The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World

by Jordan Shapiro Narrated by Jordan Shapiro

Overview

A provocative look at the new, digital landscape of childhood and how to navigate it.

In The New Childhood, Jordan Shapiro provides a hopeful counterpoint to the fearful hand-wringing that has come to define our narrative around children and technology. Drawing on groundbreaking research in economics, psychology, philosophy, and education, The New Childhood shows how technology is guiding humanity toward a bright future in which our children will be able to create new, better models of global citizenship, connection, and community.

Shapiro offers concrete, practical advice on how to parent and educate children effectively in a connected world, and provides tools and techniques for using technology to engage with kids and help them learn and grow. He compares this moment in time to other great technological revolutions in humanity's past and presents entertaining micro-histories of cultural fixtures: the sandbox, finger painting, the family dinner, and more. But most importantly, The New Childhood paints a timely, inspiring and positive picture of today's children, recognizing that they are poised to create a progressive, diverse, meaningful, and hyper-connected world that today's adults can only barely imagine.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile

The author’s audiobook on raising kids in a digital world sets out to reassure us that the pervasiveness of digital gaming and 24/7 connectivity is actually preparing our children for participation in new paradigms of personal growth and global citizenship. With diction and pacing that make comprehension effortless, the Temple University philosophy professor explains that the consternation adults feel about their children’s screen time is the same reaction past generations had about other disruptive innovations. He says monitoring screen time can minimize the addictive and isolating aspects of digital games while still allowing parents to prepare children for real-life social interactions. His practical insights and strategies will help parents influence their child’s digital life rather than retreat from it. T.W. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

11/19/2018
Shapiro, a coordinator of child development research at Sesame Workshop, presents a well-formulated, deeply insightful point of view on the place of technology in raising kids. Avoiding being either a Luddite or technology cheerleader, Shapiro explains that adults must still take responsibility for guiding child cognitive and social development, despite their possible discomfort at the “multidirectional, nonlinear intersection” of modern childhood and the digital world. His analysis places early-21st-century tools in the context of older concepts, showing how the game Minecraft promotes imaginative play and peer connection just as playing outside does, or how virtual locations can meaningfully and healthily provide public spaces. Shapiro works backward as well as forward, diving into the cultural history of older modes to show how they are not timeless but grounded in outdated ideas; notably, he argues the monastery-based model of school bells and quiet desks no longer matches the diversified attention required by modern workplaces. He admonishes parents and educators not to give technology “autonomy and credit,” but to treat it as a helpful tool. Placing modern child-rearing in the context of the long story of human cultural adaptation, this manual makes the challenges of screens more approachable, and the adult role in meeting them clearer. (Dec.)

From the Publisher

"Timely, essential, and thought-provoking, The New Childhood is the must-read parenting guide for raising 21st century, digitally driven kids. Instead of raising a white flag and giving in to social media and the Internet, Jordan Shapiro tells parents how to embrace technology, stay involved in their children's lives, and prepare them for their future. Read it! I promise you'll rethink your parenting. I couldn't put it down"—Michele Borba, EdD, author of UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed In Our All-About-Me World

"For those who lament what the 'app generation' may lack, Jordan Shapiro offers a timely, reassuring scenario."—Howard Gardner

"The New Childhood is a must-read for parents and educators! It's an incredible resource for developing healthy families and kids in today's technology-enabled world, and pushes us beyond clinging to rules, traditions, and practices developed for a different era."—Wendy Kopp, CEO and co-founder of Teach For All and founder of Teach For America

Placing modern child-rearing in the context of the long story of human cultural adaption, this manual makes the challenges of screens more approachable, and the adult role in meeting them clearer."—Publishers Weekly

"[The New Childhood] offers bearings to parents floundering in the new digital landscape and suggests clear actions they can take to help their children to thrive both in childhood and later life."—Forbes

JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile

The author’s audiobook on raising kids in a digital world sets out to reassure us that the pervasiveness of digital gaming and 24/7 connectivity is actually preparing our children for participation in new paradigms of personal growth and global citizenship. With diction and pacing that make comprehension effortless, the Temple University philosophy professor explains that the consternation adults feel about their children’s screen time is the same reaction past generations had about other disruptive innovations. He says monitoring screen time can minimize the addictive and isolating aspects of digital games while still allowing parents to prepare children for real-life social interactions. His practical insights and strategies will help parents influence their child’s digital life rather than retreat from it. T.W. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-10-15
Why screen time might not be so detrimental to your child's health. With the rise of the internet and smartphones, humans entered an era of extreme connectivity via invisible threads around the globe. Children born during this time know no other life and readily accept and adapt to the latest changes in software and technology. Shapiro (Intellectual Heritage/Temple Univ.; Freeplay: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss, 2013, etc.) believes the connections children make over the internet are similar to those previously made on the playground or in the sandbox. Children are learning similar social and relationship skills in digital space, just as they once did face to face. The author claims the amount of time he spends playing video games with his sons is akin to the days when dads played ball with their children; in both cases, they are bonding on the child's level. Playing video games with other children around the world enhances a child's sense of self and their place in it while building social interactions in the safe environment of the child's own home. Shapiro argues that parents and educators should let go of their own fears about technology and embrace and endorse it, letting children develop their skills via these tools. He believes that in this new paradigm, adults must let go of their memories of their own childhoods and let their children create memories using the technology at hand. The author's arguments are persuasive and bolstered by research. Yet his theories may be difficult to swallow for those still inclined to believe that active outdoor play with real children in real time and space is a more productive way to learn acceptable social behaviors and develop relationships than sitting alone in front of a computer screen. Credible theories backed by solid research that show technology is possibly less harmful than originally thought to children who use it on a regular basis.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170208265
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	12/31/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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