Hey, Plugged In Wrote a Book!

It’s been a busy time around the palatial Plugged In offices. We’ve been dealing with the Oscars and the other big awards-season players. We’ve been concentrating on our own Plugged In Movie Awards. We’ve been reviewing our usual array of movies, TV shows, songs, games, books and YouTube channels.

But it seemed as though we all still had an hour or two to spare. So we wrote a book.

It’s called Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family: How to Navigate a Media-Saturated World—and Why We Should.

OK, so it wasn’t like we just all got together and wrote the thing over a lunch break. Writing a book is a process not unlike what G.K. Chesterton said about growing a beard: It cannot be done in a moment of passion. Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family has been the product of years of thinking, writing and editing. In a way, what you find in its pages is a product of our team’s collective experiences, memories and lessons learned.

I think it’s pretty good, if I say so myself—and pretty timely.

The use (and misuse and overuse) of technology and entertainment is a huge pain-point for most families. In fact, when the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital polled parents nationwide what worried them most, the top three answers were “Overuse of devices/screentime”, “social media” and “Internet safety.”

Parents should be worried. Those are huge issues. And while we love the fact you come to Plugged In to check out, say, how many swear words are in Dune: Part Two, we know that parents could also use a more holistic, comprehensive look at entertainment and technology—and how we can embrace a proactive, wide, God-honoring strategy in how to deal with them.

In essence, we try to answer two important questions: One, why should we care about this stuff? And two, what can we do about it? It’s filled with pragmatic takeaways, overarching strategies and some poignant, personal moments that we wanted to share with you. We wanted it to be more than just a helpful resource: We wanted it to be a personal letter, too—from us to you.

And we hope it’s just the first step in a multi-pronged approach to help you manage the sometimes bewildering worlds of entertainment and technology.

Interested in checking it out? Click here to buy your very own copy.