Viral social media trends started innocently enough. In the early 2010s there was planking, the “Harlem Shake” dance and lip syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s summer anthem “Call Me Maybe.” Then came the ice bucket challenge, which raised an estimated US$115 million for ALS research. In recent years, social media challenges have grown more popular – and more dangerous, leading […] … learn more→

Let’s think for a moment about our closest and most enduring friends. Do they look like us, do they belong to the same social class? Or does good friendship exist to a greater degree between different people? There are studies that indicate that the similarities between people, in terms of interests and tastes, sense of humor, beliefs and ambitions, […] … learn more→

Making home improvements is a fantastic way to improve the look and feel of your living area and increase the value of your home. Whether you are looking to upgrade your kitchen, remodel your bathroom, change the flooring, or give your outdoor area a makeover, one of the most significant decisions you will have to […] … learn more→

From papyrus to paper, via parchment and now arriving on screens, reading materials have evolved over time and continue to diversify in a society that is becoming increasingly digital. From smartphones to tablets or e-readers, writing is at the heart of our daily activities and our reading habits are changing. The rapid evolutions of these digital […] … learn more→

There has been a tenfold increase in sexual abuse imagery created with webcams and other recording devices worldwide since 2019, according to the the Internet Watch Foundation. Social media sites and chatrooms are the most common methods used to facilitate contact with kids, and abuse occurs both online and offline. Increasingly, predators are using advances in technology to […] … learn more→

When the main character of a kids TV show can both listen and respond to viewers by using advances in artificial intelligence, youngsters learn more from the program. That’s what my colleagues and I found in a series of peer-reviewed studies. We are partnering with PBS Kids to incorporate conversational AI like Siri or Alexa into a popular science […] … learn more→

Most people think that empathy – or the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes – is an innate quality, but it’s not. We can learn it. Research has shown that reading can help children develop it , by allowing them to put themselves in situations very different from their own and reflect on those experiences. Another argument for teaching […] … learn more→

The progressive decline in birth rates in the world is accompanied by a fairly widespread feeling that it is increasingly difficult to raise and educate children. A study carried out with the Spanish population indicates that 8 out of 10 mothers and fathers feel to a greater or lesser extent guilty for not spending the time with […] … learn more→

Automation, once hidden behind closed doors in factories, is increasingly moving into public view. Customers can pay for groceries or clothing at a self-checkout machine, order fast food from a touchscreen kiosk or even pickup coffee from a “robo-café.” These technologies, which substitute human contact for robot-based interactions, are examples of self-service technologies — innovative public-facing automation […] … learn more→

How much time did your child spend looking at a screen today? The answer likely depends on how old they are, what grade they’re in at school and what rules you have in place at home about screen time. But the reality is that, for children and adolescents growing up as “digital natives”, it is […] … learn more→