Presentation to Parents on Attachment and Modern Society
01/12/15 23:29
For interested parents, here is a copy of the presentation that I recently gave to parents at the Steps for Success Day Treatment Program. Connected but alone: How technology disrupts our attachments to one another and what we can do about it.
Want to get happier? Log off social media...!
10/11/15 23:19
The key to happiness may be as simple as logging off Facebook for a week, a new Danish study has found.
Researchers at The Happiness Institute tested how social media affected users’ general happiness. A total of 1,095 Facebook users were asked to evaluate their overall life satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10 based on different factors, such as how happy they were, how much they enjoyed life, whether they felt worried or sad, and if they were enthusiastic or decisive. Ninety-four percent confessed to logging on to Facebook at least once a day. After the evaluation, half of the group was asked to avoid going on Facebook for a week, while the other half was told to continue with their lives as normal.
A week later, the participants’ life satisfaction was once again measured. Results revealed those who hadn’t given up Facebook experienced a slight increase in their overall happiness, from an average happiness rating of 7.67 to 7.75. However, this group was also 55 percent more likely to feel stressed. The group that had given up social media, on the other hand, experienced a much more significant increase in happiness — their happiness rating jumped from 7.56 to 8.12.
Participants who gave up Facebook also experienced an increase in social activity and satisfaction with their social lives. And when they were asked about their moods on the last day of the experiment, they reported feeling happier and less sad than the group that had kept Facebook. Overall, the group without Facebook was 18 percent more likely to feel present and in the moment.
Read more…
Researchers at The Happiness Institute tested how social media affected users’ general happiness. A total of 1,095 Facebook users were asked to evaluate their overall life satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 10 based on different factors, such as how happy they were, how much they enjoyed life, whether they felt worried or sad, and if they were enthusiastic or decisive. Ninety-four percent confessed to logging on to Facebook at least once a day. After the evaluation, half of the group was asked to avoid going on Facebook for a week, while the other half was told to continue with their lives as normal.
A week later, the participants’ life satisfaction was once again measured. Results revealed those who hadn’t given up Facebook experienced a slight increase in their overall happiness, from an average happiness rating of 7.67 to 7.75. However, this group was also 55 percent more likely to feel stressed. The group that had given up social media, on the other hand, experienced a much more significant increase in happiness — their happiness rating jumped from 7.56 to 8.12.
Participants who gave up Facebook also experienced an increase in social activity and satisfaction with their social lives. And when they were asked about their moods on the last day of the experiment, they reported feeling happier and less sad than the group that had kept Facebook. Overall, the group without Facebook was 18 percent more likely to feel present and in the moment.
Read more…
Computers in classroom may increase distractions and worsen learning: OECD report
05/10/15 06:05
At a time when school boards across Canada are equipping classrooms with new laptops, tablets and desktop computers to bring learning into the digital age, a global study raises questions over whether all that technology necessarily means better education results.
A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released on Tuesday said the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on student performance is “mixed, at best.”
According to the report’s authors, where students frequently use computers in the classroom, the technology can become a distraction and education outcomes are weaker when compared with those classrooms where technology is used moderately for specific learning projects or once or twice a week.
Read more here…
A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released on Tuesday said the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on student performance is “mixed, at best.”
According to the report’s authors, where students frequently use computers in the classroom, the technology can become a distraction and education outcomes are weaker when compared with those classrooms where technology is used moderately for specific learning projects or once or twice a week.
Read more here…
CTV Interview: Parents - Don’t let yourselves get replaced by screens and technology
13/02/15 22:27
I am grateful to Carole Anne Meehan with CTV for the opportunity to talk about a very important challenge that faces parents and our society in general. We have all these wonderful technologies such as smart phones, and there is no doubt, there are many benefits to these technologies. Unfortunately, these technologies can be incredibly addicting, and they have the potential to disconnect us from one another, especially our kids... The good news however, is that it is never too late, to DISCONNECT (from our devices) to RECONNECT (to one another)... See the full interview here...
Pope Francis: Get off your screens and talk to one another
25/01/15 06:46
“By growing daily in our awareness of the vital importance of encountering others, we will employ technology wisely, rather than letting ourselves be dominated by it,” the Pontiff said Friday in his annual message for World Communications Day.
In other words, cut down on your screen time, kids.
Not that mothers and fathers aren’t beyond reproach: “Parents are the primary educators,” he said, “but they cannot be left to their own devices.”
“The media can be a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to others, to evade physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence and rest, so that we forget that ‘silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist,'” Pope Francis said.
Read more here...
In other words, cut down on your screen time, kids.
Not that mothers and fathers aren’t beyond reproach: “Parents are the primary educators,” he said, “but they cannot be left to their own devices.”
“The media can be a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to others, to evade physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence and rest, so that we forget that ‘silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist,'” Pope Francis said.
Read more here...