Flourishing With Tech
Why Flourishing with Tech exists
Today's teens are growing up in an increasingly digital world. Social media platforms shape friendships and identity. Smartphones structure attention from the moment they wake up. Games and group chats are where social life happens. And generative AI has arrived faster than any of the technologies that came before it.
Public conversations on digital tech have often involved binaries, and a focus on screen time. Is social media "good" or "bad" for teen mental health? How many hours is too many hours gaming with friends?
Each young person is unlike any other young person. Every teen has their own unique strengths, capacities, interests, background, and experiences.
Every teen's experiences with digital media are also unique. It matters how the technology is used: who is it used with? when? And how? Parents and educators are often left without practical guidance grounded in how to promote positive meaningful digital media experiences among teens.
Flourishing With Tech helps to address this gap. The brand is grounded in developmental science and built on the principles of positive youth development. My research asks: What is going right in the lives of young people today, and how we can apply these insights to the landscape of digital media, from video games to generative AI.
Mission and values
Mission
To help parents and educators raise a generation that uses digital media — such as social media platforms, games, smartphones, and generative AI — in ways that promote young people's confidence, competence, connection, caring, and character. Youth who demonstrate these five Cs show lower levels of risk behaviors, and are also more likely to contribute to others and the world around them, highlighting the C of "Contribution."
This stance is grounded in Dr. Richard Lerner and Dr. Jacqueline Lerner's Five Cs of Positive Youth Development model. In particular, I focus on the C of Character: qualities like empathy, intellectual humility, honesty, and purpose.
Core values
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Strengths-focused
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Research-based
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Curiosity-grounded