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.

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?

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?

• 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?

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?

“It’s tough for many parents to connect with their teenagers, who sometimes view the other as an alien life form.  Maybe bonding over video games, at least for teen girls, is the way to go,” wrote Rachel Silverman in The Wall Street Journal’s popular blog, “The Juggle.”  It’s the face-to-face interaction – the quality time spent on an activity that adolescents enjoy – that makes the experience so impactful, she said.

The study, which focused on children ages 11 to 16, found that the games needed to be age-appropriate to make an impact.  When games were too mature, the research showed that parents and daughters bonded less.  The reason: intense games interfered with conversation and interaction.

While the results sound logical enough, some parents may find comfort in having a scientific study back up their pricey e-game purchase.  (The study found that boys, surprisingly, did not show a measurable benefit when playing video games with parents.)    

Moms: do you play video games with your tweens and teens?  Will this study influence your decision to purchase certain types of video games?

Marketers: Do you make any games that would be perfect for moms and their daughters to play together?

“We know that kids love to mimic their parents, whether they are role playing with dolls or pretending to go off to work,” notes Reyne Rice, trend expert for the Toy Industry Association.  In recent months, she says, toy companies have released a host of great products that are essentially kid versions of adult tech toys.

Products such as USB drives and iPod docks now carry the familiar faces kids love.   The latest crop of tech toys for tots range from adorable Sesame Street Video USB Drives and Hello Kitty Mouse and Mouse Pad Sets to sturdy iPod docks from Barbie and Lego Digital Cameras.  Even Pottery Barn Kids has launched its own signature collection of electronics, including DVD players, headphones and earbuds.

So, what does this mean for our kids?  Is all this screen time really a good thing?  In a recent New York Times article on the need for parents and children to embrace unstructured playtime, Hillary Stout writes, “most of the social and intellectual skills one needs to succeed in life and work are first developed through childhood play.”   The writer argues for less structured time for children and calls for a return to the “culture of play.”

The February issue of Parents magazine points out that 2/3 of kids ages 4-7 have already used an iPhone or an iPod Touch, and observes that “Whether this is good or bad is a moot point now — the real challenge is figuring out how to help our children benefit from high-tech tools while still making sure they are playing and learning in the tried and true way.”

Like most things in life, I think, balance is the key.  Encouraging creative and imaginative play is important for kids.  But a little tech time can be a good thing too, especially in this day and age.  To what degree do you let your kids play with tech toys?  How do you find a good balance between play time and screen time in your family?

As i-phones and i-pads have quickly become ubiquitous among urban families, it was just a matter of time before a study confirmed what most parents already knew – technology is shifting the way an entire generation of children learns.  The survey, released by AVG Technologies, found that while only 14% of kids ages 4 and 5 could tie their shoes, 21% could operate at least one smartphone app and 34% could open a Web browser.  And while 76% of the same children could play an online computer game, only 31% knew to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency.

And there is no sign that our appetite for apps is cooling.  According to a recent article in the Boston Globe entitled “Apps Push Parents’ Buttons,” the app market will continue to boom.  “There are already more than 300,000 apps…. The number of downloads is expected to hit 76.9 billion worldwide in 2014,” wrote Beth Teitell.  “Exact figures on apps for children are hard to come by, but specialists expect the children’s market to grow with the rest of the field.”

So how much is too much of a good thing?  We love kids’ apps for their entertainment value and, to some degree, their educational virtues. But when kids become more adept at playing Angry Birds than mastering key developmental milestones, some of us are left wondering if this shift is more alarming than amusing.

Collection companies use this technology to identify where people go online, then build a profile of those consumers, which they sell — legally — to companies. The information is NOT sold with a name attached, but can include age, hobbies, shopping habits and general location, such as what city they are in. 

These companies point out that they don’t collect “personally identifiable” information such as names and email addresses and that the information is used primarily to deliver targeted ads. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) requires sites aimed at children under 13 to obtain parental permission “before collecting, using or disclosing a child’s personal information, such as name, home or email address, and phone and Social Security number.” Coppa is the only federal law that limits data collection about children.  To avoid having to comply with Coppa, some sites state that they prohibit kids under 13 from visiting. In reality, children can easily circumvent that restriction by fibbing about their age. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Coppa and considering whether to broaden the definition of ”personal information” to include data “collected in connection with online behavioral advertising.”

For more — including the names of Web sites that do the most tracking — visit the  WSJ article here. 

Marketers, if the FTC makes the proposed changes, how will it impact you?

Moms, does this tracking concern you? Do you feel it’s not a real issue, as the information, according to these companies, remains anonymous? Or  do you find it — as one mom in the article commented — “creepy”?  What are your thoughts?

The Family Dish is a program created by Unilever to inspire mom to increase quality time with her family by getting them into the kitchen cooking together.

Moms, does your family spend more time interacting with their computers, mobile devices, et al than with you? How do you feel about that — is it the way things should be  today, or would you rather wind back just a bit to “olden days” when kids and parents spent more time with each other? What do you do to share tech time with your kids–or to get them more invovled in other family activities?