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    Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place
    Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place
    Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place
    Audiobook4 hours

    Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place

    Written by Andy Crouch

    Narrated by Andy Crouch

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristianAudio.com
    Release dateAug 15, 2017
    ISBN9781683669906
    Author

    Andy Crouch

    Andy Crouch (MDiv, Boston University School of Theology) is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His books include The Tech-Wise Family, Playing God, and Strong and Weak.

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    Reviews for Tech-Wise Family

    4.5/5

    137 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Honest, practical, and even brutal at times, this book is well worth reading if you want to take a careful look at your family’s use of technology.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A good book, but with some significant flaws.

      + No quotations of problematic teachers, what is rare in those days (with the exception of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, which still surprises me to find in a Christian book, even though dozens of Christians books insert this heretical reference)

      + Concise, not filling additional pages in order to achieve some publisher's guidelines and bore the reader

      + With the correct focus, not to focus on the problem (too much Internet, porn etc.) but to rather build a healthy life in general, and receive results from there

      + Beautiful focus on singing and worship

      + Focus on the Sabbath and reminder to hold all the 10 commandments, although he fails to acknowledge the Saturday Sabbath and leaves me with the impression that he thinks of people following it on Saturday morning-Sunday morning, as being legalists (legalism only includes the pursuit of extra-biblical conditions for achieving righteousness and the pursuit of the Sabbath is surely not extra-biblical but at the very heart of the Bible). Good that he sees it as problematic and indeed legalistic that the Jews added dozens of man-made laws to the Sabbath.

      - He teaches to follow a certain pattern and then constantly relativizes it through his 'reality checks' on his family. "~I preach that, but we only do it from time to time." I do not know if that is the American way of exhortation plus a cool relativization, in order to not even risk offending someone or to appear legalistic. But it is surely not the biblical way. Let your yes be a yes and your no a no. Preach what you practice. Jesus would have never taught something and then said a few chapters later, but yeah, I only do it so often and quite usually fail.

      - A similar double standard is seen throughout the book, when he correctly condemns television, but repeatedly endorses Netflix (as if the medium would be defined through the device). Netflix is the absolutely worst of the options out there with only 2% of a typical list of Christian movies being found there. It is by far the most anti-Christian mainstream media that could be propagated by an author. In comparison and connecting to the research otherwise having been done in a much better way in the book, we see every other media doing much better than Netflix (81% of typical Christian movies found on Amazon Prime, 57% on YouTube Movies, 36% on iTunes, 32% on Christian Cinema, 22% on TubiTV, 19% on Pureflix). Those figures speak for themselves and are based on my personal research of 300 selected Christian movies. Netflix destroys an entire generation of Christians and it grieves me deeply to see it promoted 4 times in a Christian book.

      - Although I appreciate his honesty to admit that he was involved in pornography, it shows a very bad example of how to resolve such an adultery. He stated that he confessed it to his wife after a dinner party 'I had to tell Catherine the truth about my enmeshment in pornography.' 9 lines for this, without a single word of repentance in front of his Creator, him showing true repentance. He would have better left that confession out of the book. In this form, it will rather motivate people to see it as a slip that happens to the best and at least once in a lifetime. I am sure that he repented before God, but the communication of that episode of his life through the book is poor at best, but most probably misleading others.

      - A quote I probably do not have to comment on: "Is there any half hour more stressful in more homes than the one right before dinner? Friends of mine with three young children used to call it “the witching hour,” which is probably unfair to actual witches."

      - The Bible is very clear that gluttony and obesity are one of the worst sins. Even though, the book repeatedly endorses specifically sugar, muffins, donuts etc. A true shepherd of God is wise enough to warn of those things. We cannot preach abstinence from Internet and legalistic rules of 1 hour per day without Internet, but at the same time (in)directly teach the same people to consume sugar in that time.
    • 5/5
      Refreshing view on technology and the value of family relationships.
      Andy inspired me to help my family seek wisdom and courage by consciously choosing to be very mindful of how and when we use technology. The book challenged me to promote creativity, conversation, art, music and worship in my family.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed listening to this book, it was very informative and it was very appropriate for the times we are living
    • 5/5
      Very practical and revolutionizing!
      I enjoyed it's deep insights and reality checks.
    • 5/5
      Very good insight into family and how to help with electronics.
    • 5/5
      This book challenges our use of technology, family, and faith. It is a great reminder that we need to put limits to the technology that we use and to tap into true rest, creativity, and family time.
    • 5/5
      Very practical, well researched, and very well thought out. Thank you!
    • 5/5
      Fantastic book. Easy to read, very practical and wise.
    • 5/5
      I haven't realized I needed to read this book until now. I will recommend it to friends who have kids or who are starting a family and I've listed this book under my "must-reread" list. I will have to read it again once I have my own kids.
    • 4/5
      Good book! Really made me think about how my I use technology just out of boredom, convenience sake, or just because it’s there. It made me think about how I can better use my time with technology, how to set feasible limits, and how to approach a use of technology for my kids. The author’s suggestions of time without devices are simple, yet impactful. Definitely doing an evaluation in our home.
    • 5/5
      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
    • 5/5
      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