Top reviews from the United States

• 

  Jeffrey D. Smith

  5 out of 5 stars

  Take notes!

  Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2016

  Format: Paperback

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  Read this book with a highlighter in hand! Then go back a few times and read what you highlighted… The concepts are high science, but the approach is down-to-earth and accessible. The notion of micro-designing one’s (or one’s child’s) life with deliberate targeted changes strikes me as very powerful.

  It turns out there are a few tricks to preserving our essential humanity in a digital future. Madden offers practical advice on keeping social media in balance, mining the positive aspects of technology, and avoiding the predatory dangers that are lurking in the online world. She also has next-generation insights on “lost in the shuffle” values like getting enough sleep, the criticality of actual human relationships, exercise for the mind and body, and the restorative power of spending time in the natural world.

  The ways our children take in and process information and communicate with each other and the world around them are changing so rapidly, moms and dads have a tough time keeping up and staying relevant. It takes about ten minutes these days to become “old school”. Luckily Jenifer Joy Madden is around to monitor the flood of trends and technology, and help parents navigate the changing information landscape their kids inhabit.

  Read moreRead less

  2 people found this helpful

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  BoyzMom

  5 out of 5 stars

  Motivating and Inspiring

  Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2016

  Format: Kindle

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  Embracing and celebrating what makes us human is at the core of this book. We all need the reminder that the human mind, body, and soul are in fact a remarkable creation in a tech-drenched world! More critics of runaway, 24/7 technology addiction are surfacing now - from educators to techno fans themselves - but Jenifer Joy Madden manages to deliver this message in prose that is engaging and motivating - never scolding. Her research is impeccable, and she is a generous writer who credits and expands on what the experts say. Put that science together with her own deep life experience as a parent, educator, writer, and community activist, and you feel like you have a really wise friend encouraging you to value your creativity and uniqueness more than constant interface with the digital universe. Don't get me wrong - the beauty of 'Durable Human's' message is not anti-gadget, it's just pro-human in the most reaffirming way. What I take away from this book long after I've read the last page is to keep tech as a tool, make intentional choices ("design your life") to be with people and nature, and most importantly, to honor and engage with your own wonderfully 'durable' self, and those around you.

  Read moreRead less

  3 people found this helpful

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  oaktonreader

  5 out of 5 stars

  I raised my children like Jeni raised her children

  Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2016

  Format: Paperback

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  I raised my children like Jeni raised her children, outside, getting dirty, playing in the rain. My children grew up with computers and video games, but they often stepped away from technology to experience the world together. This is what Jeni advocates, and she has many wonderful ideas on how to do so. I would recommend that all parents and educators read this book.

  Read moreRead less

  2 people found this helpful

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  Joe and Kendra Johnson

  4 out of 5 stars

  Good Reminders

  Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2017

  Format: Kindle

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  This book doesn't have any crazy unique or mind-blowing ideas. The author does a good job laying out her goal for the book, but then repeats her ideas in several different ways (almost lime she was trying to fill pages). The book does present valid information about the use of electronics and providing studies is helpful for people who want to do their own research. It also nice that the author uses plain language when presenting her ideas so you don't have to wait until the end of the chapter to figure out what she is talking about.

  Read moreRead less

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  charles joy

  5 out of 5 stars

  ... am impressed with her efforts to show us how best to keep up with and benefit from the digital ...

  Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2016

  Format: Paperback

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  as a physician I am impressed with her efforts to show us how best to keep up with and benefit from the digital age developments Her ideas apply well to booth children and adults.

  Read moreRead less

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  Anissa

  5 out of 5 stars

  A triple-crown winner by its own standards!

  Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2016

  Format: Kindle

  Verified Purchase

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  What a treat to read a straightforward yet engaging treatise on what it means to be humanly relevant in the digital age. I'll be implementing a lot of these ideas in my daily life.

  Read moreRead less

  One person found this helpful

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  Donna Seeker

  5 out of 5 stars

  'Durable' is Dynamic!

  Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2021

  Format: Paperback

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  As with all aspects of life, we need balance. Jenifer Joy Madden is expert at appreciating all that technology gives us while not relinquishing the natural, 'wild' joys of life that teach us vital skills to survive and thrive.

  Read moreRead less

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
• 

  Dragan M.

  5 out of 5 stars

  we are living better, longer

  Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2016

  Format: Paperback

  Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

  Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

  Measured by the rapid speeds of the technological development of modern civilization, we are living better, longer, and happier lives. But, are we? What is the price we are paying for all those advances? Is it acceptable to pay for enjoying all those technological privileges by making ourselves near-instantly available – 24 hours a day, by making fewer eye contacts with other people, or by not having time for life’s little things, for example?

  This book addresses many of such questions and catalogues many of the components of the modern life puzzle and provides examples of possible remedies for them. In a way, this book is a catalogue of common sense, which in the modern times is becoming the more and more elusive commodity. That is, the common sense is under the siege from all sorts of factors (e.g., the digitalization of our lives). It could almost be said that the more the reader finds common sense in the content of this book, the more the reader is closer to be a durable human.

  The book names Self-reliance, Genuine relationship, and Curiosity, as the three crown jewels of the durable human. It is important to note that the three are aimed to work together. While we all are different, which reminds me of the famous scene from Monty Python’s “Life of Bryan”, where the crowd shouts the slogan “we are all different”, a single voice from the crowd exclaims “I am not”, and while we all may have different approaches or even attitudes for all three, they all are required to complement each other for a person to be durable. Self-reliance, for example, doesn’t mean isolating oneself from the rest of the society. Evan the highly self-reliant person would need to communicate with the rest of the society, i.e., develop a genuine relationship. The curiosity jewel is as important as it spearheads the other two. There is something that reminds me what Markquez once said about dreams: “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

  The book points out an almost uncomfortable fact: the probability of us ever had been born. In short, the probability is ZERO. Even after “improving” the odds by resorting to our parents-only chances, i.e., while abandoning the book’s Universe and atoms example, the chances of each and every one of us ever had been born is still inseparable from a zero. Take for example the fact that at the specific moment of the cycle in which we were seeded, the spermatozoon carrying the information leading to us, competed with tens if not hundreds of millions of others. And, had it been any other, it would not be us – our brother or sister, but not us. Considering all these chances, we all have won the lottery of life to which chances to win a regular lottery seem to be safe bet.

  Now, knowing how rare we all are, the book continues with identifying the factors affecting us, including, for example, multitasking, sedentary life, sleep, smart phones, and connecting solutions for the issues arising from those factors.

  At the times when it seems the time is passing much faster than it once was, the stresses of modern life tax us with the time we have available for anything. We adjust by resorting to so-called multitasking, i.e., doing several things at the same time (and often – all the time). As the book explains, the notion that we could multitask is an illusion. By “multitasking” we are basically not focusing on any single item that is part of multitasking. The result is predictably – lower performance, less attention to detail, lower satisfaction… And, more often than not, our attempts to multitask are compounded with the sedentary nature of those tasks. To paraphrase late Jim Morrison: maybe we can’t “break on through to other side”, but, as the book exemplifies, we could break the monotony of sitting and move around, unglue our eyes from the computer/telephone resorting to the 3 x 20 (after 20 minutes focus on something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds), or simply stand by the computer rather than sit all the time. Once taken for granted, sleep too is becoming the victim of modern day stresses. I could hardly believe when my wife, a medical resident at the time, called me one night in desperation that she could not fall asleep. Yes, there it is – it seems it is hard to get to sleep regularly without resorting to medication. Yet, the sleep is crucial for us to function.

  It is hard, and perhaps too early, to evaluate properly the positive and negative effects of the ongoing “smart phone-fication” of the modern civilization. People glued to their phones, while walking on the street, while sitting at the airports, restaurants, while spending “quality” time with their young children, or simply while waiting at the traffic light driving their cars, are all but a common sight. It is almost comical to see the people rushing out of the plane, for example, just to check their phones. One would think that there is a reasonable chance the President might need their emergency advice and they want to be there when such a request comes in. Globally speaking there is even an impression that the smart phone craze has a pseudo-equalization effect on people living in different areas and different standards. For example, often a person will save for a substantial period of time just to be able to purchase the latest smart phone model. Not because he/she needs to stay in touch, but because such a model is something that even the wealthiest do not have yet!!?

  As the book points out, there are ways out and around though. The joy of bicycling is one of them. The joy of paying attention to seemingly little things may be another. Focusing one’s curiosity in the process leads toward being the durable and in the process makes us happier too.

  It is hard to capture all the moments addressed in the book, but even this small selection of a few of them, illustrates the need for all of us to pay more attention toward ourselves, others, and the environment we all share. There is a certain level of similarity between what Khalil Gibran accomplished by awakening with his poetry and prose something deep in the modern human, and something that Jenifer Joy Madden could accomplish with this book. For all these reasons, I would recommend this book to anybody to read; starting with my family first.

  Read moreRead less

  One person found this helpful

  Helpful

  Sending feedback...

  Thank you for your feedback.

  Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

  Report

  Sending feedback...

  Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.

  Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again