Posts Tagged "Technology"

 Thirty-nine percent of women begin using technology more when they become moms, and women’s tech purchase criteria change when they have a child, according to a BabyCenter study.  Nearly half of women – 49% — said they were interested in technology that “empowered them to be a good mom.”

That said, earlier this month I attended the Consumer Electronics Show, an annual blow-out in Las Vegas that highlights technology innovations. I made my way through 15 miles of exhibit halls buzzing with celebrities, scantily clad women (seriously? companies still do that?) and a crowd of 150,000 plus, in search of how tech companies were adapting their products to market to moms. Happily, a number of exhibitors homed in on a mother’s need for convenience, value, and other benefits that helped them parent effectively. Some highlights:

• Moms hesitant to share their expensive iPad with their kids need no longer fear. A number of companies are launching or updating kid- friendly tablets designed to offer many of the iPad’s features for significantly lower prices. Rullingnet’s Vinci early learning systems for toddlers and preschoolers stood out.

• You gotta love Origami, the “world’s first power-folding stroller” from 4moms: The stroller folds flat and unfolds with the touch of a button. Any mom who has ever stood at a bus stop struggling to get her child out of, then close, a stroller before the bus pulls away (as I have, many times), will understand the appeal. And just to make it even more interesting, the built-in battery that makes the process work recharges while the stroller is in use.

• Net Nanny, known for its desktop parental control software for PC, now offers an app for both iOS and Android devices that allows parents to use their phone to control what sites and content a child has access to.

• For moms whose job it is to keep track of everything for their families (isn’t it always?), BiKN offers thumb-drive-like devices that attach to what moms want to locate (backpack, keys, pet, etc.).

• PowerBag is a line of backpacks, rolling luggage and messenger bags that charge gadgets as they are transported, via a built-in battery and pre-routed USB and Apple charging connectors. For a mom (or anyone) who travels on business, this is a great option..

• For the fashionable woman in every mom, there are iPad, computer, and phone covers in more styles than most of us could possibly imagine. I particularly liked the creativity and fun shown in the styles by Built.

Clearly, smart companies are finally recognizing moms’ role in tech purchases and launching products that enable them to be the best moms that they can be.

Does social media make you  more social — and a better friend — in real life?

A  growing body of research indicates that “widespread use of texting, emailing or posting on social media sites may help people become more empathetic and make more friends in real life,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Several recent studies have shown that digital communication can lead to “more and better friendships online and off, greater honesty, faster intimacy in relationships and an increased sense of belonging.”

As you may know from previous posts, I’ve long been intrigued by whether being active in social media makes people more social offline as well as online. According to one expert, technology may enhance real-life relationships because people use it primarily to interact with those they are closest to offline, not strangers, and those online communications tighten the bonds between them.  Another expert maintained that online communications could serve — for those who are shy or anxious in real life situations — as “practice” for live social interaction.

For more on the WSJ article, visit here. 

Moms, has social media made you more social in real life? And a better friend, too?

These days, when family members are together, they will more than likely be focused not on each other but on their favorite form of technology. Increasingly, “family” time consists of mom, dad and the kids staring at screens rather than communicating with each other in real time. A single evening can involve watching a streaming movie, tweeting, posting on Facebook, checking out a TV show on Hulu, catching up on emails via Blackberry, playing videogames, exploring the latest apps,  researching or shopping  online–and more. The technology-based distractions from any kind of personal interaction are endless.

All of which raises the quesions: Does technology improve or erode family communications? Is it a good or bad thing for a family to be all together in the same room, yet not talking to each other?

Moms can’t live without their smartphones, according to recent research by BabyCenter. In fact, moms’  adoption of smartphones has increased 64% over the past two years, and 51% of moms report that they are “addicted” to smartphones. The survey looked at 5,000 moms across the U.S. Following are some key findings:

• More than half said they bought a smartphone “as a direct result of becoming a mom.”
• After becoming a mom, the most important smartphone features became, in order, the camera, the video, then apps. Fifty two percent of moms said they had 10 or more apps on their phone and one-quarter of them were for their kids.
• Moms are 40% more likely than avergae to use their smartphones for social networking.
• 68% of moms use their smartphones to shop and 62% report that they use shopping apps to compare prices and do research.
• The majorty of moms sleep with their smartphones next to their beds and more than half check their phones first thing in the morning.

Moms, are you devoted to your smartphone? What do you use it for and what kinds of apps would you like to see? Marketers, what apps do you offer for moms and how else do you use smartphones to reach them?

Modern technology is designed to make our lives easier, more productive and less stressful. Except, of course, when it doesn’t.

In a recent Newsweek article entitled “Mommy is Busy Right Now,” columnist Lisa Miller perfectly captures the frustration of using the Internet to complete some of life’s everyday tasks — from paying bills to booking an airline flight. The web, she observes, has “become a nightmare of self-service” in which we must navigate a “maze of portals and passwords” and must first engage with robots before connecting with actual human beings on the phone. Miller writes:

“A simple family vacation requires innumerable visits to destination websites; a suspicious scouring of rankings and reviews; and, at the heart-stopping final moment, a purchase on a site where prices and availability seem to change by the second… The yearning for an old-school travel agent is a metaphor for deeper and probably insoluble prolems of domestic life, circa 2011.”

I know what she means. Smart phones, iPads, et al– they’re all designed to create a constant connection between the user and a virtual world of information–and sometimes, that’s exhausting. From purchasing a tube of toothpaste to scheduling appointments, we have an almost overwhelming host of online options to choose from, and often the technology originally designed to help us is actually making our lives harder.

Reader, do you have moments when you think the Web and even social media are making life more complicated? Can the constant flow of new information actually make you less productive?