Raising a Screen-Smart Kid: Embrace the Good and Avoid the Bad in the Digital Age Paperback – July 23, 2019

I have been reading a new book written by my beautiful, intelligent, funny and incredible friend Julie Miner. The book is about how the digital age is affecting our kids and how to manage it as a parent. I can’t even put well to words the sensation as I have been reading it. It reminds me of the “Home Advisor” commercials where someone asks their neighbor for a home repair recommendation and then expects that person to do all the research and get back to them. That is this book! It’s like I asked my smartest and most trusted and respected friend my questions about the internet and my teens. She then went out, did extensive research, wrote it all down and published it! She even got me an advanced copy so I could read it during my vacation (the only time I seem to have time to read anyway). Seriously! It is informing but relatable with the research I wish I had time to do myself! It’s not preachy and not doom and gloom. It’s thought provoking but more importantly conversation provoking! I highly recommend it!

Raising kids in this day and age is a challenge to make sense of all the technology available and being constantly connected. This book made it easy to figure out what to embrace (and why) and what to avoid (and why). I was inspired by the advice and have since made changes in my home. I loved how the book was written; easy to understand language, stories that are relatable, and topics that are a concern for all parents. It was like the author was reading my mind and answered all my questions. I highly recommend this book to anyone with children or thinking about having children. It is one of the most important books I've read in a very long time.

Most books like this, across all subjects, are as enticing to read as watching a tree grow. Raising a Smart Screen Kid escapes that feel. It is definitely data driven yet manages to read like an important beach book. Between the shockingly large amount of studies referenced, there are also numerous testimonials, FROM KIDS, to ensure that you realize you aren’t the only one living these technological growing pains. It also means you can’t escape the “ my kid will never do such a thing “. They *will* do some such thing and this book truly helps you visualize an action plan for your own family sanity. Do you have infants and toddlers but want to be prepared? Younger kids are in the house and you’re winging it? Got T(w)eens and already living the technology dream? Miner doesn’t pretend to know what is best for YOUR kid, but gives you tools, studies, and examples to make smart screen decisions in your own house.

I am 44 and the parents of an 11 year old and 8 year old. Obviously, my childhood did not include technology, so I found myself in uncharted territory when it came to navigating this generation’s incessant phone use and the ever present role of technology in my children’s lives. This book has been a lifesaver. Thoughtfully written and researched based, the book has provided me with a road map and some best practices regarding technology use. Most importantly has helped to ease my anxiety surrounding technology and the effects on the lives of my children. I highly recommend this guide for anyone who is feeling as lost and overwhelmed as I did when it comes to children and their screens.

I was tired of the usual and dated assemblies of scary anecdotes and paranoia. Our son just got his first phone. He kind of needs it for after school events etc. (or course “kind of” as in, until 20 years ago teenagers did just fine without them). There could be some more and bolder reminders that adult models mean more than most pronouncements and contracts. Also, it is a bit late but a passing reference to things like Waldorf school that limit technology as a community might be good for some folks reading this (as they should) some years before they have to deal. My wife thought we should watch The Social Dilemma as a family but we realized that it is dated and unnecessarily scary and fact-light and anticorporate (which is legit but rational discussions like this book are more powerful and useful.)

While raising my four kids, three of which are in the tween and teen years, I've been through the app reviews, surveyed the sites aimed at adults looking to vet media before their kids indulge, and made decisions on individual games and social media apps. What I had not done until listening to Julianna Miner's "Raising a Screen Smart Kid," was to consider the foundational culture and nature of adolescence. This book helps to paint the scene: the performative nature of the teen years, that necessary costume changing that all adolescents progress through in order to find their own voice and identity, is playing out both IRL (as any screen smart person might say) and virtually. The peer audience is, as it always have been, both judge and jury *and* partner-in-crime. But Miner helps one see that the audience of the digital age isn't just the kids in the cafeteria.With Miner's careful meta-analysis of the literature on adolescent development in relation to this digital age we find ourselves in, the readers (or listeners) learn not only what apps to be knowledgable about and what practical habits they might put in place to help their kids navigate social media, games, and digital identity in the healthiest way, but also why it matters. So armed, parents and caregivers are not only prepared to deal with the app of the day, but have the skills on hand to handle whatever the App Store or Google Play throws at us tomorrow.Spending time with Miner's book is an investment not only in good parenting, but in improved relationships with your kids and their media-saturated world. Buy it, you'll be thrilled that you did.

Let’s face it - digital devices are here to stay. We can try our best to keep our kids off them and risk them not making connections with other kids- or we can teach them ( and us!) how to properly and healthily handle this digital age. Super easy to read, great advice, well laid out and well researched. I highly recommend this for all parents