Borba Michele - Raising humans in a digital world: helping kids build a healthy relationship with technology

PRAISE FOR RAISING HUMANS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

If you need practical, positive advice on how to handle your and your kids digital lives, look no further. This book tackles the risks and addresses the potential harms, while keeping our eyes on the prize of the remarkable rewards that the online world brings.

STEPHEN BALKAM,

founder & CEO, Family Online Safety Institute

Raising Humans in a Digital World is not only a timely book, its essential reading for every parent, grandparent, and teacher. Diana Graber empowers you through her educational (proven and practical) curriculum and engages you through anecdotal stories. Brilliantly writtenyou can be as cyber-savvy as the next generation.

SUE SCHEFF,

founder of Parents Universal Resource Experts and author of Shame Nation, Google Bomb, and Wits End

Brilliant, compelling, and essential are the first words that came to my mind when reading Diana Grabers Raising Humans in a Digital World. Diana not only taps her own exemplary expertise but also assembles a whos who of digital thought leaders to deliver a treasure trove of pragmatic advice via an engaging storytelling style. This is a must-read for parents raising kids in the digital age.

ALAN KATZMAN,

founder and CEO, Social Assurity LLC

Every parent has the responsibility to raise responsible digital humans. Technology is likened to the Wild West frontier. Diana Graber not only shows parents how to create safe and responsible relationships in this ever-changing digital world, but she gives them the powerful tools to navigate through the many aspects of what is required to keep kids safe online. The misuse of technology and the cruel behaviors that take place daily by kids and teens can be changed, and Graber shows this in her informative and educational book Raising Humans in a Digital World. The book should be every parents bible as a resource to ensure that their children are responsible and safe.

ROSS ELLIS,

founder and CEO, STOMP Out Bullying

This beautifully written book gives you the tools to raise healthy kids in a digital world. The anecdotes underscore the thoughtfulness of todays youth and their hunger for learning how to navigate their world well, instead of just being warned off by fearful adults. It is thoughtfully organized and theoretically sound, and will empower parents to have some of those much-needed conversations with their kids.

DR. PAMELA RUTLEDGE,

director, Media Psychology Research Center and faculty member, Fielding Graduate University

For Michael, Elizabeth, and Piper, the humans at the center of my world.

2019 Diana Graber

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by HarperCollins Leadership, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Book design by Catherine Leonardo for Neuwirth & Associates.

Bob Dylan The Times They Are a Changin copyright 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission.

Epub Edition October 2018 9780814439807

ISBN 978-0-8144-3980-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962848.

ISBN 978-0-8144-3979-1

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

What kind of kids do you want to raise?

After writing more than twenty-four parenting books and speaking with more than a million parents on six continents, Ive discovered almost all parents want the same thing: They want to raise kids who will grow up to become human beings who are good and kind.

But in a world where screen time is more common than face time, and where digital connections often replace personal connections, this is quite a challenge. Lucky for you, the secret to raising humans in a digital world is in your hands.

While you might find other digital parenting books out there, whats different about this book is its author. I know Diana on both a personal and professional levelweve rubbed elbows at conferences on both coasts, shared stories, and asked each other, What do kids need most? I can assure you shes a trustworthy authority to answer this essential parenting question in a simple, straightforward manner. Heres why:

Diana has her pulse on this topic. A digital literacy educator for nearly a decade (rare longevity these days), shes tried and tested everything you are about to read and done so on the best guinea pigs in the world... real kids.

Through Cyberwise and Cyber Civics, her two digital literacy sites, shes provided resources to and interacted with hundreds of thousands of parents and their kids over the years.

Shes on the speaking circuit, talking to communities across the United States and listening to their concerns.

Shes done her homework, earning one of the first-ever graduate degrees in a new, and timely, field of study called media psychology and social change.

And, most important, shes a parent who cares deeply about kids.

The media knows about Diana, too. NBCs TODAY Show visited her classroom at Journey School in Southern California to feature Diana and her students engaging in some of the very activities youll read about in this book.

I love how she compares raising a human today to building a house, telling you to start with a strong foundation of social skills, like empathy, and to build up from there. She gives you the tools youll needand the building plan, too. This book contains a treasure trove of how-tos and simple activities, as well as sage wisdom and insights from interviews with more than forty experts in the field.

My advice? Read this book, keep it by your nightstand, or even pass it on to other parents. But most important, apply what you are about to learn. Remember, your kids dont need the latest app or gadget: they need you! Your time and attention, along with what youll learn in this book, are the secret ingredients to raising humans in our digital world.

Dr. Michele Borba

Internationally Recognized Educator, Speaker, and Bestselling Author of Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World

Palm Springs, August 6, 2018

Information about External Hyperlinks in this eBook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And dont criticize

What you cant understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin

Please get out of the new one if you cant lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin

BOB DYLAN, The Times They Are a Changin

When left to their own devices people will get up to one of two things: nothing much, and no good.

LIONEL SHRIVER

One bright September morning I stood at the door of the large auditorium that doubles as my classroom on Mondays and said goodbye to thirty or so seventh graders as they filed out into the bright Southern California sunshine. Wes, a slight boy with big blue eyes who was new to the class that year, stopped abruptly in front of me to ask a question.