Meet Jessica Swarner of Parenting in the Digital Age

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Swarner.

Jessica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I studied political science and journalism at ASU’s honors college. To graduate, I had to successfully defend an honors thesis by the end of senior year. During my second semester of junior year (2016), I was looking for thesis ideas, and I heard in the news a story about a 13-year-old girl who had been killed in Virginia after meeting up with a stranger she met on the Kik messaging app. Her parents had no idea what Kik was and felt blindsided, and I was really struck by that. My sister was in high school at the time and she was using Kik, and I knew that my parents had no idea what it was either.

This story inspired me to create Parenting in the Digital Age, which is a website that gives parents of teens up-to-date information about online and social media safety. The website includes sections that talk about pros and cons of social media use, profiles of popular and lesser-known apps, video interviews with experts and a blog about the latest social media news. Parents can also sign up for a weekly email newsletter through the site.

Has it been a smooth road?
I began working on Parenting in the Digital Age during my senior year of college, so finding the time to really develop it in the way I wanted to while juggling other classes, jobs and post-graduation plans was difficult. I now work three jobs and work on the site on the side, so that hasn’t really changed. But, it’s positive feedback from parents who say they really appreciate the information I provide that keeps me working on the site and trying to grow it even more.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Parenting in the Digital Age story. Tell us more about the business.
Parenting in the Digital Age is just a website as of now rather than a true business or company. The site is all about providing parents of teens the information they need to feel confident in helping their children make the right choices on social media. The site does not promote any products or try to get parents to purchase anything – it’s pure information that they choose to use however they wish. Many other websites that tackle these topics are tied to monitoring software or webinars and tend to focus more on the “doom and gloom” side of social media, while PITDA also talks about the positive side.

Other social media safety sites tend to focus on physical safety, i.e. discussion about avoiding child predators, keeping private information offline, etc., but PITDA also provides information on mental health. Past blog posts have included studies linking Instagram use to negative body image, as well as Instagram being ranked the worst platform for youth cyberbullying.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Parenting in the Digital Age doesn’t really fall within an industry, but many people ask me how I think parenting will change in the future in terms of dealing with social media, so I can address that. As time goes on, more and more people who become parents will have grown up with this kind of technology. Younger millennials have a better understanding of it than older millennials, and generation Z will top millennials altogether – simply growing up with mobile phones and social media makes a huge difference. Sure, a new breakthrough could change everything at any time, but a parent who grew up with some sort of technology present in their lives at all times (i.e. carrying phones 24/7) versus one who did not will be better prepared to tackle a new device or platform.

Contact Info:

• Website: parentingdigitalage.com
• Email: parentingdigitalage@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParentingDigitalAge/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/parent_digital

Image Credit:
Christia Gibbons
Venita Hawthorne James

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