A lot based on Reclaiming Conversation (which was also fantastic) and full of good principles and suggestions for moderating - and making the most of - technology in the family. ( )

A helpful book, but not a must-read book on the subject. Crouch handles some practical topics well, but there are some better books that deal with principles regarding how to think about technology. Doug Wilson’s, Ploductivity, and Wendell Berry’s, The Unsettling of America, both bring the reader to similar practical conclusions and cause those conclusions and practices to be more deeply rooted and held with conviction.

This book would be helpful to someone brand new to the idea that all the tech we swim in might not be good. But for someone who’s even slightly in on the conversation, the book comes across as lacking conviction. When I read something like this, I want the author to firmly believe that what they’re doing and arguing for is best, even if I disagree. That way, I can truly engage with their ideas. I did not get that sense from this book. ( )

This is one of those books that I wish I had read 15 years ago. It did not exist when my children started using social media and technology. As a middle aged parent of adult and teen children we spent a big chunk of our time navigating blindly for the start of this social media age. Looking back I realize that I was making decisions about things as they came up rather than making a plan to avoid the pitfalls of this world we are living in now. Andy Crouch's book will change all of that for parents and families today.

This book gives 10 excellent strategies for, as the title says, putting technology in it's proper place. Crouch even goes so far as to encourage us to turn it off completely for part of each day. Sound hard? With Andy's 10 strategies you might find it easier than you think.

This book is not about trashing our technology and moving out into an isolate cabin somewhere. Crouch fully believes there is a place for technology in our world today. He just feels, as do I, that we should step away sometimes and be a family. We should have meals together with real conversations and game nights indoors and out, and spend time reading stories or listen to music together. He boldly says that maybe we should even PLAY music together. I love that suggestion, by the way.

The book is loaded with results from the latest Barna Research Group study on how technology is impacting our lives and families. Crouch takes that data and provides some very practical ways to change the trends we see toward isolation and addiction caused by our overuse of such devices.

By paying just a little more attention to our habits we can make changes to have more meaningful family and friend time. All it takes is realizing we need to set these devices aside for part of our day, week and even for up to a week or two a year.

Crouch is very candid at the end of each chapter with a personal evaluation on how his own family is doing in each realm. He is very honest in saying that sometimes they are still struggling to make some changes but that it is a work in progress. His family is certainly better for these 10 strategies, though.

He addresses something that I have continually seen in my reading this year.... Sabbath. It is not only important for us to take time to rest but to let our devices rest, too. We don't let them rest for their sake. We set them aside for our sake.

This book is not a giant thick read. It is divided into very practical chapters that are quick to read and will have you thinking about how you can be more present in your own life. I hope you will take the time to read a copy of this book and focus more on what is really important in this world. Let us all put technology in it's proper place and live our lives with more focus on the most important things in this lifetime while we can.

You can read more about Andy Crouch and this and other books he has written on his website

This book was sent to me by Baker Books for free. All they ask in return is that I read and review it with my own personal unbiased opinion. I absolutely loved this book and will be recommending it to every family I can.

I give this one a 5 out of 5 stars ( )

Life changing for me as a mother particularly reinforcing the idea that there is abundant life without tv, ipods, smart phones. Not that they aren’t a wonderful gift. They are! I listen to sermons on podcasts daily as well as audiobooks. But there is wisdom in knowing what is the best place for these items to be in our lives especially for our children. The biggest change I’ve made/foresee is tv time for our kids and those lull moments. I’ve seen my kids gravitate to more outside play (spring weather has helped too) as well as drawing, and interacting more. I’m so thankful to catch this blind spot in my parenting and to be more intentional in the evenings with our kids even when I am tired. Also, the author shares in a humble and gracious way. Highly recommend! ( )

Summary: A book for taking steps to put technology in its proper place, allowing persons to grow in wisdom and courage instead of giving in to an "easy everywhere" life.

I think anyone who uses our modern technology--computers, tablets, gaming systems, and especially smartphones, realizes how powerfully addicting these devices can be and the various ways they destroy our engagement with the flesh and blood material world, and especially the other real people in our lives.

Crouch organizes the book around some fundamental premises worked out in ten commitments that he and his family have sought to live by. The premises are that families exist to form the character of their members--to form them in wisdom and courage through their relationships and shared lives with each other, and that this is hard yet rewarding work. The other is that technology is "easy everywhere" luring us into easy preoccupation rather than extended conversations, isolation rather than shared experience, distraction rather than devotion, virtual sex rather than the much more challenging real thing, and listening to music and viewing art, rather than making it. Most of all, it lures us away from real into virtual presence with each other.

The book is interspersed with statistics and diagrams that underscore the impact of technology in our lives. One that caught my attention was on the pervasiveness of digital pornography:

"The rise of digital pornography and its effects are hard to overstate. More than half of teens seek out pornography (only 46% say they 'never seek it out') and the numbers are much higher for young adults ages 18 to 24 (less than one quarter of whom never seek it out). Even when they aren't actively seeking it out, teens and young adults regularly come across it (only 21% of teens and 9% of young adults say they never come across porn). While most teens say they seek out porn for personal arousal (67%), substantial minorities regularly view porn out of boredom (40%) and curiousity (42%). "

Yet this is not a book driven by fear of such things but rather a commitment to putting technology in its proper place, helpful tools rather than addictive devices that destroy our capacities for human engagement. What Crouch proposes and that his family seeks to practice is a life that prioritizes people and experience that are not mediated by devices and taking measures such as media sabbaths and vacations and transparency with each other to ensure that this happens. What they wanted for their children is the discovery of the rich experiences of books, long conversations, explorations of nature, singing and making music together, and real presence in life and death with each other.

Crouch gets real and admits his own failures in the commitments they've made, but also the victories and what this has meant for his family and in his own life. I was a late adopter of smartphone use, but a quick convert to its addictive properties. Commitments to keep phones away from the table, to wake before my phone does, to put it away before I retire and to mute it during important conversations are beginnings of keeping this form of technology in its place. If you are becoming aware of the intrusion of technology into relationships and life experiences that matter more, this book may be helpful for its practical counsel, and a vision of life centered around growing in wisdom and courage rather than in our access to "easy everywhere."

___________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

Very practical for the tech-saturated family. We will begin incorporating 1 hour/day, one day/week and 1 week/ year and car time is conversation time. Read the book to see what this means...Recommend for parents to read ( )