Tips and Tricks

When our state was put under a stay-at-home order back in the middle of March, 2020, I told my 11-year old that she should start writing in her journal every day because this was going to be a time in history that her kids and their kids…

If you're like me, then your Facebook feed has been filled with everyone's new Facebook avatar. It's also been filled with people saying how they look nothing like them. And I have to be honest, I totally agree. So of course, I had to gi…

It's ironic that I chose the word "connect" as my 2020 word, just to find myself practicing "social distancing" three months into the year. Suddenly, instead of looking forward to coffee shop meetups, long chummy walks, and dinners with …

A few months ago, we shared how to set up the Close Friends feature on Instagram , just in case you’ve got your kids (and their friends) following you and wanted to share something that they couldn’t see. Of course, whenever you do that,…

In what feels like a game of " Which Site Will Violate Our Privacy More This Week ?," Google remains consistent in their issues with user privacy and released an inconspicuous email to users to let them know that some Google Photos users…

Every now and then I'll spot a fantastic article shared by one of my Facebook friends, only to discover it was written a few years ago. Womp, womp. But in a few cases, like this Vice article about what screens are doing to our eyes (and …

We live in an age of photoshop and photo altering, and quite frankly, our teens and tweens are pretty savvy when it comes to pointing out (and complaining about) a model's face that's been de-wrinkled. But photos of women -- made to look…

With resolutions and goals for 2020 in mind, we know that a lot parents are thinking about technology and screen time. Wrangling screen time is a huge concern for many of you (and us), as well as the members of our Out Tech Your Kids Fac…

Every parent wants to know how to take better pictures, especially around Christmas. A few years ago I received the completely awesome gift of a DSLR camera, but I admit I haven't entirely learned how to use it properly. I've taken thous…

This past week, my 11-year old daughter and I had a long conversation about Snapchat. She's been begging me for awhile now, but lately, it's amped up because pretty much all her friends use it exclusively to communicate. I've been very r…

We know that " digital parenting " is quite the buzz phrase these days. Our approach to it has been similar to how we parent our kids around similar difficult topics (think non-alarmist, non-judgmental), except unlike the sex talk or the…

In our Out Tech Your Kids group on Facebook, we've had several questions about parental controls for Gmail, with so many kids needing and using email accounts. We did some research to see what parents can and can't do when it comes to mo…

So your kids are obsessed with watching other people play video games and you can't quite wrap your mind around it. We decided to ask video gaming expert Dr. Rachel Kowert to weigh in on this phenomenon and tell us what we need to know. …

Whether your kids have had a smartphone for awhile now, or you're considering getting them started with one, it's important that they understand how to use it. And as we all know, when it comes to a smartphone, it's not as simple as dial…

Raising kids in a digital age presents all sorts of parenting challenges. That’s one of the many reasons we started Cool Mom Tech, along with our new Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group (OTYK). And we talk about it a lot on our Spawned Par…

I often like adding Boomerangs to an Instagram Story to help change things up from still photos. But then, I either have to go shoot a Boomerang in Instagram (and figure out what to shoot) or open the Boomerang app itself. Not one of lif…

My son just texted me: "Mom, Say 18 to Siri , but then watch your screen." Sure enough, a countdown for calling 911 pops up. Thankfully, I was watching my screen like he told me to and I was able to stop it. Related: The first thing your…

YouTube has come under major scrutiny in the last couple of years with inappropriate videos showing up on their popular YouTube Kids apps, from awful parodies to suicide how-to videos . So according to a recent report, they've decided to…

My daughter and I have the same taste in books, generally, so we love sharing anything good we've read lately. That's typically been much easier to do with hardcopy books than digital ones, but now you can set up a Family Library for you…

If you're like me, you've gone into your iPhone to show someone a photo, and as you scroll through the thousands of images, you realize you didn't delete those photos. Yes, you know what I'm talking about (actually, I'm talking about my …

We're thrilled to welcome a new monthly columnist, Dr. Devorah Heitner, author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive and Survive in Their Digital World and the founder of Raising Digital Natives, a resource for schools and families wishing …

I've been a longtime Chrome user, but after having some functionality on a few different websites, I've decided it might be time to seek other options. And then I did a deep dive into their privacy issues , let's just say it's a very goo…

I currently have just under 12,000 photos on my iPhone. I know, I know, but when you work in social media and have four adorable children, it happens. As you might guess, even with the handy location feature, as well as moments, favorite…

A few weeks ago, my teenager asked me to take a few photos of her while we were visiting my son at camp in Washington D.C., but she kept moving through her poses too quickly that all I kept getting were photos of her in motion. Not so gr…