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So you've taken your kid's phone away for using it during dinner.  Shut down computer use because he didn't do his homework.  Threatened him with dire consequences for texting while you're talking to him. I've seen it all. But now kids are telling their parents what they want them to stop doing, technology -wise. Not surprisingly, it's, put your phone away when I’m talking to you. Don’t text while you’re driving — not even at red lights. Stop posting photos of me without my permission. Who can't relate? These are some of the rules for Internet and smartphone use that kids would set for their parents, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and University of Michigan, according to newswise.com. The researchers surveyed 249 families with children between the ages of 10 and 17 about their household's most important technology rules and expectations, as well as what made those rules easier or harder to fo...

I suppose it makes sense.  But a new study says that the Internet is making us less quick to say we know things. Sure.  That's because anyone anywhere can look up just about anything to confirm you're right (or wrong). People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access to the Internet, suggesting that our connection to the web is affecting how we think, according to newswise.com. Professor Evan F. Risko, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, led a recent study where the team asked about 100 participants a series of general-knowledge questions, such as naming the capital of France. Participants indicated if they knew the answer or not. For half of the study, participants had access to the Internet. They had to look up the answer when they responded that they did not know the answer. In the other half of the study, participants did not have access to the Internet. The team found that the...

Who knew? When I filled in friends on "free-range" parenting after researching it on the Web, I actually thought I was smarter than I really was.  This, according to a new study , which has found that searching the Internet for information may make people feel smarter than they actually are, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.  "The Internet is such a powerful environment, where you can enter any question, and you basically have access to the world's knowledge at your fingertips," said lead researcher Matthew Fisher, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in psychology at Yale University. "It becomes easier to confuse your own knowledge with this external source. When people are truly on their own, they may be wildly inaccurate about how much they know and how dependent they are on the Internet." Scary. But it turns out that we're not just imagining ourselves as geniuses on the subjects we rese...

Let's face it.  The Internet has become a wonderful resource to look up symptoms and treatment and other health concerns. But a group of people is taking it too seriously, without making sure of its credibility or accuracy.  Who are they?  Younger, college-educated men and women. A new study says consumers are increasingly turning to forums, video-sharing sites, and peer support groups to gather anecdotal information and advice, which may distract them from more reliable and trustworthy sources, according to newswise.com. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago, I immediately went online the minute it was even suspected I might have it.  Days before my diagnosis, I learned that what was spotted on my mammogram -- calcification -- is 80% of the time completely benign.  It didn't really help me relax all that much, but when it turned out to be malignant instead, I was horribly upset (probably more because of the diagnosis than the informatio...

So your daughter in a bikini on Facebook has you furious, and worried she'll never get a job after college? Relax, say experts.  This is not the privacy issue to worry about. Many privacy discussions follow a similar pattern, and involve the same kinds of arguments, according to newswise.com. "It’s commonplace to hear that privacy is dead, that people — especially kids — don’t care about privacy, that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear, and that privacy is bad for business," the Web site reports. “These claims are common, but they’re myths,” said Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, at newswise.com.   “These privacy myths are not only false, they get in the way of the kind of important conversations we need to have about personal information in a digital age. If we continue to believe privacy myths, if we think about privacy as outdated or impossible, our digital revolution may have no rule...

So now if you're a college student and a heavy user of the Internet, you could be a junkie, too? That's what a new study is saying, newswise,com reports. It makes sense, I guess.  Addiction is addiction.  “The findings provide significant new insights into the association between Internet use and addictive behavior,” the Web site quotes Dr. Sriram Chellappan, an assistant professor of computer science at Missouri S&T and the lead researcher in the study. In the study, t he subjects’ Internet usage was divided into several categories, including gaming, chatting, file downloading, email, browsing and social networking (Facebook and Twitter). Total scores "exhibited the highest correlations with gaming, chatting and browsing, and the lowest with email and social networking," newswise relates. The researchers also observed that specific symptoms measured by the scale correlated with specific categories of Internet usage. "They found that introversion was...

Now here's an interesting thought: Internet users are more likely to engage in cancer-preventive behaviors than intermittent users or those who never go online at all. According to newswise.com, a recent study  found that "Older men and women who used the Internet were more likely to participate in screening for colorectal cancer, participate in physical activities, eat healthily, and smoke less, compared with those who did not use the internet." I guess that's not a surprise.  People of a certain age are usually more likely to be hypochondriacs, too! But a large, population-based study of adults 50 and older in England, found that men and women who were consistent Internet users "were twice as likely to participate in colorectal screening than nonusers." Now, before you start thinking, well, what else are they going to do with their time, both men and women who were on the Web consistently were also "50 percent more likely to take part in regula...

Really.  A new survey says there are two reasons patients are having difficulty understanding, or getting their  medical conditions right. One, they rely too much on the Internet (to which, I can personally attest, after being diagnosed with breast cancer), where the information is often, if not inaccurate, not always applicable to every person.  And two, the reading level of educational materials medical professionals have on hand are often confusing and too hard to understand for most anyone who's not a doctor. According to a story at Reuters Health, "The average reading level of the online materials by groups ranging from the American Society of Anesthesiologists to the American Psychiatric Association fell anywhere from ninth grade to the sophomore year of college." What's the level recommended by the American Medical Association?  Fourth to sixth grade.  While that sounds pretty low, keep in mind that we're talking about very technical terms and situa...

I used to think that background checks -- while important -- were a weak deterrent to gun sales and a sad culmination of all the anguished lobbying in Washington after Newtown. But reading in The New York Times today, I was shocked to see how much gun violence they could possibly prevent.  I realize "possibly" is the operative word here. But The Times gave as an example a felon (who would not legally be able to purchase a gun through legitimate means) who advertised for one on armslist.com, and each day, his request grew more and more desperate.  Looking like a crime in need of a weapon. This felon was convicted of  burglary and domestic violence. And now, to hear that Republicans, once again, are caving in to the gun lobby, or at least, saying they will probably not vote for this most miniscule (in the end) legislation, I feel despair and rage. While you can't really connect the Boston Marathon bombings and disasters like Newtown, you can see the connection betwe...

I'm guilty, I admit it. When I get a cold and my chest hurts from coughing, I rush to the computer and know, just know, that I'm having a heart attack.  When I was a kid, I thought every stomachache was the onset of appendicitis.  And I won't tell you how I thought I was having a baby in 5th grade. But now there's a new "illness," and it's called cyberchondria.  It's a heightened awareness of symptoms and illness, thanks to the availability (and gullibility) of the Internet and us.  I definitely think I have it. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-33816_162-57566001/do-you-have-cyberchondria/