“Ugh! You’re ruining my life!”
Coming from a teen, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that particular cliché or one of its associates: “You don’t get it”; “All my friends are doing it”; “I guess you don’t love me.” However, I have to admit that I was a bit shocked to hear them all coming out of my 9-year-old nephew’s mouth.
Why was my nephew so bent out of shape? Because his mom had done something that, in his mind, was unforgiveable: She had told him to stop playing on his tablet.
If you’re a parent, you might be familiar with that screentime battle. Or perhaps you’ve been frustrated by the one that frequently follows: “What should I do now? I’m bored.”
When it comes to technology, parents can sometimes feel out of their depth. Even if you grew up with a smartphone in hand (if the first iPhone was a person, it’d be old enough to vote), it can be a challenge to figure out the “right” way to guide your family through this ever-changing technological landscape.
Luckily—or perhaps, unluckily, depending on how you look at it—you’re not alone.
In 2020, the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health identified the top health concerns for parents of children aged 0-18 years. The top three were too much social media and screen time, cyberbullying and internet safety.
When we at Plugged In saw that report, it got us thinking: How can we help parents to navigate technology, protecting their children from harm while also teaching them good screentime habits, in practical and biblical ways?
Well, we came up with a solution, and we are proud to provide you with the Parents’ Guide to Technology 2026 by Plugged In.
In this tech guide, we’ll walk you through those parental pain points mentioned above (as well as some others we identified, such as pornography and artificial intelligence). Each article will unpack a different technology-related issue. We’ll give you stats and information from various researchers and scientific studies. But, most importantly, we’ll also provide you with pragmatic, actionable advice for dealing with those specific problems.
And don’t worry, we don’t expect you to read it all in one go (it’s 125 pages). The Parents’ Guide to Technology is organized so that you can bounce around from article to article, cherry-picking the topics that are closest to your family.
Oh, and did I mention? It’s completely free.
That’s right, we’re not asking you to hand over your credit cards or to pay for a membership or subscription. If you want a copy of the Parents’ Guide to Technology, it’s yours. Just head over to pluggedin.com/tech-guide to download your copy.
What’s more is that we’ll be updating the guide every year. (I did say that the technological landscape is ever-changing, after all.) So let us know what you think! How did we do? Are there issues you’d like us to cover in the future? Do you want more information about a specific topic?
Contact us on Facebook or Instagram. Send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com. Head over to YouTube and leave us a message there. Or, simply, leave a comment below. We always love to hear from you.
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