"An invaluable guide for teens and parents keen to navigate digital lives, in a healthy and positive way."
June 2024 Book of the Month
With fresh reports of the ills of screentime appearing seemingly weekly, this is the perfect book to help teenagers, and those who love them, learn to balance screentime and real-world experiences.
Presented as a self-help book with activities to be tried and completed throughout a twelve-month period, readers are given agency and control over their own behaviour. This is a book that gentle guides and suggests, rather than preaching at you. With a fresh focus every month, positive and health-promoting online activities are perfectly balanced with suggestions for offline experiences to pursue. Monthly focuses include goal setting, resilience, and self-esteem. Each chapter is concluded with a logbook for the reader to record their year long journey.
I particularly appreciated that the book doesn’t demonise screen use, but instead recognises it as a valuable facet of all our lives, something that can be enriching when used with awareness and balance. The book is full of facts and anecdotes that build this digital awareness and will be beneficial to all readers. These include explanations of how technology is specifically designed to manipulate us to stay online, the impact screens have on sleep quality, and a fascinating explanation of why so many screensavers display images of the natural world.
The range of suggested activities are impressive and broad, not only will they promote and support the development of healthy habits, but they are consistently fun and life enriching. Alongside the activities and discussions, each chapter details an Offline Hero of the month, these are all fascinating young people who are great examples of living life to the full and creating your own exciting real-life experiences.
A useful book for anybody wanting to put their time to best use and embark on a fulfilling self-improvement journey.
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A fabulous, practical, inspirational read for anyone exploring wellbeing and the digital world. Full of practical tasks to suit all readers without being overwhelming, enabling the achievement of monthly targets. A core title for any school library and beyond.
Fabulous, insightful book that is relevant to not only teenagers, but those working and caring for them.
Goodin sets out a clear, detailed plan to follow giving the reader enough information without being overwhelmed to start a personal logbook of activities to increase wellbeing and create life long habits.
Each monthly target enables the reader to set personal goals with just the right amount of information to not overwhelm and reasoning behind each one.
It is an easy read, pitched perfectly as not to patronise with clear ideas that will suit all readers.
I cannot recommend this title enough and it should be in every school library and read by all those working with teenagers and beyond as well as being core read for teens.... Read Full Review
An attractive front cover to entice the reader in! I was so excited to be able to review this book and I have to say, I was not disappointed.
An attractive front cover to entice the reader in! I was so excited to be able to review this book and I have to say, I was not disappointed. The book caught my attention right from the start, with its attractive layout and format - easy on the eye. The log book pages are so impressive and perfect for students who like to be organized. Images and illustrations catch the reader's attention. There is so much to learn from this book, the pages are packed with useful advice, suggestions and activities. Students have such busy lives these days - this book is set out to help and support our young people. I would recommend this book without a doubt ...... Read Full Review
Amazing! A must read for digital natives
I really enjoyed this book, it is easy to read and full of useful information. I liked that it is in a journal format so you can add all your own entries and I really enjoyed the sections on offline heroes and the inspirational quotes at the start of each month.... Read Full Review
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