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Creating and enacting solutions for allowing 21st century kids to thrive
Welcome to The Global Digital Mindful Project, where we work to support 21st century kids on their journey towards a better world. The project’s mission is to build, disseminate, and promote education, policies, tools, and relevant information that helps parents, teachers, and caring adults to support, raise, and teach kids. We rely on a comprehensive perspective of the unique circumstances of 21st century childhood to provide expert parent coaching, consultancy, and advisory services.
Much of what it means to be a kid in the 21st century – and how we adults approach raising and educating them – is uncharted territory.
Some aspects of childhood are timeless. Sure – there are many aspects that will always remain the same about growing up. Childhood is full of wonders and magic, play and imagination, questions and experimentation. Kids will always push boundaries and engage in power struggles as they march towards individuating themselves and learning how to be functioning members of society. The processes of growth and development are inherently part of the human experience.
But The Global Digital Mindful Project is born from a belief that societal shifts, technological advances, additional knowledge, and contemporary attitudes about what it means to be a kid have created an environment for childhood that’s categorically different than it has been in the past.
The 21st century world is global. We travel, relocate, and move around easily. And even while staying put, we connect effortlessly with people all over the world. With so much cross over across nations and cultures, we have so much more knowledge of what goes on globally than ever before.
We’re also intimately global in the problems we face. Climate change affects us all. Geopolitical circumstances hit home even when events are happening halfway across the globe. And the ups and downs of our economies and social movements are intricately intertwined.
Global Awareness
In order to progress effectively and successfully in this global society, kids need to learn how to interact knowledgeably and respectfully with people across cultures and from different backgrounds. Indeed, cultural competence and global citizenship – that is, the ability to function effectively across and within a variety of cultural contexts – are widely recognized as essential 21st century skills from such big name organizations as The United Nations, RAND Corporation, National Education Association, and the World Economic Forum.
Cross Cultural Families
The world is global on a macro scale – but also on a micro one. Case in point: The number of cross-cultural families is on the rise in Europe and in the United States. The kids born from these cross-cultural unions have unique challenges as they navigate through differing sets of assumptions, and attempt to find their own identity. At the same time, they also have amazing opportunities to learn about flexibility and diversity — and they can be ambassadors for cross-cultural competence and global awareness.
Our 21st century lives are digital. There have been many transformational technological advances throughout human history. Each one has changed the way people live their lives and relate to each other. Is the new digital age different? According to The Global Digital Mindful Project, the answer is yes. But no matter how you answer this question, one thing is clear: the speed at a which it is all happening means that we are in the midst of a monumental social experiment.
Ubiquitous Screens
For adults and kids alike, screens can, and do, permeate almost every moment of our day and aspect of our lives. A recent survey from Common Sense Media shows that kids pick up their phones an average of 72 times per day. How does growing up with digital screens dominating their day affect how kids develop and how they learn?
Raising Digital Kids
Two out of three parents in the U.S. say that parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago – and many cite technology as a main reason for that (PEW research). The ubiquity of digital technologies presents parents and educators with a whole new set of possibilities and worries. And a whole new set of decisions: will I let my baby use a tablet? When should I get my kid a smartphone and what apps can I let them use? How do I help them make good choices online, how much do I monitor their use of social media? And whose responsibility is it anyway to make sure that kids are safe and healthy in digital spaces?
21st century childhood is intense. Mindful represents two ideas: a proposed solution to the intensity of 21st century childhood, and the growing awareness of the importance of emotional intelligence.
Changing definitions of childhood
Economically worthless but emotionally priceless is how the sociologist, Viviana Zelizer, describes our relationship to kids in the modern age. The idea that childhood is a precious period of life is relatively new, and the expectations are now that kids should be protected and nurtured for years on end. But to what end? Goals for raising and educating 21st century kids are complex and abstract. And we have infinitely more knowledge and information than we’ve ever had before at the same time as we also have less and less certainty about what the future will look like.
The era of emotional intelligence
Since the concept of emotional intelligence was first described and defined in the 1990’s, our awareness of its importance has grown exponentially. Social and emotional learning is now recognized as one of the major building blocks of success in life. In fact, research demonstrates that learning solid social emotional skills has a positive impact on academic performance, healthy relationships, mental wellness, and more (casel.org). It’s also a key aspect of smoothing a path through global interactions and maintaining a sense of wellbeing with pervasive digital technologies.
Everything, of course, is intertwined.
One reason we’re more global is because of the digital technologies that allow us to be connected to people across the world in ways we never were before. Now that we are connected with more diverse people, and interacting with others through screens, being mindful about developing emotional intelligence skills is even more important.
Digital technologies bring us together. But they also make much of what we do more public. For many that may come with the feeling that everyone, globally, is watching (sometimes in judgement), and that there are impossible standards that need to be met in order to be successful. This is yet another reason to be mindful of the whole system – and to rely on strong social emotional skills for our own wellbeing and maintain healthy connections and interactions with others.
So what can we do to help kids through this global digital mindful era? Whether you’re a parent, an educator, a tech designer, a policy maker, or an advocate for kids’ well-being, we all have a role to play. Whole of society problems need whole of society solutions.
The responsibility is on us. To know when to step in and when to step back. Here’s just the start of what we can do:
Consultation Services to develop thoughtful, responsible products.
Advisory and educational services for policy, schools, non profits, and research.
We’d love to chat with you. Get in touch to see how we can work together!
Get in touch to join the movement.
