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Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
"A must read for parents (and future parents) of teenagers. Consider Anastasia Goodstein as the daughter you totally 'get' - explaining all the behaviors of the daughter you totally don't 'get.' Consider this a parent/teen dictionary. Brilliant and lifesaving!"
- Atoosa Rubenstein, former editor in chief of Seventeen magazine
" Totally Wired is both an awakening and a comfort for adults who feel lost in the infinite alleys of cyberspace. Goodstein gives it to us straight - honestly examining the threats to kids, but also including fresh insights into the positive ways young people use the wired world in their lives."
- Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters and author of Dads and How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter
Hooking up via MySpace, bullying on a blog. Using a cell phone as a tracking device? Clearly, being a teen today isn't the same as it used to be. So what are LiveJournal, Xanga, Facebook, and MySpace, and what exactly are teens doing on these sites?
Totally Wired is the first inside guide to what teens are really doing on the Internet and with technology today. Author Anastasia Goodstein creates an informative and accessible guide that covers topics such as social networking, blogging, cyberbullying, and much, much more.
Including interviews with a cross section of industry professionals and teenagers, and loaded with fascinating statistics and revealing anecdotes, Totally Wired is the first guide that explains to parents in easy-to-understand terms what kids are really up to online, and arms parents with the knowledge they need to promote Internet safety.
- Atoosa Rubenstein, former editor in chief of Seventeen magazine
" Totally Wired is both an awakening and a comfort for adults who feel lost in the infinite alleys of cyberspace. Goodstein gives it to us straight - honestly examining the threats to kids, but also including fresh insights into the positive ways young people use the wired world in their lives."
- Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters and author of Dads and How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter
Hooking up via MySpace, bullying on a blog. Using a cell phone as a tracking device? Clearly, being a teen today isn't the same as it used to be. So what are LiveJournal, Xanga, Facebook, and MySpace, and what exactly are teens doing on these sites?
Totally Wired is the first inside guide to what teens are really doing on the Internet and with technology today. Author Anastasia Goodstein creates an informative and accessible guide that covers topics such as social networking, blogging, cyberbullying, and much, much more.
Including interviews with a cross section of industry professionals and teenagers, and loaded with fascinating statistics and revealing anecdotes, Totally Wired is the first guide that explains to parents in easy-to-understand terms what kids are really up to online, and arms parents with the knowledge they need to promote Internet safety.
205 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 3, 2015
What a difference two years makes... and doesn't make. In 2007, MySpace was bigger than Facebook by sheer virtue of the fact that FB was a "closed" community; today, some of my FB friends are my parents age (my mother's cousins seem to have embraced it). In that regard, Totally Wired feels a little dated.
However, once you get past the Name Brands (has anyone Xanga'd recently?), the message is alarmingly the same as the message in the parenting books my mother used to read: kids will be kids, either in Real Life or Online Life. Deal with it. They'll experiment with a sense of self, they'll bully, they'll test limits, etc., all the things I did years ago and that my mother did decades before that. What's changed is the 24/7/365 instantly on quality of it all - teens can't always hide from a bad choice, and the effects of those choices are far greater than they were in my day.
I'd love to see this updated because I can see parents reading it, using the wrong terms (or product names), leading to their children tuning out the important messages about considering who you are Out There. And I'm amused by the thought that this generations midlife crises will be to simply unplug - how very peaceful their lives will seem.
However, once you get past the Name Brands (has anyone Xanga'd recently?), the message is alarmingly the same as the message in the parenting books my mother used to read: kids will be kids, either in Real Life or Online Life. Deal with it. They'll experiment with a sense of self, they'll bully, they'll test limits, etc., all the things I did years ago and that my mother did decades before that. What's changed is the 24/7/365 instantly on quality of it all - teens can't always hide from a bad choice, and the effects of those choices are far greater than they were in my day.
I'd love to see this updated because I can see parents reading it, using the wrong terms (or product names), leading to their children tuning out the important messages about considering who you are Out There. And I'm amused by the thought that this generations midlife crises will be to simply unplug - how very peaceful their lives will seem.
October 14, 2008
Goodstein's effectiveness is negatively impacted by the vast amount of time she spends analyzing her own teenage years. The author indicates on page 2 that the intended audience is parents with teenagers, but resources referenced in the book, such as "Staying Connected to Your Teenager: How to Keep Them Talking to You and How to Hear What They're really saying" may be better suited to the task. The vocabulary choices were particularly uninspired ("teens definitely love" pg, 58). The author asserts that her authority is derived from her passion to be the "voice of reason for teens and for adults trying to reach them" (pg 3). Unfortunately her credibility is reduced by a lack of strong research and light thesis.
July 6, 2008
This book sounds a bit more titillating than it really is. It is helpful to get to know a bit more of the lingo and the jargon of the computer literate/media savvy young people today, and its helpful to find out more about what goes on online, but I was not shocked or really even surprised (maybe I'm more savvy than I thought!!) I also did not agree with one of the assumptions of the author that "teens will be teens" and get into bad stuff no matter what we as parents (or a s a culture) do. I think that is a whole different topic for a book itself! This was a fairly quick and easy read.
April 2, 2009
Well-researched and informative. I highly recommend it for anyone who has/wants kids but is terrified of what will happen to them as teenagers - I think it paints teenagers in a fair light and really examines the realistic threats to teens and also the goods/bads of teens historically and today. This is an excellent resource for teachers and librarians too. I think the fact that it feels somewhat dated and was published in 2007 just goes to show how important it is for people interacting with tweens and teens to keep up-to-date on the latest technology.
June 13, 2012
This book is a good introduction to the world of "digital natives." Easy to read, not too much eduspeak, and there's a glossary in the back for the terms that might be new to you. For those adults stuck in 1985 (to borrow a phrase), it explains different types of media and activities that young people use daily to stay connected and entertained. It was published a few years ago, so there have been some shifts in trends and some things may have dropped out of use or been replaced by more recent additions to the digital scene. Overall, it was informative and relatively painless.
July 2, 2007
Sort of boring. I already knew most of this stuff, and I felt like the author had a lot of good information but didn't use it to draw any useful conclusions. I also wasn't sure who her intended audience is. As a media researcher I already know a lot of what she is saying. There are some throw-away paragraphs geared towards parents at the end of each chapter, but those seem to be tacked on rather than an integral part of the book.
January 10, 2008
Interesting. I've been reading her blog for a while so knew about many of the sites mentioned. The chapter about teachers using technology in a superficial way was interesting and something I'll come back to.
December 19, 2008
Of limited value. There seems to be a lot of white space, big print and not so many facts. While there are some facts, mostly this is anectdotal and of limited value to education professionals. Perhaps parents might be served by it.....
January 4, 2009
Goodstein describes how teens use blogs, social-networking sites, cell phones, and instant messaging
to discover a positive identity and to participate in community as well as learn. I found the sections on Activism 2.0 and Creative Commons the most interesting.
to discover a positive identity and to participate in community as well as learn. I found the sections on Activism 2.0 and Creative Commons the most interesting.
October 31, 2009
Copyright 2007, yet already quite dated. Definitely aimed at parents who are not tech-savvy. For those of us who ARE tech-savvy, and give teens more credit than most of Western society does, there is not much to be learned from this book.
November 4, 2009
Aaak! No index???? The citations were listed at the end of the books, but there was absolutely no index, which is frustrating. Until all the books in the world are digitized and subject and keyword searchable, print non-fiction should include indexes!
January 11, 2012
Good solid job doing a very well-focused task: describing how teens use new technology to express what it is eternally to be a teen. Thus it has aged well and is still useful (though yes, a new edition would be welcome.)
September 7, 2016
takes out some of the negativity portrayed by the media about the dangers online, interesting technique of talking about author's teen life in the 80s as compared to a totally wired teen of today ~ so much remains similar
October 23, 2011
Good for parents of teens and tweens as well as those who are not. This book points out that the internet is not the enemy just another place that kids hang out. Very real issues are covered in this book such as: bullying, awareness, legal issues, etc.
June 26, 2007
super easy read. really interesting insights about what teenagers are doing online. made me realize that i'm not all that different from a 13 year-old. ;)
Want to read
July 28, 2008I will read nonfiction, I will, I will!
October 21, 2010
Slightly outdated in the technologies mentioned, but very relevant about teens' attitudes toward technology. Interesting, but nothing overly surprising.
December 23, 2009
A useful book for parents, teachers, or anyone else who knows or works with teens.
Read
June 22, 2010Well-balanced but already seems really dated.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews