Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in a Hyper-Connected World

I'm a university professor. So when I read the book, I was primarily interested in the book's scholarly side because I'm interested in how clinicians apply therapies to social media effects. My colleagues and I are on the other side of social media research: We run lab experiments to try to tease out social media's influence, if any, on depression, stress, and addictive behaviors. Unlike Brooks and Lasser, we're not therapists. So we're not charged with coming up with solutions to problems social media use might cause. Nonetheless, the therapeutic side of things is interesting for someone like me to get a peek at.The book's assertions and recommendations are nicely backed up by the available research. The quality of the sourcing material is high and the authors don't let their claims outrun the empirical evidence. They hew closely to the empirical record. Where there is disagreement in the scholarly community about a putative outcome, the authors make that disagreement clear. The scholarly references they cite come from Thomson-Reuters impact factor rated journals -- the highest standard there is. Much of the research the authors cite is classic stuff, well replicated. Frequently, advice books get into pie-in-the-sky nonsense that doesn't differentiate much from opinion. This book has a scholarly, circumspect tone, which is what you would expect from the Oxford University Press imprimatur. The upshot is that the book provides a tightly woven, impeccably sourced narrative.I was especially impressed by the authors' observations on media violence and video gaming. The book isn't about those subjects, but I know that research literature well because I've spent nearly 40 years working in those areas (media violence research more so than video gaming research). The authors hit just the right tone with respect to those two types of media and they cited well regarding research in the area. I didn't see anything in those sections with which I would disagree. My point is the authors gained my confidence in their judgment due to the balanced, measured evaluation they took with respect to media violence and video gaming effects. If they got that right -- something I know like the back of my hand -- then they likely got the material I'm not as familiar with right.The book's not flashy. It' not something you would read for entertainment. But it is a serious clinical work product, which makes a credible evaluation of social media effects and -- as best I can tell -- provides thoughtful advice to parents. If I still had young children in the house, I'd trust it.

This book should be read by anyone with a phone; iPad; or some type of tech (which is pretty much everyone). I have a daughter who is 19 and in college, so I don't have the issues that some of the anecdotes in the book highlighted. But, reading the book showed me insight into my own "tech" habits and how they impact my daily life, relationships, etc. The book is broken into nice, easy-to-read sections. The first part covers a lot of the research in the arena of tech and how it impacts us. The latter part of the book gives "real world" ideas/examples to deal with folks that have varying degrees of tech addiction. I WISH this book had been published 10 years ago.....

Tech Generation provided us a great guide for navigating the world of iphones and the internet for our kids. The book is well written and backed by good research. The authors are not Luddites at all. They are serving more as guides for a new reality we all must face. I liked the mentions of Dweck’s growth mindset and I liked the case studies which provided good tips on how to talk to our kids. The stories of addiction were sobering and I think makes us as parents continue to stay vigilant and mindful of how much our kids are online and how they interact with technology. Thanks so much for the great book!!

Our kids are going to have different life experiences given their immersion in technology from a young age. This work shows parents how to understand and mitigate the negative consequences.

Excellent easy to read book with great recommendations. Physically it arrived in perfect condition.

I really needed this book to help me organize my thoughts, prioritize my worries, and develop some sort of plan to deal with what will be an ongoing and ever-growing situation.I am at the threshold of the problem. At this point, my concerns are for a 5-year old and an 8-year old who like to play i-pad games and watch you-tube. Seeing how addictive and entertaining these two entry-level activities are, and how difficult it is getting to restrict and monitor both time and content, I absolutely dread when they get to the facebook, twitter, snapchat, texting, and having their own smart phone stage. That’s when it really gets tough, and that’s when you have to have a strategy in place. As the authors repeatedly point out, it is better and easier to prevent a problem than to try to resolve it once it’s established.This is a problem that I never had to deal with when my children were at home. I was, by far, the strictest mother in my daughter’s class restricting phone use on school nights. Those were the good old days! But my grandchildren spend a significant percentage of their time at my house and I’m the one who has to monitor. My daughter and son-in-law are extremely concerned about screen time, so we do present a united front—always important when establishing ground rules.If you were to ask me what philosophy governs this book I would call it common sense realism:• We have to accept this is not going away;• we have to accept that all these technologies have positive and negative components;• we have to establish some sort of balance (which they call “a moving target”;• we have to monitor our own use of technology in order to maintain a face-to-face relationship with our children (and each other) and to set an example on the concept of limits;• we have to recognize and accept that we might have a problem with “screen time” ourselves and we have to address it lest it interferes with our personal relationships and our relationship with our children;• we have to remain aware that, as human beings, we NEED human connections and relationships and interactions. Technology does not replace or enhance human interaction—it is merely a communication or entertainment tool.While the book presents all types of supporting material in almost every discipline (scientific, anthropological, psychological, and even neurological) it really comes down to common sense and making the long-term and ongoing commitment to control technology, not let it control us. It is a staggering job and one more stress on this generation of parents who, already, are burning the candle at both ends.For me, I’m entering the fray in what the authors call the “green light” level: where you’re still early enough to implement a general strategy and controls (which, of course, will have to be continually re-evaluated and modified). They have given me a preview on the world of Facebook, the pressures teens face to get “likes,” the dangers of cyberbullying, sexting—and lots of other realities that I can’t say that I’m eager to face. There are yellow and red light levels as well which will require more effort but are not hopeless.A lot of interesting topics are also covered, such as when is the right time to get a child his own computer or his own smart phone. Real-life examples illustrate these rites of passage. I found it interesting to note that, today’s children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates.There are many checklists to help you evaluate what the current status is, what your general goals are, what your parenting style is, and other thought-provoking considerations. I found these really helpful—whether they currently apply to our situation or not—because they help me look at issues from different angles and consider factors that would not normally occur to someone with my personality, life experience, and beliefs.All in all, this is a book that, without dictating or judging, helps you to analyze and understand, and feel less alone in this unexplored new world our children and grandchildren will have to live in.

Having two kids - 14 year old and 11year old - I immediately embraced this book and found it very valuable. In an age where technology is a huge part of everyday life, this book gives clear, easy to follow guidance on balancing technology in our lives, especially the lives of our children, it is invaluable. it is written in a clear, friendly language and I liked that it promotes conversation in the family to tackle and balance use of technology - highly recommended!