Articles containing: digital media

A Clay Center Top 10 – Blog Year in Review

Looking forward in 2020, we couldn’t help but look back at our most popular blog posts during 2019. Like everyone, we want to thrive in the year ahead. Learning what’s been of most interest and use to the parents and caregivers we serve helps us to decide on what new original content will best support families, nationwide and beyond.

Kids Under Surveillance! – Shrinking It Down

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Just search for “Shrinking It Down.”

Today’s kids and teens are increasingly under surveillance, including by their own schools and parents. In some ways this is nothing new. Adults have always monitored kids for risk.

11 Self-Care Tips for Teens and Young Adults

Stress.  

Teens and young adults today are more stressed, anxious, depressed and lonely than ever – at least in the United States. At first glance, it’s hard to wrap your head around this fact.  

No one really knows the root cause, but it seems to be a perfect storm of several factors.

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

“When you feel good, you have a much better chance to make good decisions.” – Ming Sun

The divide between mind and body has been debated for centuries. As we learn more about how our physical health influences our mental well-being, this divide becomes harder to find.

Could Screen-Free Week Backfire? Finding The Middle Ground

We are now in what I believe is the 19th annual “Screen-Free Week” in the United States and abroad. This is a much publicized and highly laudable movement that asks us to take a week—an entire week—to get our children to unplug whatever they happen to own with a screen.

Digital Media and Body Image

Gene Beresin and I have worked with individuals struggling with eating disorders, largely girls and young women and their families for years. As the psychiatric director of an inpatient medical stabilization unit for malnutrition, I see the devastating consequences of disordered eating on a daily basis.

Living With Technology – Shrinking It Down

Technology. Some days it feels like we can’t live with it, but in today’s world we certainly can’t live without it. And what’s the mental health impact on our kids and teens who seem consumed by their smartphones and other digital media 24/7?

The short answer is: It’s a gray area.

The Immediacy of Digital Media: For Better or Worse?

It was Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts.

I was meeting with a film maker about a possible collaboration on a documentary. We were interested in the impact of digital media on youth.

Shrinking It Down: Films That Heal, with Eric Lu (Season 1, Episode 5)

You can also listen to this podcast on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and iTunes. 

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Films foster empathy and can even promote social action. Sharing stories of mental health through video allows viewers to deeply connect with storytellers.

“You would do it if you loved me.” Teens, Coercive Relationships, and Digital Media

You would have to be completely unplugged to have missed the heightened reports of sexually coercive behavior among celebrities, prominent media figures, and politicians. Indeed, the seemingly sudden explosion of public knowledge of these deplorable actions might lead you to believe that we are encountering a new phenomenon.