Gaming our way to a better world?

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Those Moffatts know how to have fun. Photo cred: DLM

As a parent, I admit I have an ambivalent relationship with videogames. So when Gabe Zichermann’s 2011 TEDTalk “How games make kids smarter” hit my radar, I was intrigued. His fast-talking, humourous approach was drawing me in when he said two things that made my heart sink. First, “maybe our world is just too freaking slow for our kids”. And second, reading on a sunny afternoon? He doesn’t “think our kids will ever be doing that”. Now he had my full (cynical) attention. Continue reading “Gaming our way to a better world?” →

The “new normal”, media shock and…frogs

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Little Miss Sunshine? Photo cred: DLM

It’s amazing how many times in the past year I’ve used the phrase “new normal“. Whether it’s managing intense change resulting from an “acceleration of the acceleration”, as David Taras author of Digital Mosaic, Media, Power and Identity in Canada puts it, or feeling unsurprised by the latest headlines following a twitterfest, “normal” feels like it’s in a state of perpetual redefinition. Some things deserve to be normalized, and media’s influence (particularly in digital spaces) is helping that to happen. It’s also becoming clear, however, that there are a great many aspects of our society that are becoming normalized in concerning ways. Are we living out the myth of the frog and boiling water? Continue reading “The “new normal”, media shock and…frogs” →

The loneliness crisis in a (dis)connected world

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Family, friends and books. Photo cred: DLM

“Wait, are you serious?”, my husband responded to my sharing the news that the UK just appointed a Minister of Loneliness. When it comes to the subject of loneliness, many are indeed serious, as the “looming loneliness crisis” is cutting a wide swath, regardless of age or income. As a public, we should be concerned about social connection, given that we are living in the most technologically connected age in history, and yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980’s. Why is this?

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Maybe we need to thank Facebook, Trump and the Russians

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Speak your kind.  Photo cred: DLM

Ten years into the “smartphone experiment”, and we seem to be reaching a tipping point.  Just this week, we saw two major Apple investors write an open letter challenging Apple over concerns that device-usage habits are harming children’s developing brains. Then two days later, the Globe and Mail ran an alarming, evidence-based article on how smartphones are making us stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. But what is all of this technology (ab)use doing to the health of our society? Continue reading “Maybe we need to thank Facebook, Trump and the Russians” →

In search of kindness…an introduction

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(Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/renemensen/11561568936)

As a communication studies scholar, who has fallen madly in love with cultural studies, evidence of the importance and impact of  communication is, well, EVERYWHERE.  So when it came time to name this blog, “communication matters” felt apropos.  Whether you use the verb or noun definition of “matters”, it just works.  Continue reading “In search of kindness…an introduction” →