This book was very helpful in understanding my kids and the world they are born into. As an immigrant in the tech world, Rumaldo seems very relatable to me. I am a philologist so I thoroughly enjoyed her many definitions and playing with language.

She discusses the mental health implications of heavy social media use on developing brains while explaining to parents that no use is not a reasonable solution. When discussing rules around device use she reminds us that these should apply to us as well! That is my ultimate takeaway from this book! If it's bad for my kids, it's bad for me. If I want to regulate my kids' use, I must regulate my own use as well.

Rumaldo is not shy to face difficult topics like lower empathy in children who play violent video games and social media outcry over videos of young kids watching someone die without trying to help. She even addresses cyberbullying and how parents can protect their kids from other kids online.

She is a medical health professional and does a lot of research for each chapter. I like that she includes these papers in each chapter in case someone wants to read further.

This is a good resource to get families thinking and talking about technology, it’s downsides, and it’s benefits. Many of the actions recommended can help parents and children navigate social media and video games together. However, some of the research seems taken a bit out of context, and personal anecdotes are often given just as much credence.

While the author starts off by framing the digital age as a new culture and the reader as an immigrant, I don't feel like they've done that themselves. They take a rather negative view on this entire 'culture' and spend very little time on the positives.

The author seems to have their own strong bias. One evident note of this was stating 'In my opinion, I do not need research to see the changes that are occurring in our youths' . This was in response to noting that research had mixed results. They've also used extreme examples throughout such as twelve year olds who would defecate in their pants due to not wanting to stop a game and a couple who let a child die to continue playing games, without noting how rare that type of behaviour is. Examples used sometimes seem to specifically support a narrative. For instance how some girls using Pinterest for fitness were found to do crash dieting or radical exercising; Of course it's no surprise that the people taking dieting and exercise to the extreme are on websites related to that and it never clarified how few of the girls on that website did.

This book is particularly weak in the video game area. References seem dated - one was something that I played 15 years back. They also share their opinions on how violent video games affect people, but without backing it up with research. Many recent studies disagree with her. Throughout it appears they only have surface level knowledge of video games, where they are more familiar with social media.

On a more positive note, there are some practical tips for parents. They are for the most part common sense around monitoring and limiting screen time and teaching information security.