We first catch up on our latest life happenings, including (but not limited to): an E.R. visit, book clubs, and trying to remember to promote our own various spaces on the internet: Substack, YouTube, and Four Norms. Then we dive into the results of the bellwether social media trial in Los Angeles that just concluded on March 24 and the implications for the future. The jury found that Meta and YouTube intentionally built addictive platforms, which caused harm to the plaintiff, K.G.M., and they awarded her several million dollars in damages. Jordan mainly followed along the trial with the coverage thanks to the Scrolling2Death podcast and Instagram account. We discuss the questions the jury had to answer and how the public can now view evidence online for themselves. Jordan talks about her emotional reactions to hearing the verdict and thinking of the many families that have lost children over the years due to social media harms. We recap some of the points Emily Cherkin made in Episode 31 about the differences between ed tech and tech ed and the importance of media literacy. Helen then gives us a lesson on em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens after Jordan shares a recent AI cheating mishap.

Find Helen on Substack at Resonances.

Join Jordan on Four Norms through reConnect Morton.

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Follow up with the episode by reading the internal documents, learning more about the families impacted, and listening to an analysis of the verdict.

Helen made a rule that when you have your own podcast and it’s your birthday, you get to celebrate with an episode being asked a variety of questions. And because we are rule-followers (usually…see: Scattergories), we are sharing the second Millennial Mom Thoughts birthday tradition episode. Before we got into Helen’s thoughtful questions, Jordan insisted on a sharing a recent not-so-neighborly post-it incident involving anonymous mail and her precious dog. Then, we celebrate Jordan’s upcoming 40th birthday with 40ish questions in 40ish minutes! Get ready to learn a whole bunch of random (see also: interesting?) facts about Jordan. Want to know what Jordan’s favorite pasta is? Do you think you can guess what her favorite episodes of The Office are? How about her favorite concert? Helen attempts to ask a series of questions in a quick, Scattergories-style, but Jordan essentially says, it’s my party and I’ll disregard your rules if I want to. This should surprise nobody. Sit back and enjoy getting to know a little more about Jordan thanks to Helen’s expertly-created list of fun, silly, and thoughtful questions. And make sure to check out our Instagram account to view a few pictures described in the episode!

This week we share an interview with Jill Anderson, a mom, an educator, the founder of Mindful Tech Lessons, and, to many in her community, “the book lady.” Jill is a veteran K–6 teacher, and when she is not in the classroom with her third graders, she is often leading workshops that help parents and educators navigate the digital world with young people. Jill tells us about her journey through teaching and theater towards a degree in Educational Psychology and into her advocacy for healthy habits around technology. She shares stories about noticing the subtle messaging of social media and video games embedded in early literacy activities, and she details ways she has made her classroom almost entirely screen free. Jordan shares her admiration for the book boxes Jill has placed around her community and the ways this initiative has inspired her own project. We conclude our conversation by hearing more about a recent article picked up by the New York Times featuring Jill and her empowering work.

Learn more and connect with Jill at MindfulTechLessons.com