Shape The Sky Blog

Keep Up With The Latest

Sign up to receive weekly Shape the Sky newsletters to stay up-to-date with current trends in social media and technology with youth.

Categories

The Emotional Support Electronic

For many students, talking to someone in class feels intimidating. Saying “hi” to someone you don’t know? Almost unthinkable. The hallway — once a place of spontaneous conversation — has become a corridor of avoidance.

Read More

Retail Taught Us How to Hook Adults. Social Media Perfected It for Kids.

Retail taught us how to influence adults.
Social media refined it.
Our kids are growing up inside it.

Read More

When Kids Start Talking to ‘Someone’ Who Isn’t Real

Kids can have conversations that feel just like talking to someone at school, but the “person” on the other end isn’t a person at all. It’s a chatbot. Built by algorithms. Learning from what your child types. Evolving with every update.

Read More

When AI Crosses a Line: Deepnudes, Grok, and Real Concerns

A deepnude is an image where someone’s clothes are digitally removed—or a nude body is entirely created—using AI. Five years ago, this technology was clunky and fairly easy to spot. Today, it’s nearly indistinguishable from a real photo.

Read More

When AI Lets Us Talk to the Dead

I just heard about this app today on a podcast I was listening to. I was surprised by the goal of the app—for about a minute. Then my reaction was, of course this exists, and I’m sure others are working on similar ideas too.

Read More

Web 3.0 + Childhood = ?

Do young kids really need toys that talk back? Stuffed animals with AI built in? A digital companion whispering into the still-forming mind of a child?

Read More

Being Intentional With Technology: How We Introduced Our Kids to Social Media and Devices

Raising kids in a fast-moving digital world is hard—here’s the intentional plan our family used to make it manageable.

Read More

Rethinking ADHD Diagnoses in the Age of Infinite Scroll

A Shape the Sky supporter emailed me an article suggesting there may be more than one type of ADHD. The title grabbed me immediately:
“Rethinking ADHD Diagnoses in the Age of Infinite Scroll: When attention problems aren’t hardwired — they may be downloaded.”

Read More