Richard R RamosRichard R. Ramos. Founder of Parents on a Mission,Youth on a Mission, and Latino Coalition for Community Leadership

The New Rules of Influence How Technology Changed Parenting Forever

6 Feb 2026 · 2 min

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1:47

In this presentation, the speaker reflects on the growing disconnect many parents feel with their children, who are increasingly absorbed in social media and artificial intelligence. He argues that the "game" of parenting has changed without a new playbook, leading to feelings of estrangement as kids spend more time looking at screens. Rather than fearing this shift, he urges parents to seek understanding. To illustrate how influence works today, he introduces Edward Bernays—often called the father of modern public relations—highlighting Bernays' role in shaping advertising, copywriting, and mass persuasion, and suggesting that insights from Bernays can help parents navigate the digital influence landscape affecting their children.

Chapters

You know, you wonder like, wow, what is happening with, with my kid, with my daughter, with my son? And they just seemed so much more connected with all their friends because they all have this thing in common around social media and artificial intelligence and all that stuff. Well, it's inescapable, I'll say that, but it's what I'm. The point I'm making is that the game has changed and we weren't trained for it and we weren't given a new playbook. So we're, we're just learning this stuff. I'm just learning this stuff. As I'm learning this stuff, I want to share it with, with parents, with you, mom and dad. Because as I said, if you're feeling that estrangement from your kids or they're pushing back more, or they're just not connected and they're just always, you know, looking down at their screens, That's the world we're living in. But, but here's the thing. We don't have to fear it. We just need to understand it. Now I want to introduce you to a man you probably never heard of, maybe you have, by the name of Edward Bernays. And he, Edward Bernays is, is often called the father of modern public relations or ppr. Or if you ever saw. I think it was on, I think it was on Netflix admin. The, the series admin was on for a few years. He's the father of all that, of advertisers, of people that write copy, the people who influence us, the people who write the commercials, basically. And he understood something that still shapes our world today.