Modern families

Thanks for grabbing a copy of our family guide. We do three or four of them every year, each with a different theme. We've explored a range of themes in past family guides—from daytrip destinations to civic engagement. And this time, we're focused on technology, with stories exploring a range of topics from media literacy to medical advancements in local neonatal intensive care units.

Can your family spot fake news? If you're not sure, we have a story from Arts Editor Kris Vagner about media literacy. Kids and teens need media savvy, so Kris asked local experts to weigh in on ways families can help.

You can also read a story from contributor Matt Bieker about a program called Seniors to Seniors. It's run by Incline High School student Matt Cornell, who, along with other high school volunteers, offers his time to help senior citizens with technology questions and troubleshooting.

There's a good chance you've heard people joke about how the internet is for porn. It's funny, but it's also kind of true. Even innocent Google image searches can return X-rated results. In fact, some people claim the abundance of porn on the internet has resulted in “porn addiction” for a subset of the population. To learn more about it, RN&R contributor Andrea Heerdt talked with a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Have you checked your Facebook today? Or were you one of the people who were disgusted enough by the news that Cambridge Analytica was able to gain access to the private data of so many people that you decided to #deletefacebook? A lot of us have what we might call “complicated” relationships with the social media platform. For this family guide, writer Tim Lenard explored his own.

For my part, I visited the NICUs at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center and Renown Regional Medical Center to see how new technologies are changing the ways doctors and nurses care for premature babies.

Regards
Jeri Chadwell
RN&R Special Projects Editor