APPropriate: Recent Episodes
Jo Langford
The parenting/ tech education podcast around social media apps.
Each episode features a specific social media app, and Master's Level therapist and sex/tech educator, Jo Langford breaks down the good points/ bad points, highlights the benefits and risks, and outlines best practices and guidelines for use.
APPropriate is designed to give you a little taste into the positives and negatives of the most popular social media apps, so you and your most-importants can make more informed, healthy and safer choices when it comes to interacting through screens.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Duolingo, the uber-popular language learning platform has made learning a new language accessible to anybody with a computer or smartphone.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Pulled Over By Police. Not technically an app, Pulled Over By Police is a downloadable link for the pre-installed Shortcuts app on iPhones that helps people record traffic stops and other interactions with law enforcement.
Pulled Over By Police: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/84ad422bdfaa45a695422cf6aab41b7f
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about YouNow, yet another app that lets kids consume and create live broadcasts, with the ultimate goal of gaining viewers, trending our brand and growing your fan base.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Chatous - a messaging app (with a reputation of being a dating app for teens) that allows users to chat with strangers, share images, and more.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Holla (with 2 Ls) and Hola (with 1 L) are two different-though-similar apps. Both are considered what we call Random Video Chat Apps - designed to connect strangers and have their own, unique spin on this mostly pointless (and sometimes-dangerous) behavior.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Periscope - one of the first livestreaming, video apps. Most parents’ primary concern about this popular platform is either what their kid might see or what their kid might do on the app. Both are necessary conversations.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about AirDrop, an Apple-specific feature that lets you instantly share photos, files, and other content with other apple users who are in close proximity.
Though Airdrop simply enables the transfer of files using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is not social media in the truest sense of the term, AND most kids use AirDrop without any problems - it does bring potential for problems and misuse that parents should keep an eye out for.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Tapereal, an iOS app that allows users to record conversations, which they call “tapes” - either podcast-like recordings or split-screen vlogs, which are then shared for friends, followers, and the larger community to listen, repost, and share.
This week's APPropriate episode is our second episode about TikTok. If you are a human, a parent and identify anywhere between Millennial and Boomer, you have heard of the app, TikTok, the kinda-new, extraordinarily-popular, short-form video, performance app.
The grandparent of PTT (Push-To-Talk) or Walkie-Talkie apps, Voxer allows users to exchange real-time voice messages (like a walkie-talkie) to another Voxer users, and has become popular over the last several years amongst teens who enjoy its fun combination of texting and talking.
Like Skype and voicemail had its’ own baby – Marco Polo, is a video-based instant messaging system, created by parents of a newborn to facilitate contact with family with different time zones and sleep schedules - allows users to send and receive video messages (like Tik Toks) that can be responded to at a later time, (like email).
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Hot Or Not. The famous-slash-infamous website, from the early aughts’ features, functions, and design have been transformed into a user-friendly app with the still-simple premise of uploading photos which would then be rated on a hotness. scale of 1 – 10.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Yolo. An anonymous question-and-answer app, that has become notably popular since dropping on the spring of 2019. The primary catalyst for its popularity is because it’s designed to – in fact only works with Snapchat.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Twenty. In August, 2019 the app Mappen rebranded and is now known as “Twenty”. A riff on the CB slang, “What’s your 20?”, meaning location.
While apps like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp are amongst the largest and most well-known messaging apps, Telegram has emerged, and is marketing itself as the most secure.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Zoom (think Skype for work). Zoom has been a favorite of the remote working crowd, but since the Coronavirus pandemic and ensuing quarantine, many of you are now getting familiar with the popular video-meeting software platform.
Zoom was an obvious choice as schooling from home became necessary and the now SUPER-popular app has been both a life-saver AND a source of stress for families all over the world.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about BIGO LIVE – An internet acronym for Before I Get Old, and a livestreaming social network.
Download today to learn more about the gravitational pull of the livestreaming, the positives and negatives of participating in this phenomenon, and whether or not BIGO is the right for you and your family.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Monkey - designed to allow kids to have “fun chats with new people from all over the world”, users are randomly matched with other users for a brief, Skype-style video calls.
Download today to learn more about anonymous apps in general, this specific app’s ties to the infamous Chatroulette website and whether or not I can recommend it for your child.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about text messaging. Texting is just one of the many, many things we can do with our devices, and for some people, kids especially – those options can become overused and overwhelming.
If you are among the many parents who struggle with helping their kid keep balance and boundaries with their communications, download today for some tips on parenting around texting.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Consent apps.
With our evolution both culturally and technologically, a new awareness about why and how we need to speak to our young people about consent is emerging.
Download today and learn true and affirmative consent actually is, about the hurdles that modern teens face in terms of giving and gaining consent, and the specific ways in which apps are NOT going to help.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Cheat Apps – also known as Homework Helpers.
Download this week to learn more about how to spot the differences between the ones that help them learn and the ones that do the learning for them, how to recognize the factors that make kids susceptible to the temptation of cheating and how to use technology and parenting set your kid up for true future success academic and otherwise.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Vault apps - camouflaging apps which are used to store/ hide personal messages, photos, and videos – primarily from parents.
Download today and learn about the two most common reasons kids use these apps, how to identify them, and how to give you children age-appropriate levels of privacy without either sacrificing their safety or reputation OR stifling that development.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about COPPA - The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act - a federal law which, both is designed to protect our kids’ online data, AND has established 13 as the age of “Internet adulthood.”
Download today and learn more about COPPA’s history, its guidelines, how the concept of Personal information has changed since the Internet happened, and what you can do as a parent to support and supplement the COPPA standards for your kid/s.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about creating social media profiles - often the first thing people see when your profile pops up in platforms, searches or notifications.
Creating a positive online profile is an art, and an acquired skill set, and as parents, it is important for us to help our offspring think carefully and critically about what their profile says about them and the audiences for whom it is intended.
Download today, and learn more about best practices for photos, how profiles can impact digital citizenship, and the four main categories in which kids are likely to make mistakes with regard to their profiles.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Byte - the long-awaited (by some) reboot (or sequel depending on who you ask) of the popular though now-defunct, Vine app. Similar to the original Vine app, Byte allows users to film and upload six-second looping videos- however, Byte is piloting a program for revenue sharing that will allow creators to monetize their content in hopes that it will make a bigger splash in the crowded pool of short-form video platforms.
Download today to learn about the recent, surprise launch of Byte the appeal and pitfalls of the micro-video platforms – particularly for Generation Z, and some guidelines for dealing with online trolls.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Lipsi - another anonymous app that lets users can accept anonymous feedback from others – more accurately, it allows users to tell others what they think of them without revealing their own identities.
Download today and learn about Lipsi’s connection to Instagram, the concerns you should associate with that and how to talk to kids about anonymous apps.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Whisper - an anonymous, “confessional” app populated by user-created meme-like posts.
Download today and learn more about the good and bad of anonymous apps, what sets Whisper apart from other, anonymous apps, the ways in which it makes parental monitoring complicated and why Whisper is the only app of this kind that I endorse for young people.
Got a kid who likes to watch other people play video games?
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Twitch - a livestreaming platform primarily used by gamers, which lets you watch other people play video games, as well as broadcast your own gameplay to the world.
Download today and learn about Parenting around this wildly popular platform, its comparison and contrasts to YouTube (including finding out what a TwitchDitch is) and tips how to handle a kid who wants to start livestreaming themselves
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about VSCO, a creative photography app, very similar to Instagram – including its popularity with teens.
Download today and learn about what it shares with and what sets it apart from Instagram, its connections to the currently-trendy genre of adolescent girl and its potential benefits for creative kids.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is an update about Snapchat the wildly popular, insta-texting app that’s marketed directly to teens. The fleeting nature of Snapchat posts, encourage behaviors that can bring heavy consequences to themselves and other people.
Download this week's episode to refresh your memory about both the benefits and risks of this popular app, how and why it may be trying to grow itself up a bit AND learn more about the real reasons teens are drawn to this innovative platform, why it is not the number two social networking service and how to manage this phenomenon as a parent.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is an update about Facebook.
Download this week's episode to refresh your memory about both the benefits and risks of this popular app, AND learn more about how social networking can be used to manipulate, how irresponsible use and sharing can impact other people, how susceptible we all are to viral disinformation and a primer of what you and your family need to know as we head into yet another election year.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is an update about Instagram an online photo/ video sharing social networking service that lets users take pictures and videos, alter them digitally in cool and unique ways and share them in sort of an online, streaming scrapbook.
Download this week's episode to refresh your memory about both the benefits and risks of this popular app, AND learn more about the differences between the trolls that grown-ups encounter and the ones that teens deal with, why blocking and reporting can make things worse sometimes and the new anti-bullying feature they are implementing, called Restrict.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is an update about Twitter, one of the biggest and arguably the most relevant social networks. Its immediacy combined with its popularity and the possibility of anonymity means that Twitter can bring out both the best and the worst in humans.
Download this week's episode to refresh your memory about both the benefits and risks of this popular app, AND learn more about some of the changes it is pioneering to improve the health and control of the conversations, and aid in faster and hopefully more pro-active takedown of fake accounts and hateful posts.
This week’s episode is about Tango, a messaging app, similar to apps such as WhatsApp and Kik, though describes itself as the “all-in-one” social networking app.
Download this week's episode to learn more about Tango, alternatives and best practices for use talking points to hit with your children
This week's episode is about Down- the rebranded version of the android app, Bang with Friends, which was a teen version of Tinder.
Listen today to learn more about this popular app’s innovative and modern takes of online dating, it’s connections to Facebook and how to talk about online dating with your kid/s.
This week's episode is about LIKEE, a free, video creation and editing app which lets users star in their own videos and share them online with a curated fan base.
This diverse, skill-sharing platform offers users opportunities to be paid actual funds in exchange for their content. Download today to learn what else your child may be exchanging through this apps Terms of Service, and why you should exercise very specific cautions.
This week’s APPropriate podcast is about Badoo, a popular social media platform with a stated focus on dating. What it really is, is a hookup app, designed like a dating app, but marketed as social networking.
Download this week to learn more about Badoo’s unusual verification policies, use of a People Nearby features and profiles and what they mean for your family.
Blendr is a relatively straight-forward online dating/ hook up app; a location-based app where people can make friends, chat and eventually meet for a date.
Listen today to learn more about this app’s connections to both Facebook and Tinder, information about dating apps in general and how to talk about them with your child/ren.
Kik is a fast, simple and personal Smartphone messaging system- similar to old-fashioned, “mortal” texting BUT the app has a built-in web browser and a host of internal, native apps.
Even if you've never heard of Kik, chances are that your kid has. In fact, 40 percent of American teenagers have reportedly interacted with the app.
Download today to hear about why this app’s appeal and biggest cautions are related to your kids.
With more than 300,000 members around the world, MyLOL promotes itself as the ‘#1 teen dating site in the US, UK Canada and Australia.
MyLOL not the first website to raise adult concern about dating apps aimed at young people.
Download today to hear more about this app’s safety measures, suspicious concerns and how to discuss online dating with your teens.
Real-time, photo and video sharing is an exciting trend – particularly for younger generations who are resistant against the more traditional, Facebook-like, social networking platforms.
WeChat is a free media sharing app. It’s rated 17+ in app stores, and although some parents might not have heard of WeChat, it is one of the most popular social media apps with almost million monthly active users – many of them, underagers.
Listen today to learn more about some of the unique features as well as concerns around this China-based, media-sharing platform.
This week's episode is about Live.Me. Live.me is a live streaming video app that allows users to watch or broadcast live-stream videos, similar to Musical.ly or YouTube.
Live.Me may seem like a way for younger children to wade into social media, like Musical.ly, but it is not.
Download this week to learn more about these cautions, and what parents should keep this in mind when deciding if their younger children should use this app.
Meet me Is a teen-focused, location-based dating app. Like FB, users create a profile complete with pictures and comments and followers.
Is it a safe and suitable place for finding your first, adolescent love, or is it just another way for vulnerable minors and the people who prey on them to connect?
Find out when you download this week, and learn some tips and tricks to keep your kids from downloading potentially dangerous apps.
This week’s episode is about Google Docs. Google docs fall into the word processing and presentation app categories, and is rated 4+ in app stores..
Why, you might ask is a social networking podcast discussing a document processing app? Download next week to find out!
Today’s episode is about Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.
Over Google's history, the company has launched over a dozen voice and text chat apps, with Google Hangouts being the famed search engine’s most popular and prominent example of a social media app. BUT, Google Hangouts announced its retirement in October 2018, and is set to be replaced with Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.
This week’s episode is about Google Hangouts.
Google Hangouts is a messaging platform which allows users to message friends and make video or voice calls either through a mobile device or a desktop browser.
Just as you can hang out with your friends in real life at parks, people’s houses or Starbucks, you can hang out with people on Google+ in what are basically video chat rooms where you see and hear everyone in the room.
In September 1998, the “Google.com” domain name was registered, and a new search engine joined the Internet. In light of that, the next few episodes of APPropriate will be a Google-themed mini-series dedicated to Google’s suite of apps, it’s past, future, it’s general impact on out larger culture and its specific impact on our kids.
This first episode is about Google+ Obviously and officially the current, social networking platform for Google; the world's largest and most popular search engine.
This week's episode is about Instagram, an online photo/ video sharing social networking service that lets users take pictures and videos, alter them digitally in cool and unique ways and share them in sort of an online, streaming scrapbook.
Instagram is age-appropriate for middle schoolers AND there are a couple of pink flags to be aware of as a parent. Download today to learn why a Finsta may (or may not be) one of them, do deep dive with me into the second most populated social media app on the planet, and the first one your kids will want to download.
This week’s episode is about Amino - a connected community for teens, with the intention of bringing them together based on passionate attention base or a pop culture phenomenon - similar to Reddit or Tumblr.
This also means there is potential for negativity and toxic people to join with the intention to harass or take advantage. Download today to hear more about these issues, as well as other red flags for parenting around this popular app, and how to set yourself up with my Internet safety guidelines.
Today’s episode is about Facebook Messenger Kids - a kids’ version of Facebook’s chat app, Messenger, making Facebook the first of the major social networks to put out a social media app specifically for children under 13.
Steam is an online distribution platform for users to play a curated library of hosted games, spanning numerous genres, from recreational to educational – think iTunes or Netflix, but for games...
Sarahah is known as an “honesty” app (in fact the word is Arabic for honesty) allowing users to send anonymous messages to their friends through other apps. It has also been known as a massive cyberbullying tool.
This week’s episode is about FaceApp, the AI-powered selfie-editing app which lets you alter photos of your face, once again has gone viral as #faceappchallenges and age-accelerating posts have flooded social media feeds and raised concerns around FaceApp’s country of origin, privacy issues and the rights you grant them by using the app, and the bigger-picture culture of apps that farm our information, and why.
Download now to learn more about these concerns, hear what I think is an impressive and breathless reading of their terms of service and some tips on navigating privacy and protection issues in social media,
WhatsApp allows users to send (unlimited) text messages, and voice/video calls over the Internet to other users for free, avoiding the limits and over costs of data plans.
Mostly a college thing or while traveling abroad or communicating with friends and family in other countries, though younger teens are attracted to WhatsApp primarily because it isNOT Facebook, and offers a degree of privacy, as many adults are not familiar with the app.
WhatsApp has both positives and red flags, download today and learn more about them as well as my guidelines for under-16’s.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/appropriate/id1456036179
Yubo (previously known as Yellow) Yubo basically turns Snapchat (and a handful or other platforms) into Tinder.
Download today to learn more about Tinder, its connection to Snapchat, why it had to change its name and its growing popularity.
#Apps #Parenting #Kids #Yubo
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/appropriate/id1456036179
This week’s episodes is about Mappen, a social networking app designed tolet users create maps of their favorite places and share both their maps and their real-time location with their friends.
Download today to learn more about Mappen’s ironic privacy policies and location sharing concerns.
#Apps #Parenting #Kids #Mappen #Tinder
This week’s episode is about AfterSchool
AfterSchool is an anonymous, chat board app - similar to the now defunct YikYak app, including similar attention, problems and complaints from parents and teachers.
Download today to hear more about “A safe place for kids to publish thoughts when not at school without fear that a parent or relative will see the content,” any why it’s becoming more and more popular with middle and elementary schoolers.
#Apps #Parenting #Kids #AfterSchool
YouTube falls into the media sharing/ content curation AND the livestreaming / connection motivated app categories.
YouTube is a free, media sharing site, making it possible to both create and consume videos, music and other forms of media. The go-to, for culture, trends and connection - the newest incarnation of that “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” that teens have gravitated toward since the beginning of time.
Because of this I have broken this app into two podcasts, this one - about creating content on YouTube, and last week’s part-one episode about consuming content on YouTube.
YouTube falls into the media sharing/ content curation AND the livestreaming / connection motivated app categories.
YouTube is a free, media sharing site, making it possible to both create and consume videos, music and other forms of media. The go-to, for culture, trends and connection - the newest incarnation of that “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” that teens have gravitated toward since the beginning of time.
Because of this we are going to break this app into two podcasts, this one - about consuming content on YouTube, and a Part-2 episode about creating content on YouTube.
This week's episode is about Tumblr, one of the largest art platforms online today.
Tumblr is a cross between a social network and a microblogging platform (like a blog & Twitter had a baby), that allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sort of online, streaming scrapbook or art portfolio.
Today’s episode is about Burnbook.
Burnbook falls into the texting or messenger app category, and resembles/ is CLEARLY modeled after the Burn Book made famous in the movie, Mean Girls, which was designed to spread rumors, stories and gossip to and about other students in the film’s North Shore High School.
...Doesn't that sound fetch?!
This week’s episode is about Houseparty.
Houseparty is a rebooted version of a defunct, livestreaming app, called Meerkat. Rebooted in 2016, Houseparty is designed to let you host video calls with friends (and friends of friends), much like Google Hangouts.
This week’s episode is about Discord.
Discord falls into the texting or messenger app category. Sometimes described as Skype for gaming, Discord is an app (and site) that allows gamers to connect via text, voice, and video (typically) while gaming.
This week’s episode is about IMVU a 3-D chat world site and app.
IMVU falls into the texting or messenger app category, and stands for (Instant Messaging Virtual Universe) – an online world in which users create custom avatars and use them to chat with strangers in random chats or 3D chat rooms.
This week's episode is about Ask.Fm.
Ask.fm falls into the texting or messenger app category, and is rated 17+ in app stores.
It is a social networking website set up in an anonymous question/ answer format, allowing users to take questions from, give answers to and ask questions about others, anonymously.
This week’s episode is about GroupMe.
GroupMe falls into the texting or messenger app category.
It is a messaging app that is designed to allow you to share – wait for it…Group Messages; a trend that has become more and commonplace with younger and younger groups of kids.
This week’s episode is about TikTok – the app formerly known as Musical.ly.
TikTok falls into the live-streaming / connection motivated app category.
Musical.ly is a fun, short-form, video-sharing, social app in which kids (mostly) make cute (mostly) music videos. The users (called Musers) record themselves dancing and singing to famous songs and build up a following among friends by sharing their karaoke-like posts publicly.
This week’s episode is about Snapchat.
Snapchat falls into the texting or messenger app and self-destructing/ secret-based app categories.
Snapchat is the app that allows users to send photos, videos or messages that disappear after a set time limit. Thousands of teenagers have been lured into a false sense of security around the Snapchat app—the wildly popular, insta-texting app that’s marketed directly to teens.
Today’s episode is about Facebook
Facebook falls into the media sharing/ content curation and the livestreaming / connection motivated app categories.
Facebook is a social networking site in which users have a personal profile called a Timeline – an easily managed mini version of a webpage.