What Buy USA-Made Can Mean to You

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Are social media a distraction and obsession or can they be a force for positive change? Will our children waste time and energy and become sleep deprived searching yet another site, or go into debt consuming whatever is advertised online, or will they find a way to use this new tool to make their world a better place? My guest this week on Family First is dedicated to making social media an instrument of change. Sarah Mazzone is a Registered Nurse, active blogger, new mother, and leader in the movement to live simply and buy what is needed from American manufacturers and from one’s local community.

Sarah Mazzone developed her growing blog, “made in usa challenge.com,” to build on her love for writing and her desire to explore American consumerism and associated issues. Sarah specializes in health and wellness, informatics and technology, and research and writing. Find out how to build your family’s health and our nation’s economy by being conscious consumers and communicators.

To hear the program, simply click on this link::http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first Friday at 1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, 4 PM ET, or any time afterwards on podcast or apps.

Sarah Mazzone, RN, BSN, is editor in chief of Made in USA Challenge, where she explores conscious consumerism from an economic, environmental and human rights perspective. Sarah highlights products made in USA that help strengthen our economy, protect our environment, safe-guard our families from toxins and minimize our exploitation of developing countries. She has developed her site into a resource for concerned consumers to find the best products made in America as well as to generate a dialogue about consumerism. She also collaborates with businesses to promote ethically made products manufactured locally, and creates social media marketing strategies to help connect Made in America businesses and consumers. As a Registered Nurse, she has worked both in the hospital and outpatient setting, specializing in patient education. She currently works in the healthcare informatics industry, obtaining critical data measures and reporting patient outcomes. 

To hear the program, simply click on this link::http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first Friday at 1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, 4 PM ET, or any time afterwards on podcast or

 

Randy Rolfe's Take Home Tips: Voting at the voting booth is just one of the ways we affect the direction of our society. How we vote with our dollar matters too. If we read labels when we buy things for our family and try to favor those sources we are most comfortable wtih from a perspective of green living and supporting our local communities and country, we can have a profound effect all together. And we will be setting a good example for our kids of living according to our values and beliefs in our everyday life as well as in our larger efforts.

Get in touch with your child's social media habits now!

Social media is one of those areas where your child is unlikely to appreciate the risks until they already are deep into the habit of devoting a great deal of time to it. It is new area parents must be vigilant about. Not only should a parent know how much their child is using Facebook, for instance, but they should also have a regular dialogue about what is going on and how the child is reacting.

Furthermore, use should be restricted so that non-cyber activities predominate. And for younger children, the use of social media needs to be prevented, since the child needs to have a grounding in reality before he or she begins to participate in the what some are now calling the "Fakebook" scene. One 16-year-old in a newspaper interview said it was like a giant popluarity contest. It can exaggerate the already stressful effects of artificial competition for popularity in the school or neighborhood environment.

Here is the latest news.

CHICAGO (AP) — Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site. A NEW CONDITION?

Researchers disagree on whether it’s simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site. But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.

Parenting Tip for Today: Randy Rolfe, author of The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, recommends that parents be in touch with their children about their use of Facebook. For kids under 18 living at home they need to limit the child's time spent on social media or any type of cyber screen. And they should get their child to agree to let them have access to their Facebook and other pages. Things that go on on these pages are in fact public and a parent has the right and duty to guide their child's public activities for the sake of their child's reputation and future.