Growing Up Social ~ Book Giveaway
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Times have changed a lot since I was a kid. I remember our first computer. I also remember when we first got the internet. We had to log in to the internet using a dial up modem. We only had one phone line so if someone was on the phone you couldn’t use the internet. It was painfully slow. Kids now have only grown up in the digital age. They do not know anything but having the world at their fingertips. It is amazing and wonderful the way things have advanced, but there are also a lot of concerns related to this new digital era. I have been lucky to receive a free copy of the book Growing Up Social by Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane in exchange for a review on my site as well as a giveaway for one of my readers. Gary Chapman (you may have heard of) is also the bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages books. This book addresses the issues of raising kids in a screen-driven world.
Growing Up Social is a fabulous book for parents to read to help them know how to help kids in this world that is so focused on technology. We have video games, smart phones, tablets, computers, and television all pulling on our attention. While technology is a huge benefit to us in so many ways, we need to be careful how much we allow our children to use it. The constant technology use is driving a wedge in family together time. Parents and kids may sit in the same room together, but they are each on their own devices and not talking or even looking one another in the eyes. This book gives parents a guide to help kids not be too dependent on screens. It gives ideas for bringing families closer together, keeping kids safe when they are online, teaching them how to interact without the screens, and also setting limits for kids screen time. I loved the chapters talking about brain development and what technology is doing to physically alter the brains of this generation. The chapter I loved most was about parents technology use, though. I think the amount of time parents are using screens influences what kids see as important. They want to do what Mom and Dad are doing. We need to be better examples and put down our own devices to spend time with our children in real life.
I loved this video trailer that they created for the book!
We used to let the kids have one hour of screen time total a day, but even that got to be a big problem, so this week we are trying zero screen time! So far so good. Now if I can get my husband off of the tv and laptop whEn he’s home! ; )
We have not really set limits on screen time for our kids, but I have been thinking a lot lately that we need to. Unfortunately, we’ve all become accustomed to too much screen time, so if we start setting formal limits, we’ll all have a difficult adjustment!
Our family is only affected by what my husband and I do with screen time. We have an 8 month old at home and try diligently to keep him away from the TV. Sometimes I get caught up in my iPad or my husband with his video games. We are hoping our son will turn more to the outdoors than anything else, so we try to get out a lot and lead through example.
Our family is affected as my husband is on call 24/7. When he isn’t taking phone calls, he is working on his laptop or having “downtime” with his Ipad. I spend a fair amount of time on my laptop but also homeschool our son so I have other opportunities to interact with him during the day. I could definitely relate to the part in the video where they said, “Do you look into your child’s eyes when he is talking to you?” That hit home for me and will inspire me to try harder.
Oh I definitely set limits. My oldest son wants to chat on Facebook and on the phone all day if I let him. My youngest son likes to play video games. So, just recently I cut out the video games all together. Now I unplug the phone via the computer 😀 that makes things much easier at home.
We currently don’t have any limits other than on a daily basis monitoring. Our daughter is 3, but I have noticed that it’s beginning to get in the way of our marriage. Luckily, our daughter has backed off from TV on her own and has begun to play creatively instead.
We have not found it necessary to set limits. Our schedules are very busy with lots of activities and screen time is not an issue.
So far, we have not needed to limit screen time. Our oldest is only 4, and I can see she will easily gravitate towards spending too much time in front of a screen. Right now, she only has access to educational stuff and a few Bible stories.
My kids are all a bit older (youngest is 13) but we have always maintained a limit on computer screen time, and their iPods can’t be used during school time. We’ve also delayed them having their own cell phones until age 15 or 16 so that has helped. For the most part, they have a fairly balanced approach, but I just borrowed this book because it relates so closely to the media discernment study I am leading at church right now.