Jan. 2013-Shaping Youth has taken a first ever, full month long blog hiatus until Feb. 1, 2013.
You can follow our posts on Twitter in the interim while we unplug the blog to repower the system with fresh approaches to timely topics you care about concerning media and marketing’s impact on kids.
Media management and recapturing focus has been challenging for many of us in this attention economy, as social media urgency tugs on our shirttails, and we try to balance the vast opportunities for connected learning, with the digital depletion of an ‘always on’ culture.
WorldNet Daily (now WND) even asks pointblank, “Is Information Overload Making Your Head Explode? Citing stored data only, they mentioned that in every single minute of 2012 there were 12 million text messages, 700,000 Facebook posts, 30,000 tweets and such flooding the senses…So it comes as no surprise that the majority of 2013 resolutions I’ve seen so far have centered around life balance, regaining control of time and increasing PLAY.
These themes echo Keen’s Digital Vertigo and Turkle’s Alone Together with introspective pushback against the frenzied FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) dynamics of a 24/7 digital information age…That’s healthy. And welcomed. And for some of us in the ‘unplug regularly/go off the grid altogether’ circuit, it’s sweet music to hear.
Call it a ‘market correction’ as families, organizations, corporations and individual media consumers reboot priorities, purpose, productivity and planning, beginning to ask some important questions…
Are we using media? Or is media using us?
Can we adjust intake for healthier consumption in 2013?
Can we shift the ambient noise with media literacy so children can ensure media doesn’t define them before they can even define themselves?
Here’s to humanity rising in 2013. See you in February.
Related Reading:
How Our Digital Devices Are Affecting Our Personal Relationships
How to Miss a Childhood and The Children Have Spoken
First, Let’s Kill All the Blue Screens
(Lead Graphic-Visual Credit: Ellen Vaman/Australia via Facebook)
Jan. 18 2013 Update: For those seeking Martin Luther King Jr. holiday/resources, insights, and volunteer opportunities:
Cybraryman: MLK Edu/Tech Resource Pages
Cybraryman: Black History Page of Resources
Youth Service America (ages 5-25)
Campus Kitchens Project–Teach. Reach. Feed. Lead.
National Youth Leadership Council
VolunteerMatch, Idealist, Social Actions, Network for Good, 1-800 Volunteer.org, MLK.gov, servenet.org, Volunteer Solutions, GuideStar, My Social Actions.com
For related posts on Shaping Youth by Amy Jussel don’t miss:
First Person Storytelling: The Real Deal Impacts Youth (about John Dixon)
Speak Your Mind