A Rite of Passage

My daughter experienced a major rite of passage this past weekend. And it wasn’t her bat mitzvah. She got her first cell phone and it makes my Blackberry Pearl look like child’s play.

Perils of Texting

Pause to Ponder, LG’s new campaign educating teens on the downsides of impulsive texting/ sexting might have been better targeted to celebrities and politicians given today’s article in the New York Times: Text Messages: Digital Lipstick on the Collar

Living Life Transparently

One of the hallmarks of “digital natives” is their capacity to live their lives transparently, online. For me, this generation gap is thrown into stark relief when my mom visits. She is constantly astounded by how much people reveal online. “But why on earth would anyone post this much information about themselves,“ she asks when I log on to Facebook to catch her up on my friends’ lives. (I’m scared to even tell her about Twitter). “Because it’s such a great way to keep current,” I counter. “To reconnect and stay connected, no matter what the distance between you.”

The Same Rules Apply

One Friday night, I arrived home from dinner with friends. My daughter was spending the weekend with her dad – alternate weekends off being the major perk of being a divorced mom. It was pretty late but I fired up my computer to catch up on some emails before going to bed. An IM instantly popped up on my screen: “Hi Mom. It’s me, Ruby.”

Living with a Foreigner

My daughter, a true New Yorker, often pokes fun at the quirky accent and idioms of her South African born mother. “Mom!! Waddya mean - don’t get your knickers in a twist?” But the truth is, I’m the one living with the foreigner.

OMG - My Digital Coach is a 10-year old!

Whenever I used to make a digital gaffe at work, I would joke - “Well, that’s what happens when your digital coach is a 10-year old!” Little did my colleagues know the truth behind my bravado. And little did I realize just how much my digital habits had been formed and informed by the tech-savvy 10-year old who shared my computer. Social networking? I learned the ropes on Club Penguin way before I had my own Facebook account. Shortcuts on my Mac? My digital coach taught me more in one tutorial than I had picked up in a lifetime. How to IM on Skype? Once again, geek-kid came to the rescue including a lesson on how to “moon’ someone with an emoticon, a skill I treasure to this day.