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Technology and Teenagers


In June of this year, we hosted a live video conference all about Technology and Teenagers. Below you will find a bunch of resources that you can use to help you parent through your student's teenage years and just navigate modern technology and all that surrounds that.

It is so hard to tell what boundaries and restrictions to give your teenager when it comes to technology. Which social media accounts you should let your students have. When to give them a cell phone and when to take it away. Maybe you feel like you don't even know where to start. Join us from home as we discuss Technology and Teenagers or just take a look at the resources we have compiled below.

Meeting Notes

Resources

Tech Guides

Research

Table Time

Parental Control

Books
Every Parent's Guide to Navigating Our Digital World helps you think and talk differently about digital media, as you learn from inspiring and creative parents like you who navigate these ever-changing waters day after day. Drawing from the best research on media and youth, as well as our own conversations with parents and teenagers, this book offers new breakthroughs for your most pressing tech-related dilemmas: 

How to teach your kids to use social media responsibly. 
How to set limits on when, where, and how much you use devices in your family—without isolating your kids from their friends. 
How to handle the tough stuff: inappropriate sharing, bullying, and porn.
How to make digital media a force that knits your family together rather than ripping you apart at the seams.

Every Parent's Guide to Navigating Our Digital World equips your family to approach this new connected world like a team. It helps you develop relationships, not rules. Supervision, not surveillance. And best of all, a plan that works without making media—or you—the enemy.

Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down. Based on hundreds of interviews and with a new introduction taking us to the present day, Alone Together describes changing, unsettling relationships between friends, lovers, and families.

Screenwise: Helping Kids Survive (And Thrive) in Their Digital World by Devorah Heitner
Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Media expert Devorah Heitner, however, believes that technology offers huge potential to our children-if parents help them. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for a lifetime of success in a world fueled by technology.  Screenwise is a guide to understanding more about what it is like for children to grow up with technology, and to recognizing the special challenges-and advantages-that contemporary kids and teens experience thanks to this level of connection. In it, Heitner presents practical parenting "hacks": quick ideas that you can implement today that will help you understand and relate to your digital native. The book will empower parents to recognize that the wisdom that they have gained throughout their lives is a relevant and urgently needed supplement to their kid's digital savvy, and help them develop skills for managing the new challenges of parenting. Based on real-life stories from other parents and Heitner's wealth of knowledge on the subject, Screenwise teaches parents what they need to know in order to raise responsible digital citizens.

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in It's Place by Andy Crouch
Making conscientious choices about technology in our families is more than just using internet filters and determining screen time limits for our children. It's about developing wisdom, character, and courage in the way we use digital media rather than accepting technology's promises of ease, instant gratification, and the world's knowledge at our fingertips. And it's definitely not just about the kids.

Drawing on in-depth original research from the Barna Group, Andy Crouch shows readers that the choices we make about technology have consequences we may never have considered. He takes readers beyond the typical questions of what, where, and when and instead challenges them to answer provocative questions like, Who do we want to be as a family? and How does our use of a particular technology move us closer or farther away from that goal? Anyone who has felt their family relationships suffer or their time slip away amid technology's distractions will find in this book a path forward to reclaiming their real life in a world of devices


Screens and Teens: Connecting with Our Kids in a Wireless World by Dr. Kathy Koch

If you feel like you're losing your teen to technology, you're not alone. Screen time is rapidly replacing family time, and for teens especially, it is hardwiring the way they connect with their world. 
In Screens and Teens, Dr. Kathy helps you make sense of all this and empowers you to respond. She:
  • Exposes the lies that technology can teach your teen
  • Guides you in countering those lies with biblical truths and helpful practices
  • Shares success stories of families who have cut back on technology and prioritized each other
Kathy’s research, experience, and relatability all come together for an inspiring book, sure to help you be closer with your kids.

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