Have you ever spent so much time on your phone that you get that tech-sick nausea, headache, and lethargy? Have you ever walked in a room full of blue-lit faces where nobody is speaking to one another? Have you ever been distracted from the sermon because your phone vibrated in your pocket and you’re just dying to get to that urgent message? Maybe you’ve been on your phone while driving or using the bathroom? Do you want to live a life untethered to your smartphone, smartwatch, tablet, bluetooth speaker, and computer? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone!

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch is a much-needed gut punch for the 21 century reader. For many of us, technology is something that just happened. We looked up and saw iPhones everywhere and decided that we ought to have one. Most of us grew up watching television and playing video games, which didn’t seem so bad. Right? But now we’re starting to feel the gravitational pull of the little red notification or drop-down message that intrudes on even the most intimate moments of our lives. Crouch offers some very helpful and practical tips on how to be a tech-wise family in a day when technology seems to have mastered everyone from childhood to the end of life.

The Tech-Wise Family was an enjoyable and easy read. I loved that Crouch introduced the concept of “nudges” as small ways to nudge us to keep technology in its proper place. These environmental changes are ways to help us do what we truly want to do. For example, instead of keeping my phone in my pocket, I can place on top of the fridge or in a cabinet. This “nudge” will move in the direction of being more tech-wise. I also loved Crouch’s openness about his family’s struggles to implement the ten “tech-wise” commitments he lays out in this book. Crouch’s aim is to point readers to the true worship of God and love for those around us — the greatest two commandments.

For those seeking a theological treatise on technology, this is not your book! Crouch is extremely practice (and I love it!). Though he doesn’t offer lists of scriptures to back each commitment, the discerning reader will surely find that these practices are founded on a biblical worldview. When necessary, he uses scriptural references, which point the reader beyond mere human wisdom to the all-wise God of scripture. Crouch presents a way of living that is radically counter-cultural and yet attainable for nearly every person who reads this book. He skillfully and humbly gives readers a glimpse into possibility of a home full of candlelights, pianos, puzzles, board games, and tech-free people.

Do you desire to be tech-wise and see others living tech-wise lives as well? If so, this will book will be an excellent starting point. Make sure to grab this and start praying that the nudges suggested will be combined with the genuine heart change needed to destroy the idolatry of technology.

Andy Crouch is among the first parents to have nurtured children from clearly-too-young-to-have-a-smartphone to now-old-enough, <i>during a time in which smartphones were in fact available for that whole period</i>. It's only been ten years since the iPhone's debut. And in that time Crouch's eldest child went from eight (too young) to eighteen (old enough). So Crouch is able to speak from a place of not just wisdom but also experience. In fact, his "Crouch Family Reality Checks" at the end of most chapters, little sections that revealed how well his family lived up to his stated ideals, give the book a weight I haven't felt in other writings on this topic. Even when he had to admit his failures to be fully wise in the formation of his family (and of his own soul), Crouch still had wisdom to offer me.

Keeping it simple in this review, I'll just list off his family's ten commitments:
<h2>Ten Tech-Wise Commitments</h2>
<ol>
<li>We develop wisdom and courage together as a family.</li>
<li>We want to create more than we consume. So we fill the center of our home with things that reward skill and active engagement.</li>
<li>We are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. So one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year, we turn off our devices and worship, feast, play, and rest together.</li>
<li>We wake up before our devices do, and they “go to bed” before we do.</li>
<li>We aim for “no screens before double digits” at school and at home.</li>
<li>We use screens for a purpose, and we use them together, rather than using them aimlessly and alone.</li>
<li>Car time is conversation time.</li>
<li>Spouses have one another’s passwords, and parents have total access to children’s devices.</li>
<li>We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.</li>
<li>We show up in person for the big events of life. We learn how to be human by being fully present at our moments of greatest vulnerability. We hope to die in one another’s arms.</li>
</ol>
Readers of Crouch's other excellent works, particularly <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001IDYIMY?tag=3755-20"><i>Culture Making</i></a>, will hear Crouchian emphases, especially perhaps in point 2. That's gold. Crouch manages to be perceptive in an arena full of platitudes, and I think he can do this because he's a gifted and dedicated popularizer. His major books have all been teaching and applying the work of scholars to the needs of the church. This book is no exception. Highly recommended.