Liam, a nineteen-year-old computer science student, takes readers inside the digital lives of today’s teenagers - the gaming worlds, private chats, unspoken risks, and invisible pressures that shape how young people see themselves and connect with others. Through humor, mistakes, and hard-won insight, Liam reveals what really happens online - and how parents can understand it without fear or judgment.
This is not a book about control; it’s a book about connection. It’s about how families can rebuild trust, communicate better, and stay close - even when screens stand between them. Candid, hopeful, and deeply human, it is the bridge between generations that every modern family needs.
I’m Nineteen, I Study Computers, and I Grew Up Online: What Teenagers Really Do on the Internet and What Parents Need to Know by Liam J. Doe will be published on December 30, 2025. BooksGoSocial provided an early galley for review.
As a cusp Gen-X, I have spent half my life before the days the Internet took off and the rest very much connected online. I straddle both worlds. I am also a parent of a cusp Millennial/Gen-Z who leans more towards the former. Like the author, my son very much grew up in the online world. So, I felt it would be good to get an understanding how those of the 21st Century feel about being online-all-the-time.
I appreciated Liam's honesty and viewpoints. As someone who also studied computers, I could appreciate his analogies and viewpoints. Ironically, many of the struggles he relates from his early teen days match those struggles teens have been having for decades (even those of us who grew up fully analog). The Internet just compounds them and puts a different spin on them.
What I would have liked is some more details in spots. He refers to things that change or go darker, but he stops short of giving the specifics. While I appreciate the desire for preserving privacy, it would be easy enough just to give the general gists without naming actual names. That would have helped drive his points home more clearly. The end has a few better examples, though one I did find confusing.
Still, this is definitely an informative "memoir" for older generations to check out.
No comments:
Post a Comment