I’m looking forward to participating in a local media conversation in Bennington this week…
Shires Media Partnership Inc., the non-profit owner of radio station WBTN is convening a regional meeting at the Bennington (Vt.) Free Library on Thurs. Jan. 28 to gather public comment and advice on how it can meet the information needs of Southwestern Vermont. The session is inspired by the work of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities…
Amy Garmer, who heads journalism initiatives for the Aspen Institute, will attend the Bennington meeting, along with Michael Wood-Lewis, of Burlington, Vt., who runs Front Porch Forum, local online news sites, and gave testimony at the commission’s first public hearing, June 24, 2008.
UPDATE: Event organizer Bill Densmore provided these follow-up links…
A lengthy post has been growing in my mind about the recently release Kaiser study that shows just how awful U.S. teen media/electronics consumption has become. And by “consumption,” I mean how many hours a day media/electronics are consuming our kids, not vice versa.
Well, Mike Lanza over at Playborhood just saved me the trouble of writing out my thoughts. I encourage you to take a look at his full post. He’s a clip…
… those of us parents who grew up with no Internet, no video games, no cell phones, and four boring channels of TV are left to wonder, “How will this electronic media saturation affect our children?”
We are left with a very real possibility that our kids will be more comfortable with mediated, virtual worlds than they are with the real world.
This is where I draw the line. It’s a religious tenet of mine, in a way:
“THE REAL WORLD IS PRIMARY. NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE WORLD IS AS IMPORTANT IN ANY WAY.”
That’s my limit, not total saturation of every hour outside of sleep or school. So, in other words, I define my media limit not in terms of total hours of exposure per day, but in terms of the real world skills my children have.
For instance, being able to hold a 15-minute conversation with another person is far more important for my children than chatting with others online. Building a fort with cardboard boxes is far more valuable than building a “Sim City” in a video game. Playing a baseball game is far more valuable than watching one on TV…
Thanks Mike… your post saved me a chunk of time that I can now use with my kids in real time and space… maybe we’ll read a book or work on their snow fort.
What’s your favorite book or song or other creation that celebrates neighborhood life? Hard to beat Sesame Street of yore.
Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library just got The Big Orange Splot, a children’s book by Daniel Manus Pinkwater (1977, Scholastic Inc.). Gotta love a good kid book about neighbors, difference, and taking initiative. Groovy illustrations too. My ten-year-old loved it… we’ll see what his siblings think of it next.
Some comments to this post can be found on FPF’s FaceBook page (what, by the way, does FaceBook have to do with books?)
Front Porch Forum is glad to be co-sponsoring this upcoming Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility event. Looking forward to seeing lots of folks there.
VBSR Networking Get-Together
Date: Wednesday Jan 27th, 2010
Time: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: Magnolia Bistro
Address: One Lawson Lane, Burlington, VT 05401
Cost: FREE and open to the public
To Register: Please RSVP to info@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347; RSVPs appreciated, but walk-ins also welcome
For More Info: Call 802-862-8347 or email info@vbsr.org
We’ve got raffle winners! Nearly 1,000 Front Porch Forum members posted entries to their neighborhood forums for the Ten Words for 2010 Raffle. Thanks to our sponsors and to all who entered. Congratulations to our lucky drawing winners…
See some of the many, many entries from FPF members.
To celebrate 2010 and have a little fun, we invite Front Porch Forum members (this means you!) to submit postings to their neighborhood forum between January 10 and 12, 2010. Any message that has EXACTLY ten words will be entered into a raffle for the following ten prizes…
Don’t delay! Post your “car for sale,” “seeking snow removal” or “lost cat” message today… or share a neighborhood resolution, poem, joke, hope for your town… you decide. Any ten-word posting received by Front Porch Forum between Jan. 10 and 12 will be entered in the raffle! An individual may enter the drawing up to twice a day.
Thanks to our raffle sponsors and happy 2010!
P.S. Trouble posting? Just hit reply to an FPF email, or post via our website.
P.P.S. Posting a comment to this blog will NOT enter you in the raffle! You must post to your FPF neighborhood forum to enter the drawing.
UPDATE 1: See sample entries from FPF members.
UPDATE 2: Raffle winners announced!
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more