The Young Adult Playbook

The Young Adult Playbook goes where other life design books refuse to go: it asks deep questions about what constitutes a happy life. After decades of listening to their students, Anna Moreland and Thomas Smith name the underlying desires in young adults: while searching for a lucrative career, they long for meaningful work; their social media and gaming practices point to a deeper yearning for intimacy; and their leisure habits have been crushed under the productivity machine. This book helps them unlock their deepest desires. It offers practical strategies to improve habits. And it leads them to recover activities lost from childhood. The book is threaded with the real voices of young adults who have found their way out of this rough terrain. These offer much needed models of hope, providing a concrete map through unprecedented challenges. Journal exercises throughout the chapters tailor the strategies for each individual reader.

Plenty of books diagnose the ills of this digital age. Few offer a pathway out of these challenges. As caring and effective college professors, Moreland and Smith have spent decades rescuing students from this impoverished landscape. In this book they attempt to reach the students they can't teach.