The Plugged-In Parent Almanac

Teens, according to our recent survey, wish their parents knew:

“You can’t pause online games”; “TikTok”; “that not every song is about sex and drugs”; “K-pop”; and “that it is different from when they were teenagers!”

The Plugged-In Parent Almanac is the one volume parents need to better understand the pop culture that consumes tweens’ and teens’ attention in 2022.

Pop culture makers both feed teens’ need for discovery and independence as well as transform that need into massive commercial opportunities. Ever since Elvis and the Beatles (...and as far back as Sherlock Holmes), what young people like, and why young people like it, has been a source of friction between the generations.

In today’s increasingly fractured pop culture landscape, there is an even larger generational divide. Parents don’t get the chance to express admiration or dismay about the newest celebrity. Rather, parents are frequently just clueless—left mystified or out of the loop all together.

The Plugged-In Parent Almanac—full of information about popular entertainment genres, from music, movies and series, and books to social media and fashion, as well as the top performers and influencers—will help parents better connect with their tweens and teens this year.

And to help parents make sense of it all, The Plugged-In Parent Almanac features expert essays, including “How Does Something Become Popular,” “Talking about Media Use,” “What to Watch on TV with Your Teen,” “A Teenager’s Guide to Sneaker Culture,” and “A Parent’s Guide to Fan Fiction.”

The Plugged-In Parent Almanac also includes the results of a survey of teens from across the country about their passions, hopes, and ambitions, and an inventory of the costs of raising a teenager.

Expert contributors to The Plugged-In Parent Almanac include Eric Deggans, National Public Radio’s TV critic; Drs. Carrie James and Emily Weinstein of the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Cannes Lion winner Nick Braccia; and University of Southern California Professor Henry Jenkins.

The Plugged-In Parent Almanac is edited by Fanologist Meredith Levine and Emmy Award–winning media executive Dan Solomon.