Daly Focus Blog
Today’s Young People Are Clocking in More “Entertainment Media” Then Ever Before
By: Jonathan McKee
“I can’t get my kids to pry their eyes from their screens for more than a minute!”
It’s probably the biggest complaint I hear from moms and dads at my parent workshops each weekend. Kids are soaking in more entertainment media than ever before.
I’m sure you’re not surprised when I tell you a brand‐new report has revealed screen time is up.
By: Jonathan McKee
Decades ago the question was, “Do you know where your children are?” Today the question is, “Do you know who is following your children?”
Key word: following
Consider the app Instagram for a moment, the No. 1 social media platform used by teens today. Take a peek at anyone’s profile and you’ll see the word “followers” at the top of the screen with a little number above it. That number has become incredibly significant to today’s teenagers.
Do you find it difficult to sit through church without touching your phone?
Does technology tend to decrease your productivity?
Do you often check your phone for calls, emails, or texts?
If you answer yes to questions like these, you may be nomophobic – you have a fear of being without your mobile phone.
Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Michigan studied families with children between the ages of 10 and 17.
Technology is wiring our children’s brains to believe five fundamental lies:
I’m the center of the universe.
I deserve to be happy all the time.
I must have choices.
I’m my own authority.
I don’t need other people.
What’s technology’s part? Eighty percent of a child’s ability to interact with the world around him develops after the child is born. Until about age 25, neurons in a child’s brain are connected through repetition, through the things the child does frequently.
Headlines about social media privacy concerns with Facebook are in the news as CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress on Tuesday.
But there’s another story that caught my eye – and this one involves your kids.
Earlier this week, consumer advocacy groups filed a complaint and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate YouTube for collecting and profiting off of data collected from children under the age 13, which would be a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Every 24 hours, 205 billion emails are sent. Every second, 60,000 tweets are posted to the “Twitterverse.” That’s 3,600,000 tweets per minute.
Many of us have a lot to say.
That should be of some concern when you consider verses like James 3:8, which reminds us that the things we say can be “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
That’s why it’s important for us to think before we speak … or text … or Snapchat.
I’ll never forget the day I got my driver’s license. It was all I could talk about for an entire year before. It was a time-honored tradition back then: do whatever necessary to get your license by the time you’re fifteen, no later than sixteen. That little plastic ID got me and my friends out of the house and enabled us to hang out with each other whenever and wherever we wanted. My driver’s license was key to my social world.
Sharing a blog post from a few years back… the sentiments are the same, and the content is timely given the start of school for many kids around the nation. -J.D.
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Summertime is drawing to a close, so I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite teachers from down through the years. I have many; here are memories of just a few.
In kindergarten there was Mrs. Smith. I went to school that first day with my heels in the pavement and then didn’t want to leave by the time the bell began to ring.
Do your children have smartphones?
My boys, ages 15 and 13, don’t. Jean and I have considered getting the boys simple flip phones for emergencies, but yet … we hesitate opening that door.
Beyond the dangers that come with smartphones, we recognize how easy it can be to become addicted to them. Americans now spend an average of 4.7 hours a day on their phones. We sleep with them on our nightstand and carry them in our pockets.
Rachel lost two years of her life.
Maybe the first thought that comes to mind when you read that sentence is that Rachel suffered some sort of tragic accident that threw her into a coma – or she bonked her head and lost two years to amnesia.
But neither of those are accurate, and what happened to her can happen to any of us.
Her life was filled with distractions.
If our to-do lists are never-ending, and we’re always thinking ahead to the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, then we can easily miss out on the real life that’s happening right in front of us.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
