Fully Disclosure: I signed up to do a review in exchange for the book. While I appreciate Baker Books' offer to review this book, I do not believe this has affected how I view the book.
The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch is a quick and thought-provoking read about the some of the pitfalls parents face when it comes to the presence of technology in everyday family living, and ways parents can make conscious efforts to avoid these pitfalls. The book makes excellent use of the artfully designed infographics about technology and family developed by the Barna group, and helps drive the point that the author is making, namely, that direction has to be put in place in the family when it comes to the proper use of technology.
I have seen all-too-often how technology, tools designed to make life easier, ends up making life harder and more complicated. In fact, I actually ordered this book while I was mindlessly surfing through emails and promotions, so it was perhaps a much needed wake-up call to my tech-saturated life.
The book is broken into 10 chapters, with each chapter being a principle and exposition for how to view technology in the family. While each of the 10 principles has merit, some are more self-evident and important than others. Crouch starts the list off with I think the most important principle to guiding a family in a tech-saturated world: choosing character over comfort. Technology makes life easier but the repercussions of an easier life are not often talked about. Ease takes the fun out of life, leading to boredom, and a general lack of drive. By choosing character, Crouch makes a compelling case for centering family life around tasks that require work: focusing on musical instruments instead of streaming music, preparing dinner instead of ordering it, tending to a fire instead of relying on central heating. While some of his advise can be impractical, the general idea makes sense. When we order our lives around things that take work and require skill, we are enriched, energized, and engaged in family life.
Overall, the Tech Wise Family was an edifying read for anyone, parent or not, that desires to implement some order in a culture saturated with one-click everything. Recommended reading.
