Tuesday,  Jan. 28, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 196 • 27 of 33

(Continued from page 26)

her 3-year-old daughter, Paisley, on her iPhone -- but they aren't ones Koskie has taken.
• "There'll be 90 pictures, sideways, of the corner of her eye, her eyebrow," said Koskie, who lives in Wichita, Kan. "She's just tapping her way right into my phone."
• The hidden photos, all shot by Paisley, illustrate a phenomenon familiar to many parents in today's tech-savvy world: Toddlers love selfies. Observant entrepreneurs have caught on to these image-obsessed tots, marketing special apps that make taking photos super-easy for little fingers. You can even buy a pillow with a smartphone pocket so toddlers can take selfies during a diaper change.
• But toddlers aren't the only ones taking photos nonstop. It's not unusual for doting parents to snap thousands of digital photos by the time their child is 2. Today's toddlers think nothing of finding their own biopic stored in a device barely bigger than a deck of cards.
• While the barrage of images may keep distant grandparents happy, it's not yet clear how such a steady diet of self-affirming navel-gazing will affect members of the first truly "smartphone generation." Tot-centric snapshots can help build a healthy self-image and boost childhood memories when handled correctly, but shooting too many photos or videos and playing them back instantly for a demanding toddler could backfire, said Deborah Best, a professor of cognitive developmental psychology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
• ___

'Long-term unemployed' parents shield kids, keep looking for work -- one family's story

• AURORA, Ill. (AP) -- Down the road from an emergency food pantry where a small crowd waits for the chance to gather free groceries, there is a church sign that reads: "If you need help, ask God. If you don't, thank God."
• Debbie Jurcak, one of those in line, will tell you that it is indeed divine help -- or, anyway, faith-based organizations -- that she and her family have relied on in recent weeks. Late last month, the federal government ended her unemployment benefits, six months after she was laid off from an administrative job.
• Having passed that six-month mark, she had joined the ranks of the "long-term unemployed," a growing group of more than 1.3 Americans for whom Congress recently declined to extend benefits. It is a label that Jurcak, a former teacher with two master's degrees, never expected would apply to her.
• "It's not something you want to go around talking about all the time. I think a lot of

(Continued on page 28)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.