The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch, Introduction and Chapter 1

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch, Introduction and Chapter 1

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch

Introduction and Chapter 1 – Brian Bergeron, Board Member

Technology is a good gift. But as we’ve all seen in our own lives, a blessing can quickly become a curse when sin corrupts and idolatry takes over. The proliferation of screens, once designed to make us more productive, may in fact be preventing us from taking hold of a life rich in both temporal and eternal meaning.

Andy Crouch’s new book, The Tech-Wise Family, is a thought-provoking yet practical guide for parents who feel that raising kids today is more complicated than it once was. His insights are backed with research from the Barna Group and organized around Ten Tech-Wise Commitments. These commitments, says Crouch, must be informed by the convictions to choose character, shape space, and structure time (38-39). Crouch promotes the idea of nudges in our daily lives, or preferences that “put the best choice right in front of us and make the wrong choice harder” (33). He reminds us that our God-given nature and identity is to live in covenant with one another – we can only pursue lives of wisdom and courage if we do it together.

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place is as close as you’ll come to an implementable checklist to tame your fire-breathing dragons (of proliferating screens), making them into a household help. Let’s talk about this together. Nothing less than the cultures within our homes, churches, and at St. Stephen’s Academy are at stake.