This is a presentation given to a Sunday morning gathering of parents in an upper Midwestern church. It was aimed at helping them to navigate the challenge of digital cultures with their children.

1. Digital tools, family challenges
Normandale Lutheran Church
2 March 2014

2. adaptive challenge
messy, no clear answer or
technique will suffice, changing
contexts, learning together

3. we learn as we go ...
with our congregations
with families
with children
with each other

4. it helps to have an analogy by which to think about
the emerging challenges

5. to understand media you need to understand practice

6. media practice is about communication and relationships

7. analogy with food
a way to think about this

8. food
• we all require it to survive
• we live in a culture that gives us
lots of unhealthy choices
• preparing and eating food at
home and with creativity is
often a lost art
• no clear social agreement on
what’s good or bad

9. media
• we require communication to
survive
• we live in a culture with lots of
unhealthy communication
practices
• paying creative attention to
communication (think “thank
you notes”) is often a lost art
• no clear social agreement on
what’s good and bad

10. so what are we to do?

11. practices
• help people develop healthy
practices around media
• encourage a diverse media
“diet”
• encourage the creation of media
• provide ways to share more
communally in consuming preproduced media
• highlight our unique media of
spiritual and religious practice

12. some examples — for pondering, not for
prescriptive use!

13. for young children
• limit commercially produced
media consumption
• for the times you do engage
media, put good pieces in front
of them (Common Good radio,
Children’s literature, etc.)
• institute table prayers and
practices (candles, etc.)
• invite a biblical imagination into
daily practice (Bible Stories for
the 40 days)

14. for school age kids
• invite them to create media
(MyPopStudio, animoto, etc.)
• watch media together
• have clear family practices
around media use
• diversify your media diet
• choose media with deep
theological themes to engage
together
• choose Wii or Kinect over more
solitary or less physical options

15. for teens
• play and learn online together
• set clear guidelines for family
media use
• provide opportunities to create
in media
• practice open and engaged
communication in any medium
• engage in service together
• participate with them in social
media

16. for adults
• choose the Net over cable tv
• develop a thoughtful news diet
• learn with young people
• create in media

17. what about dangers?

18. issues to ponder
•
bullying
•
privacy issues
•
healthy approaches to media

20. bullying
•
research shows that there is not more bullying than previously
(that is, digital tools haven’t vastly increased bullying), but it
can spread more rapidly and it is certainly more visible to us
(which can be a good thing, in terms of prevention!)
•
best way to engage bullying is to build a community which
looks out for each other, knows how to prevent and stop it
•
safety tips for twitter, youtube,facebook,instagram
•
resources: CommonSenseMedia, insafe (EU), beatbullying,
danah boyd, Enhancing Child Safety

21. privacy issues
•
for your own information (white papers, background
legislative information, etc.): Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Berkman Center at Harvard, Pew Internet
Research Project
•
for your teens: Protect My Rep, youth free speech
•
for working with young children: Powerful Voices for Kids
Online

22. books
•
NetSmart: How to Thrive
Online, by Howard Rheingold
•
The Parent App:
Understanding Families in the
Digital Age, by Lynn Schofield
Clark
•
It’s Complicated: The Social
Lives of Networked Teens, by
danah boyd

23. remember
• practices by which we engage media matter even more than specific media
content
• emerging digital technologies make engaging media an adaptive challenge
• we need to support people with media practices in ways that are similar to
how we support healthy food practices
• engage your families with faith practices that create in media

24. questions & answers

25. more info: mhess@luthersem.edu
http://meh.religioused.org/web/faithfulchildren.html