The Social Dilemma

I usually just write about what hot messes we are. I usually sprinkle tons of light-hearted bits of humor into our life adventures. But last weekend I watched a Netflix documentary that has stuck with me all week … it got me good! There wasn’t an ounce of it that didn’t make me stop and think.

I like to think of myself as being born in the Golden Generation. While most people classify me as a Millennial … a Millennial I AM NOT! People born in 1986 are considered the Golden Generation … (Now before you go and fact check me, just know that I read that once, and if I read it once, it HAS TO BE TRUE! But if you google it now, you’re only going to find FIFA articles.) Whatever you want to call me, I am a technology bubble kid, I grew up as technology grew up. I know life with it and I know life without it. By the sheer grace of God, I didn’t have social media as an adolescent because it was MY generation that invented Social Media as we know it today. While I love it, I see fully it’s negativity. I’ve always been vocal about my views about kids and screen time. There is so much research that proves the negative affects of screen time in kids. Screen time has negatively altered the development of the brain. White matter isn’t developed, therefore, learning to read is delayed … and if you don’t learn to read by the age of 9 … well, game over … we then have to remap the brain to teach you to read … but that’s a whole different blog for a different time.

I vividly remember being in a job interview and explaining early research that was proving that very theory to be true. At the time I had a one-year-old, and I said I will not let my child have an iPad or screen time … not even in a restaurant. No one believed me, but for the most part, I have held true to that.

The Social Dilemma Netflix documentary made me stop and think on so many levels. I can plainly see that social media and the Internet are breeding grounds for Spiritual Warfare. A warfare that half of the time, we aren’t privy that it’s going on. I want so desperately to protect my children from that warfare. I want to provide a safe haven for my girls to come home too when they had a bad day and the world seemed to be against them. When a phone is in their hand even at home, it’s nearly impossible for me to provide that safe haven. I know I have to model phones aren’t important. They need to see me WITHOUT my phone in my hand. They need to know that life exists without a device in my hand. For a week I have been ultra conscious of everything that I do on my phone, and believe me it’s hard! During a pandemic I’m not even going into a grocery store so I am on my phone making a grocery list. But when I sat and watched head executives and developers of major tech companies tell me they too were addicted to the very thing they created, AND that they wouldn’t let their kids have any screen time, I have to stop and think. When you see the flip-side of how these mega tech companies use your data to alter your brain and predict your next internet footprint, you have to stop and think. When I read the quote that only two industries call their customers USERS - illegal drugs and software, I have to stop and think … this can’t be good for me. When I look at a chart showing teen suicide rates have dramatically increased since 2006 because, in 2006 that was the first generation of kids to have social media in middle school, I have to stop and think. I have to stop and think, why would I give my girls access to this? Because everyone else is giving it to their kids, isn’t a good enough answer for me. Change starts with me … change starts with you. This doesn’t have to be the future for our kids. God placed US: you and your kids, me and my kids on earth specifically for this time period. HE knew what we’d be up against and HE equipped us with the tools we need. Be still and listen to how HE wants to use you to change the world … even if it is one small stand at a time. Life is always about the small things, the small voices, the small stands.