Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online

By Anastasia Goodstein

Book Overview

"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 Daughters: 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312360126
• ISBN13: 9780312360122
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Totally Useful

If you have teens in your life, you need to read Totally Wired. Goodstein de-mystifies text messaging and social networking, offers common-sense advice on how to manage the security concerns about your teens online time, and provides a `cheat sheet' to help us interpret what's really going on in our teenagers' world. The best part is that Goodstein really gets teens. Drawing analogies to things that were familiar to us from our youth, she helps us understand that MySpace is really just another place to hang out, that personalizing your own online page is a way for teens to express themselves just as I did by hanging posters in my room or pinning buttons to my denim jacket, and that many teens do need parents to help them understand the boundaries, both offline and online. Reading this book made me remember how much fun it was to be a teenager myself (in between all the drama). And I came away with a new sense of respect for the choices that today's far more empowered teens are making for themselves. Now if someone would only write a book to help teens understand their parents ...

A definite read!

Anastasia really understands tweens and teens. In a very easy read... Totally Wired, Anastasia relays what today's kids are doing to what any generation did when they hit this critical age of child development. Things are not so different... we just have new ways to communicate. And like any generation that had their battles, this generation is learning to know what is and is not appropriate, who I should or should not talk to and how being connected online all the time can affect me and the world around me. As co-creator of Zoey's Room, an online community for tween girls -- I highly recommend all parents and educators to read this and remember what it was like to be that age...

For anyone who deals with teens

An engaging and enlightening read for adults that live or work with teens. In spite of their total connectedness with friends and the world, teens today are still the same teens of times past. As they strive to figure out who they are, they need adult involvement and guidance in their lives. What intimidates many adults is the fact that they cannot stay ahead of these mind-boggling tech savvy teens. Yet between the great overview of the tech world teens live in and excellent suggestions on how adults can effectively connect and guide teens, much of the intimidation felt evaporates. Author Goodstein carefully explains all the ways teens are connected, complete with side bar definitions, interviews, resource lists, etc. Ms. Goodstein has done her homework including documented statistics, expert observances and experiences, and summaries of numerous interviews she conducted with both teens and adults who have extensive contact with teens. Whether you know a little or a lot about the world teens live in today this book has much to offer.

A must for every parent, every teacher, every librarian - anyone working with young people!

Anastasia know her stuff! With a thorough knowledge of the youth media landscape and an exhaustive and stellar group of people interviewed and profiled - this is a fantastic book! It's a nice and easy read with an amazing amount of information imparted. Anastasia does a great job of pairing what teens are doing online with their developmental traits and needs -- this is not a lost generation - they are simply being teens as teens have always been - in new ways. This book will calm fears, educate parents, educators, lawmakers etc. on the reality of this new wired world. The bottom line with this issue is that parents need to be educated on what their children are doing, and put their "worry" and concern in the right areas - once they learn what's really going on they won't respond to the hype and hysteria that the media at large seems intent on passing on. Every parent, every public and school library MUST get their hands on this - learn it, love it, live it!

A "must read" for all parents

This is a fabulous book. Anastasia Goodstein does a superb job at providing readers a "realistic" look at what teens are doing online. She does not hype it up for the "scare" factor, but gives parents the knowledge and tools they need to make their own parenting decisions. This book is well worth the money spent!