Totally Wired
As a daily blogger who’s long been technically savvy (I learned to build web pages when HTML was the only way to do it), it may seem surprising that as of a year ago, I barely was aware of blogs, and that I currently intentionally keep texting, IMing, and Skype off my radar (it’s a preventative thing, given how much time I already spend with my laptop). As a parent though, keeping up with the technological times is as much a safety necessity as a means to try to keep communication channels open. If the lingo seems overwhelming, Anastasia Goodstein’s Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
Goodstein is a blogger keen on teen/tween/early twenty something culture. In Totally Wired, she uses expert, teen, teacher, and parent interviews to portray what teens are doing on the Internet and with technology. Particularly effective is the manner in which she draws parallels between old and new means of adolescent communication (e.g., phone vs. online chat, diary vs. blog) to show that teens are the same as they were decades ago (bullying unfortunately is still ever present, it just now can be faceless); they just have a shinier, more expensive set of communication tools with which to work. Thankfully, Goodstein’s book can help you get up to speed in a hurry (she includes useful tidbits such as a glossary, and popular text/IMing acronyms); the teen years are tough enough without adding an additional barrier to hinder your connection with your kid.
