{"id":10931,"date":"2017-08-20T14:35:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T19:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=10931"},"modified":"2017-08-20T14:35:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T19:35:56","slug":"book-review-the-tech-wise-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=10931","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Tech-Wise Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tech-Wise-Family-Everyday-Putting-Technology\/dp\/0801018668\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1503255741&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=andy+crouch+tech+wise+family\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10932\" alt=\"shopify-ad-tech-wise-family-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/shopify-ad-tech-wise-family-transparent-300x227.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/shopify-ad-tech-wise-family-transparent-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/shopify-ad-tech-wise-family-transparent-1024x776.png 1024w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/shopify-ad-tech-wise-family-transparent.png 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The real purpose of family is to develop wisdom and courage\u2014to give us a deep understanding of the world and an ability to act faithfully in that world.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0The Tech-Wise Family (187).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tech-Wise-Family-Everyday-Putting-Technology\/dp\/0801018668\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1503255741&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=andy+crouch+tech+wise+family\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Tech-Wise Family<\/em><\/a> by Andy Crouch is an excellent read for families who are attempting to develop a theology and philosophy of technology within the confines of family life. \u00a0Many of you might also have read his work\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=5542\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Culture Making<\/em><\/a>\u00a0a few years ago. \u00a0That was my first time reading anything of Andy Crouch&#8217;s and since then, I&#8217;ve tried to read everything he&#8217;s published. \u00a0This book asks great questions and gives the reader a chance to evaluate where they think the Lord might be &#8220;nudging&#8221; them to lead their family in the discussion about technology. \u00a0At the end of each section, Andy takes a moment to let the reader know how that particular ideal is really lived our (or not) in the Crouch house.<\/p>\n<p>I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tech-wise parenting isn\u2019t simply intended to eliminate technology but to put better things in its place. p. 11<\/li>\n<li>Wonder comes from opening your eyes wider, not bringing the screen closer. p. 13<\/li>\n<li>This book is about how to find the proper place for technology in our family lives\u2014and how to keep it there. p. 16<\/li>\n<li>The proper place for technology won\u2019t be exactly the same for every family, and it is not the same at every season of our lives. \u00a0p. 19<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place when it helps us bond with the real people we have been given to love. \u00a0It\u2019s out of its proper place when we end up bonding with people at a distance whole we will never meet. p. 20<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place when it starts great conversations. \u00a0It\u2019s out of its proper place when it prevents us from taking with and listening to one another. p. 20<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place when it helps us take care of the fragile bodies we inhabit. \u00a0It\u2019s out of its proper place when it promises to help us escape the limits and vulnerabilities of those bodies altogether. p. 20<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place when it helps us acquire skill and mastery of domains that are the glory of human culture. \u00a0When we let technology replace the development of skill with passive consumption, something has gone wrong. p. 20<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place when it helps us cultivate awe for the created world we are a part of and responsible for stewarding. \u00a0It\u2019s out of its proper place when it keeps us from engaging the wild and wonderful natural world with all our senses. p. 21<\/li>\n<li>Technology is in its proper place only when we use it with intention and care. \u00a0If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve discovered about technology, it\u2019s that it doesn\u2019t stay in its proper place on its own, it finds its way underfoot all over the house and all over our lives. \u00a0If we aren\u2019t intentional and careful, we\u2019ll end up with a quite extraordinary mess. p. 21<\/li>\n<li>The most powerful choices we will make in our lives are not about specific decisions but about patterns of life: the nudges of disciplines that will shape all our other choices. p. 37<\/li>\n<li>Choose character-to make the mission of our family, for children and adults alike, the cultivation of wisdom and courage. p. 38<\/li>\n<li>Shape space-to make choices about the place where we live that put the development of character and creativity at the heart of our home. p. 39<\/li>\n<li>Structure time-to build rhythms into our lives, on a daily, weekly, and annual basis, that make it possible for us to get to know one another, God, and our world in deeper and deeper ways. p. 39<\/li>\n<li>Ten Tech-wise commitments\u2026\n<ul>\n<li>We develop wisdom and courage together as a family.<\/li>\n<li>We want to create more than we consume. \u00a0So we fill the center of our home with things that reward skill and active engagement.<\/li>\n<li>We are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. \u00a0So one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year, we turn off our devices and worship, fest, play, and rest together.<\/li>\n<li>We wake up before our devices do, and they \u201cgo to bed\u201d before we do.<\/li>\n<li>We aim for \u201cno screens before double digits\u201d at school and at home.<\/li>\n<li>We use screens for a purpose, and we use them together, rather than aimlessly and alone.<\/li>\n<li>Car time is conversation time.<\/li>\n<li>Spouses have one another\u2019s passwords, and parents have total access to children\u2019s devices.<\/li>\n<li>We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.<\/li>\n<li>We show up in person for the big events of life. \u00a0We learn how to be human by being fully present in moments of greatest vulnerability. We hope to die in one another\u2019s arms. p. 42<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toll and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.\u201d Psalm 90:10 p. 51<\/li>\n<li>Technology is a brilliant, praiseworthy expression of human creativity and cultivation of the world. \u00a0But it is at best neutral in actually forming human beings who can create and cultivate as we were meant to. p. 66<\/li>\n<li>Sabbathless toil is a violation of God\u2019s intention for our lives and our whole economy. \u00a0When we find ourselves in its grip, it means that we are slaves to a system of injustice. \u00a0Sometimes that slavery is external to us and all too real\u2014we are genuinely bound to systems of toil that prevent us from a healthy life, with no good option for escape. p. 101<\/li>\n<li>In the history of the human race, boredom is practically band new\u2014less than three hundred years old. p. 139<\/li>\n<li>We are not bored, exactly, just as someone eating potato chips is not hungry, exactly. \u00a0But overconsumption of distraction is just as unsatisfying, and ultimately sickening, as overconsumption of junk food. p. 147<\/li>\n<li>So when we do sit down in front of a TV screen, it will be for a specific purpose and with a specific hope, not just of entertainment or distraction but of wonder and exploration. \u00a0When we do scroll through social media, it will be to have a chance to give thanks for our friends, enjoy their creative gifts, and pray for their needs, rather than just something to take our mind off our tedium. p. 149<\/li>\n<li>Technology\u2019s promise of shortcuts around the long path of wisdom and courage turns out to be a lie. p. 171<\/li>\n<li>If mature adults struggle to handle the pipeline of temptation, titillation, and distraction that comes with 24\/7 acres to the internet, there is no way still-developing teenagers can handle it. p. 176<\/li>\n<li>The real purpose of family is to develop wisdom and courage\u2014to give us a deep understanding of the world and an ability to act faithfully in that world. p. 187<\/li>\n<li>Deuteronomy 6:4-9 \u201cHear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (ESV) p. 190<\/li>\n<li>Only by showing up in person can we feel and grasp the full weight, joy, and vulnerability of the most important experiences in human life. p. 199<\/li>\n<li>The tech-wise family will choose a different way. \u00a0We will recognize that our daily bodily vulnerabilities, our illnesses, and our final journey to death are our best chance to reject technology\u2019s easy-everywhere promise. \u00a0We will embrace something better: the wisdom of knowing our own limits, the courage to care for one another, and, just as difficult, the courage to accept one another\u2019s care when we cannot care for ourselves. \u00a0We will put love into practice in the most profound possible way, but being present with one another in person at the greatest and most difficult moments of life. p. 203<\/li>\n<li>We are meant to build this kind of life together: the kind of life that, at the end, is completely dependent upon one another; the kind of life that ultimately transcends, and does not need, the easy solutions of technology because it is caught up in something more true and more lasting than any alchemy our technology world can invent. p. 204<\/li>\n<li>We are meant not just for thin, virtual connections but for visceral, real connections to one another in this fleeing, temporary, and infinitely beautiful and worthwhile life. p. 204<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &#8220;The real purpose of family is to develop wisdom and courage\u2014to give us a deep understanding of the world and an ability to act faithfully in that world.&#8221;\u00a0The Tech-Wise Family (187). The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch is an excellent read for families who are attempting to develop a theology and philosophy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,35,25,16,28,17,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-creative","category-education","category-family","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}