The Winter of Our Disconnect
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Winter of Our Disconnect: How One Family Pulled the Plug and Lived to Tell/Text/Tweet the Tale: How One Family Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived to Tell/Text/Tweet the Tale for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
`Her cautionary tale of media addiction is entertaining' --The List
`Hilariously entertaining but sobering and informative read... Thoreau would no doubt have approved' --Irish Times
`Read this true story for inspiration. Read it for laughs. Maybe even read it on your ipad.' --Oprah Magazine
'A fab book by a witty, single-parent mum... a great story' --Sunday Independent (Ireland)
`Hilariously entertaining but sobering and informative read... Thoreau would no doubt have approved' --Irish Times
`Read this true story for inspiration. Read it for laughs. Maybe even read it on your ipad.' --Oprah Magazine
'A fab book by a witty, single-parent mum... a great story' --Sunday Independent (Ireland)
Book Description
The self help book EVERY family must have. By ditching all means of electronic devices, one ordinary family learns new (or old) ways of communicating across the generation divide and begin to understand what being a family is all about.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
... or is that just guilt talking, as I would never be brave enough do what the author did :-)
On the plus side, very interesting subject for debate, one that most parents will have experience of and very likely be concerned about. Shrewd idea for a zeitgeisty book.
On the minus side, while the author was at pains to point out the various pitfalls of her decision, I did find the authorial voice a bit smug and preachy and I baulked at the rather airy underlying assumptions about what constitutes a "good" family life and "healthy" social interractions. I also felt that the overall attitude towards societal evolution was a little blinkered and old-fashioned. At the end of the proverbial, hankering after an Enid Blyton world where teenagers amused themselves scrumping apples and cycling to the corner shop for ginger ale is not going to make it happen! As a teenager, my parents' approach to what they saw as the subversive effects of technology was to forbid any TV after 8 pm and limit phone calls to 5 minutes maximum (there was an egg timer - yes, really)... draconian in those days, compared to my friends' parents.... but that didn't stop me growing up to happily make full use of a mobile phone, a computer, a blackberry, a subscription to Sky and wireless internet access. Similarly, my own efforts to limit my kids' use of social networking and screen time won't stop them from running their lives in future using as-yet-unimagined gadgets that I'll no doubt be alarmed by.... it's just the way of things... I can't help strongly doubting that the 6-month experiment laid out in the book will have any lasting impact on the author's offspring. Which begs the question for me, why did she do it? I'm not entirely sure, but at least she got a media-friendly book out it, and why the heck not. I suppose as this is a book review, I should say something about my opinion of the style - while it was well written and the situations described raised a smile of recognition at various points, a bit more self-depracation and humour would have lifted it for me.
I would guess that this is likely to be one of those polarising reads. If you agree with the author's stance on the perils of an increasingly "wired" existence, you'll probably love it and not even notice any stylistic flaws. If you don't particularly share her views, it'll probably irritate you no end. (no prizes for guessing which camp I'm in!)
On the plus side, very interesting subject for debate, one that most parents will have experience of and very likely be concerned about. Shrewd idea for a zeitgeisty book.
On the minus side, while the author was at pains to point out the various pitfalls of her decision, I did find the authorial voice a bit smug and preachy and I baulked at the rather airy underlying assumptions about what constitutes a "good" family life and "healthy" social interractions. I also felt that the overall attitude towards societal evolution was a little blinkered and old-fashioned. At the end of the proverbial, hankering after an Enid Blyton world where teenagers amused themselves scrumping apples and cycling to the corner shop for ginger ale is not going to make it happen! As a teenager, my parents' approach to what they saw as the subversive effects of technology was to forbid any TV after 8 pm and limit phone calls to 5 minutes maximum (there was an egg timer - yes, really)... draconian in those days, compared to my friends' parents.... but that didn't stop me growing up to happily make full use of a mobile phone, a computer, a blackberry, a subscription to Sky and wireless internet access. Similarly, my own efforts to limit my kids' use of social networking and screen time won't stop them from running their lives in future using as-yet-unimagined gadgets that I'll no doubt be alarmed by.... it's just the way of things... I can't help strongly doubting that the 6-month experiment laid out in the book will have any lasting impact on the author's offspring. Which begs the question for me, why did she do it? I'm not entirely sure, but at least she got a media-friendly book out it, and why the heck not. I suppose as this is a book review, I should say something about my opinion of the style - while it was well written and the situations described raised a smile of recognition at various points, a bit more self-depracation and humour would have lifted it for me.
I would guess that this is likely to be one of those polarising reads. If you agree with the author's stance on the perils of an increasingly "wired" existence, you'll probably love it and not even notice any stylistic flaws. If you don't particularly share her views, it'll probably irritate you no end. (no prizes for guessing which camp I'm in!)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I expected so much from this book and, perhaps, that's why it rates so poorly.. too much expectation?
The promise of some kind of answer to just one of most modern parents' worries.. Just how is all this technology affecting my child? The only way to describe why I felt so let down by it is to mention the end. So if you don't fancy the spoiler then do not read on!
Maushart is an academic. A feminist and a single mother. She lives in a house in Perth and has 3 adolescent children. They are all (not just the kids) addicted to their media so she decides to pull the plug and see how it impacts on their lives...
You can see how this might appeal but despite the good humour and intelligent one liners the elephant in the room that is this book starts to trumpet away after the first chapter...
There are several moments where I raised an eyebrow but I wanted to know what lessons on life were to be learned from this forced regression so I read on. The answer it seems is the square route of nothing.
For all the author's mid-book comments on discovering things about themselves they had all forgotten or pehaps didn't even know, the book ends with them all going media mental the millisecond the `experiment' is over.
So the final words suggest that despite the last six months they all just carried as they had been.
To quote Maushart, "WTF!"
For me the thing which begins to trumpet out as the book goes on is Maushart's awful approach to being a parent. Sure she is up against it, 3 kids, 1 parent and all that. But come on; "I have never taken an interest in my kid's homework." "Stats show parents that help their children do their homework have a negative impact on their results."
One of her kids plays on his computer all day and night, one is allowed to stay up all night using her laptop and fall to sleep when she just can't stay awake any longer and the other has no interest in anything but Facebook and My Space. I am not an academic but I have news for Ms Maushart. It's not the media's fault. It's hers. What parent would allow this to happen in the first place?!
This is all underlined when she tries to explain the value of meal times taken at the table. She gives all kinds of interesting stats on how the advantages don't just apply to those families from good backgrounds, good wages or good educational backgrounds. It would seem that all families that eat up to the table with no TV benefit from some mystical force of good. At no point does she allude that maybe, just maybe, the kind of families that do that are the kind that instil a wider set of values and take responsibility for what their kids do (especially in their own homes!). Maushart seems to think that it's all the screens'fault. The ultimate "Society is to blame" banner for her own failings.
All in all a (predictably) well written book which leads nowhere and seemingly taught the author herself nothing worth abiding by.
Still that said the irony of me taking the time to do this review (online) and you to read it (online) about a book concerned with us all spending too much time ONLINE is not lost on me!
The promise of some kind of answer to just one of most modern parents' worries.. Just how is all this technology affecting my child? The only way to describe why I felt so let down by it is to mention the end. So if you don't fancy the spoiler then do not read on!
Maushart is an academic. A feminist and a single mother. She lives in a house in Perth and has 3 adolescent children. They are all (not just the kids) addicted to their media so she decides to pull the plug and see how it impacts on their lives...
You can see how this might appeal but despite the good humour and intelligent one liners the elephant in the room that is this book starts to trumpet away after the first chapter...
There are several moments where I raised an eyebrow but I wanted to know what lessons on life were to be learned from this forced regression so I read on. The answer it seems is the square route of nothing.
For all the author's mid-book comments on discovering things about themselves they had all forgotten or pehaps didn't even know, the book ends with them all going media mental the millisecond the `experiment' is over.
So the final words suggest that despite the last six months they all just carried as they had been.
To quote Maushart, "WTF!"
For me the thing which begins to trumpet out as the book goes on is Maushart's awful approach to being a parent. Sure she is up against it, 3 kids, 1 parent and all that. But come on; "I have never taken an interest in my kid's homework." "Stats show parents that help their children do their homework have a negative impact on their results."
One of her kids plays on his computer all day and night, one is allowed to stay up all night using her laptop and fall to sleep when she just can't stay awake any longer and the other has no interest in anything but Facebook and My Space. I am not an academic but I have news for Ms Maushart. It's not the media's fault. It's hers. What parent would allow this to happen in the first place?!
This is all underlined when she tries to explain the value of meal times taken at the table. She gives all kinds of interesting stats on how the advantages don't just apply to those families from good backgrounds, good wages or good educational backgrounds. It would seem that all families that eat up to the table with no TV benefit from some mystical force of good. At no point does she allude that maybe, just maybe, the kind of families that do that are the kind that instil a wider set of values and take responsibility for what their kids do (especially in their own homes!). Maushart seems to think that it's all the screens'fault. The ultimate "Society is to blame" banner for her own failings.
All in all a (predictably) well written book which leads nowhere and seemingly taught the author herself nothing worth abiding by.
Still that said the irony of me taking the time to do this review (online) and you to read it (online) about a book concerned with us all spending too much time ONLINE is not lost on me!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poorly written and irritating
I heard some of this book being read on Radio 4 and then read the whole thing for myself as part of a book group. Read more
Published 13 months ago by E-B Reader
Very Funny, and Thought-Provoking
I thought it was hilarious, and I'm off to read the author's other books!!
I also heard the tasters on Radio Four, and the deeply researched non-fiction side of the book... Read more
I also heard the tasters on Radio Four, and the deeply researched non-fiction side of the book... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Arachne202
Winter of Our Disconnect book review
An excellent book that will open your eyes to the possibilities of a better more communicative family life. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. PE Scrivens
Book of the week
I heard this read on Radio 4's book of the week. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading and bought the book as a present. The person I bought it for said it is brilliant.
Published 16 months ago by B. Rosengarten
The Winter of our Disconnect
What a great book. It is written beautifully with wit and intelligence. A fascinating insight into life without technology. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. Jr Callaghan
A Real Wake-Up Call
As a former technophobe and now fully-fledged member of the digital generation, I'm always keen to hear experiences of living without computers, mobile phones, and all the other... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Abi F
Make's you think again about modern life
OK - I can see why the previous reviewer considers it a bit preachy, but the author struck a real cord with me. Read more
Published 16 months ago by A Commuter Reader
Very funny and painfully true
This is a terrific book that will ring true for anyone with kids - and it raises issues that need thinking about, in a splendidly non-preachy manner. Read more
Published 16 months ago by M. Ellingham
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
