A Parent's Guide to Understanding Social Media: Helping Your Teenager Navigate Life Online - Softcover

Mark Oestreicher (Marko) is a veteran youth worker and founding partner in The Youth Cartel, providing resources, training, and coaching for church youth workers. The author of dozens of books, including Youth Ministry 3.0, Marko is a sought-after speaker, writer, and consultant.  Marko lives in San Diego with his wife, Jeannie, and teenage children, Liesl and Max.  Marko's blog: whyismarko.com.

Adam McLane is a lifelong student of youth ministry, a veteran youth pastor, and mentor to an ever-expanding web of students and adults.  He is a partner at The Youth Cartel, a full-service consulting firm specializing in helping churches, businesses, and ministries connect with teenagers, young adults, and youth workers.  Adam and his wife, Kristen, live in San Diego, California, with their three children, Megan, Paul, and Jackson. 

At one time or another, most parents have wondered, "What is my child posting on Facebook, and should I allow access to social media?" It's a question Mark Oestreicher and Adam McLane navigate in straightforward style with equal parts reality and advice in A Parent's Guide to Understanding Social Media. More than this, the authors offer parents a pithy book (12,000 words) filled with facts, figures and friendly helps that will inform and affirm a parent's right to know.

Moreover, this book will help parents understand how the Internet and computers actually work. Everything from Google search history to Facebook marketing is explored in these pages, but this is not the type of read that should frighten parents away from allowing their children to use social media. Rather, the authors offer the realities of social media (It's here to stay, and your kids are using it in one form or another), yet encourage parents to be more involved in what their children are doing and to set rules and boundaries through family discussions.

Parents looking for a practical and informative guide to social media can't go wrong with this book. It's accessible and real. Also, it has been written from the vantage point of two parents who are engaged in youth ministry and understand youth culture. This book also could be a textbook for parenting conversation or a one-session class designed to provide the basics of Facebook, Twitter and social media in general. --Todd Outcalt, youthworker.com