When I started school in the 1940s, students were taught to write with steel nib pens using ink from inkwells that sat on each school desk. Learning to write with an ink pen was a laborious business. One had to learn penmanship and to write without blotting or smearing one’s work. It was very strictly [Read More]
When my three sons were young, the Internet didn’t exist. I worked part-time as a freelance writer and wrote my own picture books in the early morning darkness, before they woke up. Time was of the essence. After I dropped them off for morning daycare, I worked continuously, never stopping to grocery shop or cut a hangnail. As [Read More]
What does it actually mean to take a break from social media? I hit a digital wall that forced me to take a much-needed break away from Facebook, and get some answers.
Last fall I felt a social media burnout coming on. I would go on Facebook and look up 20 minutes later with no real idea of [Read More]
After twenty years of marriage, Stanford economist Paul Oyer found himself newly single, and waiting at a café for his first “first date” in decades—a match that was made over the Internet. As he went on more dates over time, Oyer found himself drawing comparisons between the online dating market and the business markets [Read More]
“The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual.” – Earl Warren (14th United States and 30th Chief Justice of the Governor of California. 1891-1974)
If only Mr. Warren knew then what has come to be true now. Those advances in “electronic communication” have propelled our society into a world that [Read More]
In the past year, I have made a concerted effort to unplug at specified times throughout my week in order to be present, de-stress, enjoy the people in my life, and make the most of those small but important moments [Read More]
Multi-tasking. On the surface, it seems like the greatest gift to parenthood, especially to mothers. We moms have this amazing ability to do a million things at once. We can make breakfast and lunches, sign homework papers, empty the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, and remind everyone of the after-school activities for the [Read More]
This week, I did my first ever public reading of my upcoming children’s book “Dot.” It wasn’t anything fancy. Nobody was dressed up. There were no big posters with my name on it. I did my first reading in my son’s preschool class.
It was kind of an impromptu thing. I had just received three super-special-secret [Read More]
“WAIT!” I yelled as everyone started to dive into their entrees. “Don’t eat yet!”
We were at the kind of fancy restaurant where the food isn’t just served, it is strategically arranged on the plate and displayed like a work of art.
My husband stopped with his fork in mid-air and stared at me.
“Why?” he asked. “Is [Read More]
I’m not one to read too far into Facebook messages, but this year on my birthday, I found myself feeling emotional after reading all the messages on my Timeline. It wasn’t the number that struck me—in fact, after a brief calculation I found that less than twenty percent of my network made the effort. [Read More]
