Chapter One - What is the Real Goal?

Andy Crouch has a quote that defines this first chapter for me, and it can be found on page 19. It reads,

The pace of technological change has surpassed anyone's capacity to develop enough wisdom to handle it. "

Yikes. It's encouraging in one sense, because we shouldn't expect ourselves to have the perfect answers, and it also tempers the expectation that this book is going to give us a concrete, step-by-step plan for how tech should be used in your family. One of the main takeaways I had was that we really are just making it up as we go along! There are no objectively right or wrong stances to take, because we don't know enough about both the positive and negative effects of technology to die on any hills. 

So the goal is to find a way to navigate uncharted territory together as the good and bad play out around us and our kids as we go. In the midst of that, we want to keep fostering healthy relationships with our children and understand the world they live in to leverage it for our benefit, and prevent the pitfalls where we can. 

Without ultra-practical or concrete steps to follow, I think this chapter lands on some good basic principles to put into action however you see fit in your family. There may not be a silver bullet here, but this is certainly a great place to start. 

• Establish consistent and clear expectations for technology within your home. These are expectations that you hold for every member of the family, including yourselves. Much like faith, the greatest predictor of a child's relationship with technology is their parents relationship with it. 
• Ask other families you respect how they are using technology, and share what wisdom that you have. Every family is different, but one of the greatest tools we have as we venture into the unknown is one another. If you have something that is working well, it's worth sharing! 
• Finally, you are not failing as parents in regards to technology. This is a huge and often overwhelming topic, and its easy to feel like we aren't doing a "good enough" job tackling it. This simply isn't true. Failure only comes when we stop trying to engage with the tension tech places on our families, and your willingness to reach for a resource like this proves that you are not failing! 

The Fuller Youth Institute is amazing, and I am looking forward to conversations about your thoughts on this resource! I have always been passionate about "digital wellbeing" and have wished for something like this. The discussion questions are excellent places to keep thinking about how technology is already impacting your family, and how you might want to shape it moving forward. 

See you next week with a couple thoughts on Chapter 2!! 

                                                                                                             - Noah