Ed Shane here traces a change in the American pervasive mass media that once disseminated information quickly and stimulated mass cultural response, to a de-massified individual media that incubate a new electronic narcissicism, producing an inwardly-focused society.

There's no denying the clear connection between overuse of devices--smartphones, computers, and video games--and the growing mental health crisis, especially in our children. Too much screen time has a real, measurable effect on kids' brains, self-esteem, emotional development, and social skills. We aren't controlling our devices anymore--they're controlling us. In Disconnected, psychotherapist and parenting expert Thomas Kersting offers a comprehensive look at how devices have altered the way our children grow up, behave, learn, and connect with their families and friends. Based on the latest studies on the connection between screen time and neuroplasticity, as well as the growing research on acquired ADHD and anxiety, Disconnected presents a better way to move forward. Kersting shares indispensable advice for parents on setting boundaries and engaging in concentration and mindfulness exercises. If you want to reclaim your family and reconnect with your kids, this hard-hitting yet hopeful book is the place to start.

Offering a bold new understanding of the causes of such disorders as autism, ADHD, Asperger's, dyslexia, and OCD, an effective drug-free program addresses both the symptoms and causes of conditions involving a disconnection between the left and right sides of the developing brain, with customizable exercises, behavior modification advice, nutritional guidelines, and more.

The Disconnected Man tracks the journey of one man's surprise discovery of his own disconnectedness and his desire to help other men, and the women who love them, before it is too late. Disconnected men hide out in plain view: in our churches, in our families and in our communities. They are competent, capable men who quietly 'do their duty' and attract little attention. They are fairly happy guys, relatively unemotional and capable of carrying heavy loads of responsibility, but are very difficult to get to know beyond superficial friendship. A closer examination inside their marriages reveals a desert strewn with emotionally emaciated spouses. While their competence may build the church, organize a group, or run a company, they haven't the slightest notion how to connect intimately with those they love. Their wives suffer, usually in silence, while the church and culture press past this couple secretly falling apart. Jim Turner was that disconnected man going about his life, happily fulfilling his duty within his own self-protective bubble, until God suddenly burst it in a most horrific way. His story starts when that devastation left him clinging precariously to the remaining shreds of his broken marriage. Jim longs to share with other disconnected men what he learned through that ordeal, to help them understand their disobedience and show how they can achieve real connection with those they love.

Kersting explores the device-dependent world our children live in and its effects on their mental and emotional well-being. Research shows that too much time in the cyber world is re-wiring kid's brains, affecting their ability to flourish in the real world as anxiety, depression, and attention issues soar. Strategies to help reduce screen-time as well as meditative and mindfulness techniques may help our children reclaim their brains, and their lives, are provided.

Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Background; (3) Overview of Research on Disconnected Youth: Methodology and Number of Disconnected Youth; Other Characteristics; Reasons Associated with Disconnection; (4) Analysis of Disconnected Youth: (a) Overview; Limitations; (b) Findings: Reasons Reported for Youth Not Being in School or Working; Characteristics of Disconnected Youth; Characteristics of Parents Living with Disconnected Youth; Trends Over Time; (5) Discussion: Overview; Poverty, Family Living Arrangements, and Parental Characteristics; Implications for Policy. Charts and tables.

How young people think about the moral and ethical dilemmas they encounter when they share and use online content and participate in online communities. Fresh from a party, a teen posts a photo on Facebook of a friend drinking a beer. A college student repurposes an article from Wikipedia for a paper. A group of players in a multiplayer online game routinely cheat new players by selling them worthless virtual accessories for high prices. In Disconnected, Carrie James examines how young people and the adults in their lives think about these sorts of online dilemmas, describing ethical blind spots and disconnects. Drawing on extensive interviews with young people between the ages of 10 and 25, James describes the nature of their thinking about privacy, property, and participation online. She identifies three ways that young people approach online activities. A teen might practice self-focused thinking, concerned mostly about consequences for herself; moral thinking, concerned about the consequences for people he knows; or ethical thinking, concerned about unknown individuals and larger communities. James finds, among other things, that youth are often blind to moral or ethical concerns about privacy; that attitudes toward property range from “what's theirs is theirs” to “free for all”; that hostile speech can be met with a belief that online content is “just a joke”; and that adults who are consulted about such dilemmas often emphasize personal safety issues over online ethics and citizenship. Considering ways to address the digital ethics gap, James offers a vision of conscientious connectivity, which involves ethical thinking skills but, perhaps more important, is marked by sensitivity to the dilemmas posed by online life, a motivation to wrestle with them, and a sense of moral agency that supports socially positive online actions.

Lockdowns, Zoom meetings, and reduced physical contact have made us more dependent on the internet than ever before—and now we want to log off. Disconnected is a little book about reclaiming our humanity in our increasingly digitized, monetized world. Our focus on community and real connection has been sent off-course, and we're becoming more aware of how the algorithm manipulates us and how our data has made us a product to be sold. So, where do we go from here, and how can we get back on track? Disconnected examines these topics and offers tangible tips and advice for those of us who might feel a little lost and are looking to find our real-life selves again.

A journalist with two-decades of experience covering WorldCom traces its birth, growth, colossal success, and ultimate collapse, examining the key players, finances, corporate culture, and politics within the telecom giant.

This book is filled with practical, proven strategies, effective tools, and inspiring stories designed to help adults shape and improve connections with kids.