Parenting the iGen

Unfortunately, things do go wrong, especially when you're young and you're still learning how to navigate being safe in the real world and the digital one. In our latest podcast, Amie and Kathryn dive into the foundations of open communication between you and your student. Good communication between you and your child is important for developing a positive relationship and keeping them protected. It also ensures that if something happens involving your child, they feel safe and comfortable coming to you for help. 

In this episode, Amie and Danielle are going to talk about Cancel Culture vs. Accountability Culture. If you’re on social media or have watched the news in the past year you may have noticed an increased number of individuals getting “canceled.” The process of being canceled always begins with a mistake but through the lens of social media, it has resulted in people losing their careers and future opportunities. Cancel Culture has become a breeding ground for toxicity. Instead, Smart Gen encourages Accountability Culture.

Amie and her new costar, Danielle, introduce our audience to red flag apps. The apps we are going to talk about today are end-to-end encryption that ensures your data is kept secret until it reaches an intended recipient. The encryption protects child predators by encoding the content they send and receive. It allows them to not be held liable for their actions and prevents them from being caught.

In our most recent podcast, Kathryn and special guest, office extraordinaire, Andi Koloen dive into activities for the fall. We are all prepping for the social media storm that will come with this year’s election. The overwhelming ads and posts have already rolled in. To give you a break from that and some ways to keep yourself sane, here are some fall activities to keep you and your family busy and safe!

In this episode, Kathryn interviews Shailoh Eggerson, SGS's Program Coordinator about her latest project Social Media for Social Justice. 

Sending our children back to school in the midst of a worldwide pandemic has presented it's own struggles, beyond the ones we typically experience with traditional back to school. Now a little over a month into the school year we want to help you through any challenges you and your family may be experiencing during this time of uncertainty. Change can be challenging, and it is important to remember that not every person reacts to change in the same way. We are going to address the toll these changes may be taking our your student’s mental health and how you help them through it.

In this episode, Amie and Kathryn discuss an application that has been circulating the news headlines a lot lately, TikTok, the video-sharing social media giant.  There has been a lot of speculation by the Government about whether this app should be allowed on the phones of U.S. Citizens. With that in mind we want to introduce the question, should TikTok be on the phones in your household? 

Kathryn and Guest Star Abbie dive into how social media is taking us away from the civil conversation. Social Media was initially credited with the potential to reinvigorating trust by offering new opportunities for social participation. However, if you have spent any time on social media recently you will notice this view has been challenged by the rising phenomenon of online incivility, which makes networking sites a more hostile environment for its users. This has taken away our ability to hold a civil conversation or debate with others.

There is a lot of negativity going around on social media these days. It can be anxiety-provoking and overwhelming to constantly see this content on your feed.  In this podcast, Amie and Kathryn discuss ways to tackle seeing and sharing negativity in the digital world.