Media Moms & Digital Dads

A new media was unleashed upon the world and children took to it like ducks to water. Young people everywhere devoured its content, spending hours upon end immersed in it, while simultaneously ignoring the adults in their lives. Parents were understandably alarmed and worried that this new media was ruining young minds. It may surprise you to know that this new media was not the Internet, radio, or television but rather the 19th-century novel. Yes, parents were concerned that reading too much Jane Austin was going to ruin their children. Fast forward to today and we are still having the same conversation. Will digital media, in its various forms, ruin our children? In Media Moms & Digital Dads, former film producer turned child psychologist Yalda Uhls cautions parents not to be afraid of the changing state of media but to deal with the realities of how our kids engage with it. The truth is children today spend more time with media than they do with parents or in schools. And as parents, many of us did not have early exposure to the Internet, mobile phones, and gaming, making the world of our children somewhat foreign to us. The key, says Uhls, is to understand the pros and cons of media so that parents can make informed decisions about cause and effect, boundaries and exposure. Uhls debunks the myths around media by delving into the extensive body of social science research, proving that our kids are all right, and that parents can and must adapt to help their children thrive in the digital age. The author explores critical questions: Do kids learn better from paper versus screens? Why do tween girls post videos of themselves online asking if they are ugly? Do children really learn from video games? Is the era of the selfie creating self-obsessed children? Does the endless stream of information and multitasking lead to distraction? Do kids learn the same things about the world when they look at faces on screens versus in real life? Is the brain changing? This ground-breaking book will draw back the curtain and reveal the truth -- often surprising and counterintuitive, and other times reassuring -- in order to help guide the conversation about our digital age and the future of childhood.