From the Scholastic Bookshelf: How to Talk to Your Child About Technology

Technology is the rose and thorn in modern parenting. While technology has given children opportunities to learn virtually and connect with others beyond their physical reach, it has also become a balancing act for parents to create boundaries on social media and beyond for their kids.

With the nine hours of screen time daily kids get on average, there’s plenty to mine about what your child is experiencing and how they see the world. Check in with your child regularly about their interactions with technology, like how they communicate with their real-life friends versus “Internet” friends. You’ll get a better picture not only of the shortcuts technology delivers into their lives, but how your child balances digital and in-person interactions.

For its 100th anniversary, Scholastic spoke with experts to identify a set of tips, articles, and books that make starting a conversation with your child about technology easier. These resources are part of a broader initiative, called the Scholastic Bookshelf, created for Instagram to raise awareness around contemporary issues affecting children today.

The articles below offer a closer look at two polarizing topics in technology — social media and artificial intelligence — that are sure to get a conversation going in your household.

Helpful Articles About Technology

Did you know that spending two hours or more on social media can make you two times as likely to feel socially isolated? This statistic, from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the jumping-off point of “Does Technology Make Us Lonely?” in Scholastic Choices magazine.

Tracing the history of virtual connectivity from the first email and text message to the creation of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, this article asks if advances in technology are helping or harming our ability to create lasting relationships in real life.

Writer Trish Culligan takes the question of meaningful connections to the next level in “Robot Revolution” from Scholastic News magazine. Can robots, which already play an important part in our lives, be developed to think like humans? Not quite yet, Culligan concludes. But through a survey of the robotic works of Japanese scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro and her interview with artificial intelligence expert Eleni Vasilaki, Culligan offers a glimpse of what the future could look like. 

Be sure to visit the Scholastic Bookshelf for more resources on technology. If you’re planning to talk with your child about other complex topics and seek tips or book recommendations, visit our Tough Topics hub. You’ll find a wealth of advice from Scholastic editors to help you navigate challenging conversations thoughtfully. Recent topic additions include:

• Online Safety
• Anxiety
• Bullying

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