I smiled, listening to my friend talk about her tween daughter and her daughter’s friend. The girls were entertaining themselves by taking selfies and filming videos on their phone.

Inside, my heart sank at the new playtimes of selfies, videos, Instagram, and Youtube posts. It’s not a passing fad. It’s the new normal for girls raised in the digital culture. Are you raising girls?

As a parent, I’m constantly stepping to back to weigh new options my kids have which were nonexistent for other generations. I’ve learned to consider the overall moral and spiritual implications of things before deciding what my kids can or can’t do.

We moms need to consider how the new culture of digital and social media impacts our daughters.

Their generation is the first whose lives are openly public because of social media. Parents of girls ten and younger have been posting their children’s lives online for almost a decade. Because we don’t know the long-term implication of this “new normal,” as a parent, counselor, and educator for kids and teens, I pose six questions to consider as we raise girls in an instant-media culture.

1. Is my daughter’s playtime balanced between technology and electronic-free play? Balanced play is crucial for brain development, problem solving, creative and academic development. Girls of any age still need to explore their tangible surroundings, both by themselves and with friends.

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