As technology advances at breakneck speed and we, with our fitness trackers and smart watches, measure and record every step of its progress, Doreen Dodgen-Magee is paying careful attention to the deeper ramifications. With the keen eye of a researcher and the warm heart of a friend, parent, and teacher, Doreen shares invaluable insight into life in the tech age. Doreen is no Luddite. Her goal in this book is not to call us back to calculators and rotary phones, but rather to remind us of the value of "fiery, embodied lives"—lives that use technology for our benefit without stunting our own relational and developmental growth. This book is an invaluable tool as all of us wrestle for control over the most important spaces in our lives, the spaces we share with each other.
This is a much-needed book for our time. Doreen Dodgen-Magee presents a balanced, nuanced, and compassionate view of the impact devices have on our development. The book is not only about our use of devices; it is about our shared humanity. Doreen calls all of us to engage technology thoughtfully and reflectively so we become more relationally connected and more human. You will come away challenged and enriched.
In a world of conflicting reports telling us technology is either wonderful or wicked, healthy or harmful, Deviced! is a total game changer. Especially for parents. How do we help our kids—and ourselves—use devices to harness all the advantages technology has to offer our modern lives, while also being savvy and wise about the pitfalls and long-term effects? Using the latest research and her decades as both a practicing psychologist and captivating speaker, Doreen Dodgen-Magee banishes our media-related guilt in favor of teaching intentional and actionable practices that enhance our relationships with each other to carry us through this era and beyond. Highly recommend!”
For everyone feeling saturated, seduced, or assaulted by the constant stream of electronic content available at the touch of a button, or finding that they care a little too much how many likes, followers, and comments they garner online, Deviced! is a welcome antidote. Smart, thoughtful, well-researched and practical, Doreen Dodgen-Magee makes a compelling case for learning how to integrate technology wisely into our lives, rather than drown in it. So turn off notifications, shut down the computer and silence your smartphone long enough to read this book.
Doreen Dodgen-Magee does what most who have written about the impact of technology on youth and adults haven't been able to do—recognize and help us sort out the complexity that technology has introduced into our lives. Rather than build a case for the "evils" or the "gifts," she acknowledges and explains that what we do with technology in our lives is complex and cannot be simply designated as good or bad. Using solid psychological theory and research, she skillfully helps us sort through the results and encourages and helps us understand what it all means to us. While many will talk about the importance of moderation in using technology (or anything really), Dodgen-Magee provides compelling and useful ways to think about how we might more consciously engage or not engage with technology. This, however, is not a simple self-help book. It goes much deeper than, "Try these few ideas and it will all be good." You will finish the book understanding yourself better because you have explored the intricacies of what you value and what makes you human.
It has never been harder to be a young person and it has never been harder to be an engaged parent. Deviced! offers research, and expert help to technologically lost parents, youth, and communities across the globe, but even more Doreen offers hope. Hope that there is a chance at a healthier future.
Dodgen-Magee offers a studied response to our digitized lives. Researched and thorough, Deviced! examines both the benefits and challenges of device-filled living, taking a close, hard look at the costs of technology on both our internal and relational lives. Doreen's secret sauce in Deviced! is sharing a brilliant array of action steps for turning inward and feeding our embodied selves.
If you want to take responsibility for your screen time, Deviced! is the roadmap! It shows you how to build an internal locus of control—the most valuable asset you can have.
Dodgen-Magee extensively explores the impact of digital culture on individual lives in a compassionate and humble way. She approaches the subject with a genuine care for her reader while remaining honest to the real dangers of losing one’s embodied self to digital spaces. I love this book because it focuses on mending, not condemning, the technology user to regain an authentic and relational experience in today’s society.
A spot-on analysis of screen dilemmas with a fascinating psychological spin and focus on solutions. An important read for everyone concerned about helping our screenagers, specifically, and our society in general.
Oh, my goodness! Grab this book now! The introduction alone will inspire you to want to share Deviced! with everyone you care about. Although I’ve studied media’s influence on our lives for my entire career over nearly forty years, this is the first book to profoundly transform my understanding of Big Tech’s deep impact on a brain-changing, cellular level, to offer practical assessments of what’s healthy and what’s not when it comes to device engagement, and to propose mindful solutions to tech overuse. As Dodgen-Magee describes, we have come to rely so much on our devices to entertain, soothe, stimulate, and distract us that we miss out on opportunities for deep, authentic, face-to-face connection and for building and strengthening life skills—something critical to consider especially when it comes to our precious children.
Doreen Dodgen-Magee, a world authority on the topic of the rational and safe use of the Internet, gracefully reminds us that technology can serve rather than enslave us, that we need to be mindful not to let engagement with devices steal the richness and joy of life from us and our loved ones. Through her creative Take Action sections in the book, she teaches us that an act as simple as eye contact, safe touch, or respectful dialogue can ground us, open channels of communication, and build bridges of trust, so we can continue to remain human even when deviced. In other words, we don’t have to turn into machines or check out when we log in! It is indeed a choice to be human. Deviced! serves as a much-needed and timely guide as to how to do just that in our increasingly digital world.
Deviced! is a work of hope and compassion. In this rare book, Doreen Dodgen-Magee asks us to notice the altered aliveness devices offer and to consider wholesome alternatives, breaking ground for a middle path many of us seek. Beginning with an exploration of the seeds of self, the emotional regulation of attachment and separation, and the nurturing role of boredom in the birth of agency, Doreen reminds us that we’re humans and articulates our innate yearning for play, wonder, love, longing, and a delight in the experience of being alive. This work is unique in not just cataloging tech disruptors but in offering a hand and guidance toward the healing needed to set and monitor attachment boundaries between tech and self. I recommend Deviced! to those working with families experiencing device-induced dysregulation—and to anyone seeking compassionate alternatives to their own patterns of tech use.
Deviced! is an essential book for all of us navigating the world of technology. Doreen carefully guides the reader to look at the research, the wonders, the dangers, and the opportunities that exist in the digital world. Through storytelling, research findings, and personal experiences, the book unfolds the story of the digital age and gives us information on how technology has impacted all aspects of our lives including our personal relationships, our ways of entertaining and soothing ourselves, and the way our brains receive information. But this is not a doom-and-gloom book. Doreen celebrates the things that technology is bringing us, and she invites us to embrace technology with moderation. Each chapter has a section on taking action—things we can all do to be informed consumers of this wonderful tool. I will be recommending this book to my clients who are all struggling to find balance for themselves and their children in this digital age.
