Look Up! Perfect Anthem for Screen Free Week

May 4-10, 2015 is Screen Free Week I'm being called for jury duty, so who knows where that lands...meanwhile, here's a links list below reprising resources to enjoy time out and about unplugged!Screen Free Week from May 5-11, 2014Every year I hear claims that in our "always on" culture, CCFC’s annual Screen Free Week has ‘jumped the shark’ in usefulness as digital dealings … [Read more...]

Biggest Loser? Healthy Eating. Weight Loss Is Not Entertainment

May 3, 2016 Update Medical communities and studies on metabolic measures should skew headlines into bold "I told you so" moments given that many have wagged about this show doing 'more harm than good' for years, yet producers bring it back time and again, knowing profit over public health reigns supreme. "I'm surprised someone hasn't died yet" should have been at least a … [Read more...]

Dot Complicated: Holiday Media Management

Nov. 19, 2013 Ditch the tantalizing Instagram food shots and showy status updates. Halt turkey tweeting. Spare the live streaming of the family fest. MAYbe use the Pinterest prep cheat sheets if you must, but “may I so boldly suggest that this Thanksgiving, we focus on one-on-one conversations, instead of broadcasting our lives to the masses,” says (wait for it) Randi … [Read more...]

Mattel’s Manipulative Monster High Marketing Machine: Unkind.

June 15, 2012 Last year when I wrote about Mattel’s vampy campy Monster High dolls I purposely didn’t even name their brand, hoping it would quietly fizzle and bury itself in the outcry of parents tired of sexploitation, sassy, rude, mean behavioral cues sent to kids, blatant consumerism and vapid values.When Mattel tried to backpedal from the toxic messages in their webisodes … [Read more...]

Kids, Media & Intimacy: What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Update Feb. 13, 2018 Related research and an excellent NYT read on the need for "porn literacy" given that teens exposure to online porn sites is distorting their lens of peer social norming, healthy intimacy, and respect and consent. WAY past time for comprehensive sexed and critical thinking on consent to prevent misinformation and disinformation. Oh, and by the way, could we … [Read more...]