Cell Phones (see also Driving)
- Mar 3
- 2010
Editor’s Web Note: Talk about brain drain. Multi-tasking is the biggest mass waste of our evolved brain to date. As you see from the Hewlett Packard-commissioned study that I cite below, constant tending to emails, texts, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., while you’re trying to work makes you twice as dumb as if you smoked a joint. Or didn’t sleep at all the night before. Parents need to insist on electronic-free homework time for their kids. In addition to better grades, they will feel less stressed. — Lauren Forcella
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: I’m a junior and my grades are suffering. My dad says it’s because I’m on Facebook and listening to music while I do homework. I don’t know what to believe. All of my friends do it and their parents never say anything. I have a C- in almost all my classes. Is it really…
- Aug 26
- 2009
Editor’s Web Note: Parental snooping: When is it okay, when is it not? As usual, the panel responses are spot-on, including empathy for parents misled by the media to think kids are in constant peril and in need of surveillance.
Such great young people! Each one ordinary and extraordinary. It’s an ongoing privilege to work with them. —Lauren
DEAR STRAIGHT TALK: We have two wonderful teenage daughters who give us few problems. However, their email and cell phone accounts are in our names and without their knowledge, we routinely check their messages. Our youngest, age 16, has a friend from a good family who has been texting her…
