now has been interrupted by screens. Kids read on e-readers of all types, including their phones, and internet-enabled tablets where they can access their apps and other distractions.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 5 MONTHS AGO
Colleges and other transitions: Social media help or hurt?
Transitions are challenging—from entering a new summer program to starting a new school to going off to college. Youth are facing these transitions with new forms of communication and self-presentation—yep, you got it...social media platforms. These platforms can both help and hinder these transitions and that is what I want …
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 6 MONTHS AGO
Teen Tech Talk: Shattering myths about screen time
Myth: We do not know how screen time can affect our kids so we don’t need to be concerned about it until we do.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AGO
Fortnite and the downside of loot boxes
Last week Prince Harry publicly shared his major concern with video gaming and Fortnite in particular. The wildly popular, apocalyptic survival video game is played by children and adults.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 9 MONTHS AGO
SCREEN-FREE ZONES: How to encourage more face-to-face time
People often ask me how much time is too much. Given that screens have become so pervasive in every place and aspect of our lives, I think that a better way to look at it is all the places and times you decide not to allow screens. Where in the …
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 9 MONTHS AGO
TEEN TECH TALK: Stop endless scrolling
A few days ago I was really surprised that my girlfriend was unaware that Facebook controls which posts appear at the top of one’s feed. I explained to her that it strategically feeds us more of what we have engaged with - to engage us more. This is in contrast …
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 5 YEARS, 11 MONTHS AGO
Keeping summer screen time to a minimun
Summer break is here, and many of us are looking forward to having a little more free time. Youth will have more time to breathe and explore their interests beyond school, but so often downtime becomes screen time. Summer’s wide open time spans can heighten battles over technology use.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 6 MONTHS AGO
How do we define cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is a big concern for parents, but how do we define it, and do our children see it differently? The definition of bullying from StopBullying.gov is:
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AGO
Homework strategies in the digital age
One of the hardest things in parenting is helping kids stay focused while doing homework because of all the internal distractions, like dread of working on certain tasks, or the desire to check in with friends, and the many external technological distractions that live right on the same device they …
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 8 MONTHS AGO
Talking to your kids about sexting
Research published this month in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics reports that the percentage of pre-teens and teens who have sent a sext has been increasing in recent years–which is not surprising since sexts happen much more over cell phones than other types of screens.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 8 MONTHS AGO
Unhooking from video games, including Fortnite
Fortnite is the latest video game grabbing youth’s attention.
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 9 MONTHS AGO
Returning to real life
Do your kids think social media has made our society more social, or less?
COEUR D'ALENE PRESS | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 10 MONTHS AGO
