By Jessica Hilger | January 22, 2019
Second year undergraduate, Santa Clara University

As a high school senior, I wrote a college admission essay about why I chose not to be on social media. Today, halfway through my second year in college, I have some additional thoughts about social media in my life. But let’s start with where I was as a high school senior.

I was able to survive all of my teenage years without being on any form of social media at all. 

By David Manuel Torres | September 18, 2017
Research Assistant, ETR

I have always been really interested in technology. In elementary school, I looked forward to “computer lab” days where the class would spend an hour at the school’s small, modular classroom by the lunch area. We got to play computer games meant to develop our typing skills. After one of these computer lab days, the instructor pulled me aside and told me that she wanted me to help her install new mice on all the classroom computers in the school.

I was filled with pride. In the days following, I eagerly knocked on each classroom door and went in to unplug the old mechanical mice and install fancy new optical laser ones.

By Nicole Levitz, MPH | August 3, 2017
Associate Director of Digital Health Education, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

“Meet people where they are.”

As sex educators we spend an enormous amount of time talking about this concept. It might mean starting with the basics, but it also means bringing interventions to folks, not just expecting them to come to us. That’s why Planned Parenthood developed and evaluated Chat/Text.

By Pamela Anderson, PhD | February 9, 2017
Senior Research Associate, ETR

I’m having a sentimental parent moment. Our three-year-old is looking at the iPad. She is trying to defy gravity by watching her show upside down. The iPad falls on her face. She falls off the couch and hits the floor.

Our almost-seven-year-old immediately sprints over to help and console her sister. 

By Jennifer Salerno, DNP | January 5, 2017
Founder, Possibilities for Change

How sexually active—and sexually risky—are today’s teens?

Scientific studies continue to support the notion that teens today actually have less sex than their parents did as teens. Yet nearly one in four teens will become pregnant by age 20, and half of the new STDs in the U.S. each year occur among people between the ages of 15 and 24. 

By Pamela Anderson, PhD, and Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES | August 23, 2016    
Senior Research Associate and Senior Editor, ETR

First published on the Psychology Benefits Society blog of the American Psychological Association.

What comes to mind when you hear the words “sex trafficking”?

If you’re like a lot of people, you might think of a sinister alley in a foreign country serving as the local red light district. Or you might imagine a woman who comes to the U.S. with hopes of a better life for herself and her family who is then forced to sell her body to pay debt bondage. Maybe you think of a young woman violently forced by a hated pimp to work the streets.

By Pamela Anderson, PhD, & Marcia Quackenbush, MS, MFT, MCHES  | June 22, 2016
Senior Research Associate & Senior Editor, ETR

Originally published at EdSurge.

Teens, tweens and even younger kids are on smartphones, tablets and computers a lot. Of course, tech can be a force for good. Parents, educators and youth themselves report many benefits from the presence of technology in young people’s lives—connecting with family and friends, sharing experiences with distant peers, learning, being entertained and more.

By Yethzell Diaz | May 5, 2016 (first published April 17, 2014)
Education Manager, Digital Nest

Editor's note: In 2014, when Yethzell Diaz was a Research Assistant here at ETR, she wrote this column about technology and social justice. Recently, she accepted a position at Digital Nest. This seemed a perfect moment to re-post one of our favorite contributions to the ETR Blog. Thanks, Yethzell, for all the fine work you did for ETR, and best of luck over at the Nest! 

First, let me be clear about something. I am not a techie. At all. The first time I interacted with a computer was probably in seventh grade. Technology stuff was completely foreign to me. My family and friends didn’t know about it. And there wasn’t someone we could turn to for guidance.

I did, however, become a student at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), majoring in sociology, and at one point I desperately needed to get into a popular class. A hundred students were competing for ten open spots. How was I going to swing it?