Generation Text: Raising Well-Adjusted Kids in an Age of Instant Everything by Michael Osit

From the Publisher

For today's kids, technology such as computers, the Internet, cell phones, and satellites is an assumed presence. Between texting, e-mail, gaming, instant-messaging, and online commerce, their world is one of constant electronic interaction through which they have almost instant access to everything from information to merchandise to other people. In this culture of instant gratification and potential excess, parenting has become a bigger challenge than ever.
Generation Text examines the ways in which children's identities are shaped by the world around them...and how, with an absence of meaningful barriers between impulse and the ability to act on them, parents can help children learn to make intelligent choices and manage the potential overload successfully.
Dr. Michael Osit, has worked with children and teens for more than thirty years, and has helped families challenged by the new order of access and excess-and the temptations and dangers that go with it. His advice will help you help your children develop key social skills, a healthy identity, and a sense of purpose and accountability. Generation Text provides the sage advice and proven parenting strategies for raising confident, happy, and safe kids who will be fully equipped for their future.

VOYA

Today's parents face a whole new range of challenges raising kids in "an age of instant everything." Although adolescents in the twenty-first century still pursue the age-old need to separate successfully from parental authority and delineate their own identity, the current "Generation Text" faces new issues created by the proliferation of technology. The author first establishes the psychological processes that lead to normal adolescent development and demonstrates how these processes are affected by today's abundance of technological devices. Through the Internet, cell phones, and computer games, youth are constantly bombarded by morals and values that do not support their parents' mores. Chatrooms, instant messaging, and many Web sites expose teens to pornography and sexual situations long before they are emotionally ready to handle them. Aggressive behavior in graphic computer games gradually desensitizes them to violence. Parents must learn to balance the positive uses of technology against its negative or even dangerous aspects. By becoming good role models, practicing delayed gratification, being consistent, encouraging a good work ethic, monitoring technology use, and staying in the loop, parents can still mold their offspring into responsible young adults. Each chapter walks parents through basic principles designed to address common adolescent/parent conflicts and finishes with a summary of the problems posed and practical solutions for them. New terms and concepts are clearly defined for the layperson. Valuable, not only to parents but also to teachers, librarians, and others who work with teens, this book belongs in every public library as a resource and guide. Reviewer:Nancy K. Wallace

Risa Getman - Library Journal

Clinical psychologist Osit speaks here to a phenomenon he calls "Generation Text," whereby the plethora of digital devices in our homes and inside our kids' backpacks have helped to create a generation with unrealistic expectations. This has in turn resulted, Osit believes, in poor social skills and work ethic, distractibility, and the deterioration of the family unit. He provides authentic examples to which listeners will be able to relate as well as practical, real-world solutions. Detroit-based actor/musician Dan John Miller's commanding narration suits the material well. Parents and grandparents of teens and preteens will want this title; recommended for all public libraries.

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Table of Contents