iRules

What Every Tech-Healthy Family Needs to Know About Selfies, Sexting, Gaming, and Growing Up

By: Janell Burley Hofmann

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

As Janell Burley Hofmann, mother of five, wrapped her 13-year-old's iPhone on Christmas Eve, she was overwhelmed by questions: "Will my children learn to sit and wonder without Googling? Should I know their passwords for online accounts? Will they experience the value of personal connection without technology?"

To address her concerns, she outlined boundaries and expectations in a contract for her son to sign upon receiving his first cell phone. When Hofmann's editor at the Huffington Post posted the contract, now known as iRules, it resonated on a massive scale and went viral, resulting in a tsunami of media coverage and requests. It quickly became apparent that people across the country were hungry for more.

In iRules, Hofmann provides families with the tools they need to find a balance between technology and human interaction through a philosophy she calls Slow Tech Parenting. In the book, she educates parents about the online culture tweens and teens enter the minute they go online, exploring issues like cyberbullying, friend fail, and sexting, as well as helping parents create their own iRules contracts to fit their families' needs. As funny as it is prescriptive, iRules will help parents figure out when to unplug and how to stay in sync with the changing world of technology, while teaching their children self-respect, integrity, and responsibility.

©2014 Janell Burley Hofmann (P)2014 Tantor

A Classic concerned parent: a bit alarmist

Let me just start by saying I'm not a parent, I got this book because it had to deal with technology.
The author is a bit too preachy. I mean, I get it, your son didn't have an Iphone till 13, and it's good to have these discussions. But it came from the angle of someone on the outside looking in. Wouldn't a flip phone at an earlier age be helpful? A flip phone can only txt and make calls, no apps to worry about.

I'm a bit concerned with her complete obliviousness as to how gaming can be a powerful force for positive change. She even admits a few times that she does't get the appeal of video games. Great, then don't call yourself an expert on the topic,and don't include it in the headline of your book.
The one thing that I got from this book is how important it is for parents to check in with their children and have a discussion with them. My parents never really did that.
The other thing is it made me glad that I'm of the age that my parents don;t feel the need to take such an approach. I'm almost 30 and it's good to have the freedom without having such parental controls.
This irules is a good concept, but the author never discuses growing out of the contract,maybe because she has't gotten there yet, maybe she will write another book when Greg is 18, and will feel these parental controls are overbearing and no longer needed.

She fails to understand the simple fact that when your connected with a screen your often interacting with another person, not just a machine. Isn't that social?

All in all a great read, and good insight as to what parents are thinking these days.
Just wait until VR becomes more of a thing, then she will likely be more alarmist.