The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place moves the digital parenting conversation from the head to the heart. It replaces strict lists of dos and don’ts with an opportunity for parents to reflect on their overall parenting philosophy. It gets us to ask, What is our role in our children’s lives really about? Furthermore, what is family for?

As easy as those questions sound, author and trusted faith leader Andy Crouch shows us how we’ve often missed the point—how I’ve missed the point. And why technology is at the center of this conversation, but ought not be at the center of our homes.

Speaks with Authority

Crouch’s countercultural yet tender and thoughtful guidance for leading families through the Tech Age is grounded in data from Barna Group. Barna is a research organization that helps church leaders and everyday Christians understand the state of the church and their society through in-depth research and cultural analysis. Over the past forty years, Barna has conducted millions of interviews and thousands of studies. Leveraging his expertise as a former editor of Christianity Today, Crouch incorporates this fascinating and enlightening research to complement his revelations about the average American home. 

In The Tech-Wise Family, Crouch speaks with authority on one of the biggest topics that pervades our culture and permeates even our relationship with God: technology. He dives deep into human history and the evolution of technology, revealing the resulting cultural phenomena that we accept as part of our everyday lives. Even so, he helps us see that things weren’t always this way.

You see, Crouch says we are caught up in what he’s coined as an “easy everywhere” culture and mentality. He highlights things that we all know, live, and experience, but don’t recognize as changing us. He offers us a mirror, showing us how inventions as simple as the microwave have changed our society—and us. 

#irl Character Development

Accompanying me on a road trip, the book was so interesting that I couldn’t help but read some sections aloud for the rest of the family. After all, Crouch finally put into words the profound and often insidious effects of technology on our lives and family experiences. Additionally, his intriguing exploration and sober analysis of how tech has changed our home and family life didn’t stop there. He offers us a new path forward. 

Perhaps his greatest credential in authoring this book is that he’s a dad of two now mostly grown children. I’m a big proponent of ensuring that when we, as parents, restrict our children’s privileges, we also guide them to discover what’s better. And this is what Andy’s message in The Tech-Wise Family is all about. 

When we use the word “no” with our kids, we must have a better “yes” in mind for them. Andy starts with ten commitments to frame this conversation. He teaches his readers to choose character, recognizing that the family unit is the ideal setting for developing that character together.

And what kind of character should we be developing? Crouch emphasizes wisdom and courage as the two traits that set us all up for a life of flourishing in our tech-saturated world. He challenges us to raise families that create more than we consume. And he offers us practical tips, empowering parents to take the reins of the environment we design in our homes.

Practical Application

Crouch shows us that we can make changes as simple as redesigning or rearranging the furniture in our family room. This intentionality allows us to be creators rather than consumers. For example, what if the piano were the focal point of the family room rather than the TV? What if craft supplies and a peaceful place to read were easier to access than a video game console?

A key feature at the end of each chapter, Crouch takes stock of his own family’s successes and shortcomings in relation to the principles he shares, calling it the “Crouch Family Reality Check.” He doesn’t pretend to be perfect in this. And he doesn’t shy away from admitting the complicated path we all have ahead of us if we are to become countercultural in our family’s relationship with tech. 

While The Tech-Wise Family encourages us to counter the tech-saturated culture handed to us, Crouch recognizes it takes a balanced approach, “ensuring technology has a proper, meaningful role” in our lives. With its smaller dimensions (read: less words) and a hardcover filled with colorful visuals and graphs, this coffee table companion is one you’ll want to take with you, ponder, and allow to change your home.