{"id":2411,"date":"2011-05-24T07:30:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T11:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2025-07-08T14:23:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:23:51","slug":"technology-finding-balance-and-inspiring-families-to-do-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/technology-finding-balance-and-inspiring-families-to-do-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology: Finding Balance and Inspiring Families To Do the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>Anyone who knows me, knows I <span style=\"color: #800080;\">heart <\/span>technology. \u00a0My IT husband hearts it even more, so in our house we&#8217;re always working to find some balance between &#8216;life&#8217; and technology. \u00a0I know they often intersect, but sometimes we struggle to avoid evenings and weekends in front of a screen &#8211; as tempting as it sometimes is!<\/p>\n<p>I imagine many parents and kids with whom you work probably struggle with this too. \u00a0On the one hand, we have that whole <a href=\"http:\/\/librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com\/\">transliteracy<\/a> thing going on (which is the ability to read and write across a range of platforms) where we want kids to be able to thrive in all of these cool technological ways but on the other hand, we have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technewsworld.com\/story\/52677.html?wlc=1305827172\">Enough Already<\/a> with the technology! \u00a0So how do you help your families (and yourself perhaps!) get to a place of balance? \u00a0I offer a few tips (some of which I got from this great <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2011\/04\/30\/social-media-parenting-lessons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mashable article<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create tech-free zones (in the library and at home!) Though I&#8217;m not a parent, if I were, I&#8217;d probably make the bedroom a tech-free zone &#8211; much like mine and my husband&#8217;s. Or better, the breakfast\/dinner table! \u00a0Which would be a little hard for me &#8211; I MUST check email! \u00a0As far as library space goes, I know many libraries have cell-phone-free areas, like the storytime room that allow parents to be fully present with you and their little ones (though I wouldn&#8217;t recommend making your whole library cell-phone-free &#8211; that&#8217;s just ridiculous!)<\/li>\n<li>Encourage parents to take part in some of their kids&#8217; online activities. \u00a0And I don&#8217;t just mean in the &#8216;monitoring&#8217; sense. The more parents share in what their kids are doing, the more discussion and interaction that can happen later!<\/li>\n<li>In the same vein as the tech-free zones, suggest parents establish un-interuptable times. \u00a0My husband and I try to have one computer-free day a week. \u00a0It&#8217;s actually really challenging, but rewarding. \u00a0We find ourselves enjoying the yard, taking a walk, or (gasp!) reading a book! One father from that Mashable article won&#8217;t answer emails or texts from 7-9 every night. \u00a0I love it!<\/li>\n<li>Consider offering workshops for parents on parental permissions across various platforms. \u00a0Parents in your community might not understand the kinds of limits they can set for Xbox Live, for example. \u00a0Do they want their 9 year old chatting with <em>every<\/em>one? \u00a0Cell phones also have restrictions like not allowing multi-media texts. \u00a0With multiple computer users in a household, accounts can be created for each member of the family. \u00a0 Each account comes with its own unique sets of permissions &#8211; no downloading anything for the 6-year old! \u00a0<em>I<\/em> don&#8217;t even have admin rights on our TV computer! \u00a0I imagine parents would love an evening workshop to learn about some of those options and tactics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone who knows me, knows I heart technology. \u00a0My IT husband hearts it even more, so in our house we&#8217;re always working to find some balance between &#8216;life&#8217; and technology. \u00a0I know they often intersect, but sometimes we struggle to avoid evenings and weekends in front of a screen &#8211; as tempting as it sometimes is! I imagine many parents and kids with whom you work probably struggle with this too. \u00a0On the one hand, we have that whole transliteracy thing going on (which is the ability to read and write across a range of platforms) where we want kids to be able to thrive in all of these cool technological ways but on the other hand, we have Enough Already with the technology! \u00a0So how do you help your families (and yourself perhaps!) get to a place of balance? \u00a0I offer a few tips (some of which I got&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[99,141,24,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-kelley-beeson","category-children-technology","category-digital-world","category-information-literacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}