Digital Literacy and Digital Etiquette for Adults and Kids

Dumb: Smartphone Apps Try to Plug Into the Utility Grid
by Jane Gould, PhD
November 2, 2024
Sometimes it pays to be dumb. Particularly when it comes to smartphone apps that try to plug your electric car into the utility grid. This Fall (October, 2024) a well-known and popular EV charging device failed. Connected Juice Box chargers stopped working. That’s because their European owner, called Enel X Way, stopped supporting this software… Read more: Dumb: Smartphone Apps Try to Plug Into the Utility Grid
Touchscreens in Cars: Not for Safety’s Sake
by Jane Gould, PhD
October 21, 2024
Did you ever wonder why it’s OK to look at the touchscreen in your car, but it will cost you a driving violation if you hold your phone to text or call? A touchscreen, after all, is common to the phone, and increasingly, modern cars. For safety’s sake there’s been a concerted effort to rein… Read more: Touchscreens in Cars: Not for Safety’s Sake
Locally Sourced: Should You Care Where Your Car is Made?
by Jane Gould, PhD
October 1, 2024
Labels like ‘locally sourced’ and ‘farm to table’ are ways that we discern the quality of our food. They are not generally applicable to transportation as they conjure images of healthy edibles in a reputable supply chain. Until now, locally sourced has not been important in the automotive realm. In fact, car shoppers often paid… Read more: Locally Sourced: Should You Care Where Your Car is Made?

On the Internet you can find almost anything… except guardrails to stop outbursts, speed limits to control endless scrolls, and signposts that you can trust. For children and teens, there is an absence of provisional licenses and age-appropriate lanes. BE MOBILE SMART acknowledges how in just ten or twenty years we have come to live in a place where telecommunications and transportation dominate our daily routines and behaviors. Next is the journey to tame these mobile times and improve them.

Why We Need to Be Mobile Smart:

Smartphones literally drive us to distraction and deaths.
Storytelling from mobile devices follows young children inside and out.
Children have to compete for their parents’ attention from their phones.
We spend more time on the internet, less time in nature.
When it comes to work and school, multitasking is a myth.
It takes grit and focus to accomplish something and do it successfully.
We expect instruction to be entertaining, and fun, more like a commercial.
We prefer text to talking….remote to visiting.
We risk well-being & connectivity when we are not Mobile Smart.

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ABOUT JANE GOULD, PhD

I started the DearSmartphone column in 2018. It is a traditional advice column with a modern twist. Readers discuss digital issues and the problems they present.

Be Mobile Smart continues in the DearSmartphone tradition. It drills down on the unique ways that our mobile devices channel our behaviors and collective intelligence. Be Mobile Smart is my personal calling as I have been a researcher in both the transportation field and communications. Feel free to read more about me.

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