Does Your Child Have a Second Job?

According to a lot of the research "out there", kids are spending an average of eight hours per day consuming media. That's a full-time job with overtime! Fifty-six hours a week. Now I realize that this is an average, so if your children are not in this category, FANTASTIC! But consider with me the fact that this IS an accurate representation of many homes and many families in our nation. With the easy accessibility of YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, search engines, and all forms of apps, kids literally can have anything (and anyone!) right at their fingertips. That should give us cause to pause...

Do you want your child to be able to easily access images their mind is not yet ready to process?

Do you want your child to be able to "follow" people you don't know or have never heard of?

Do you want your child to have unfettered access to everything that is on the Internet?

My experience is that parents unanimously answer those questions with a resounding NO! But the next question is the clincher: so what are you doing about it?

There is no doubt that this generation knows their way around this tech-soaked world much better than you and I ever will. They are often referred to as "digital natives." They know the language, they know how to navigate to all the unknown places, and they can do it all very efficiently, with one hand tied behind their back! :-)

You and I are are NOT digital natives. We are more like digital visitors. Or digital transplants. In the colloquialism of our county in northern Maine, you and I are "from away" digitally speaking. However, that is not an excuse to ignore what these natives are doing. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the devices you have allowed your children to use. What apps are they using? Talk to a local geek or your Internet service provider about how to secure your system at home as much as possible.

And ultimately, build relationship with your child so you can help to form his or her heart into one that loves the Lord, that makes good decisions because they want to, because they desire to live a life that is holy and pleasing before the Lord.

My Faceoff with Facebook

Recently, I had a four-week "soul sabbatical" during which time I was able to focus on the restoration of my soul, renewing my passion for ministry to students and their families, and reminding myself of who I am in Christ. During that time, I decided to de-activate my Facebook account, and I have to tell you that was a VERY good decision. Now, I'm not a Facebook "hater." In fact, I find it a wonderful way to keep in touch with family and friends who are far away. However...(you knew that was coming, right?) :-)

I have been on Facebook for over seven years now, and I have "survived" the myriad changes that it has gone through from its earliest days until now. A very quick Google search will give you loads of headlines about the social experiments that Facebook has been conducting and the massive amounts of data they're collecting on their users. And the crazy thing? We users are very quick to tell the Facebook universe every detail of our lives...where we've been, where we'll be, what we'll be doing, who we'll be hanging out with, and what we look like while doing all of that. Can you say narcissism?

So, my Facebook was de-activated for four weeks...that's 28 days...just enough time to form a new habit. And I have! You know what I discovered while being away from Facebook? My life (and your life, and my friends' lives) all went on! You know what else I discovered? No one was pining away because I wasn't there. When I did return, there was no ticker tape parade welcoming me back. Facebook, it seems, has the ability to warp our view of the world around us. "Likes" are how we can start to judge ourselves. More "likes" means I'm liked more. Ummm, not really. We can also tend to put our "life's best" on Facebook. Whoever has seen selfies of what you look like when you wake up in the morning? Or while you're dealing with a bout of the flu? Someone once said that Facebook was like a "highlights reel" of people's lives...not the "behind the scenes" or "bloopers reel."

I'm now back on Facebook, but my usage is MUCH less than it used to be. I'm using it primarily during the daytime hours for work-related communications and for keeping up with those closest to me. And it's feeling good!

What about you? How does Facebook effect your life? What about your kids?

Head-in-Sand Syndrome

One of my passions in life is to help parents and caregivers understand the depths of the dangers and temptations that are facing today's young people, primarily in the form of online media and social networking. It seems that nearly every day there are new ways to connect, new ways to chronicle your daily happenings, and myriad ways of sharing that with people you know (and don't know!). How in the world does one keep up with all of these changes? Well the short answer is that you probably won't. BUT I bet the kids in your life will be! They know the latest apps and the latest fads because they are "natives" to that world. Those of us who are older are "just visiting" or "foreigners" in that world--we're still trying to learn the language and learn how to navigate.

Do you know what the biggest danger in this new world is? Ignorance. Hence my title, "Head-in-Sand Syndrome." Parents and caregivers, please please please make sure you are keeping yourself educated. I'm not talking about becoming experts on everything that's out there, but at least take the time to make yourself aware of some of the latest trends in tech and online activity. And especially make sure that you're making regular checks of your child's devices. Anything that connects to the Internet has the potential to connect with the world, and with that comes a lot of "open doors" into areas where children and young people should not be traveling.

So where do you start? How about this article on the "7 Dangerous Apps That Parents Need to Know About." Another great site is Focus on the Family's PluggedIn.com. They review movies, TV shows, video games, and music...all from a Christian and biblical worldview. The Digital Kids Initiative is another great online resource that provides up-to-date info about all the cultural trends that are bombarding today's youth.

Bottom line? Don't bury your head in the sand hoping that the issues with technology will go away. We are in a culture where just the opposite is happening, and our responsibility as adults is HUGE! We need to protect our kids. We need to educate our kids (and ourselves). And we need to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves in this ever-changing culture.

Digital Dangers

Here I am, on my laptop, using the Internet, to tell you about digital dangers. Yes, I see the irony in that. :-) Today on the radio, Focus on the Family's daily broadcast had a panel of experts who were sharing findings from a variety of research that points to the increasingly noticeable issues being discovered in young people from the over-use of technology, smart phones, video games, etc. And they've even given a name to this new condition: "Digital Dementia." I don't know about you, but it's rather alarming that children are being "diagnosed" with a condition that is typically associated with senior citizens.

Check out this article from some research that's been conducted in South Korea (an area in the world especially connected to all things technology-related).

The Focus on the Family broadcast and the article are well worth the time to listen and read. If you have young children especially, please consider how much your children live a "virtual" life versus interacting with the world around them. Did you know the use of technology (especially at early ages) actually effects how children's brains develop? That's alarming to me. My husband, a software developer, discourages the use of technology in young children. Instead of downloading a coloring book app, just use a REAL coloring book and crayons. Revolutionary thinking, huh?

So, bottom line, examining your child's use of technology is something that needs to occur on a regular basis. Technology is not going away. The Internet is not going to get "friendlier" over time. Parents, your only option is to be aware.

meBible App Review

With this post, I am excited to tell you about a really cool Bible app available as a free download for the iPad. The meBible Ultimate Research Bible app will totally change how you interact with scripture, and it even has some really great features that make you excited in new ways about digging into the Bible.  Here are just a few reasons why I think you will enjoy checking it out...

1. It has a terrific interface that allows you to "split" the screen, with the Bible on the top pane and your notes and/or Internet browser on the bottom pane. This makes it really easy and fun to find things like pictures and resources online and link them directly to a text that you may be studying.

2. There are loads of features that you can add once you have downloaded the app...things like commentaries, a Greek/Hebrew lexicon, Topical Bibles, and fun themes. Each of these items makes meBible more personalized and makes it feel more like "you."

3. And my favorite reason that meBible is so cool is because it was developed by my very own husband! Many hours of coding and thinking and praying have gone into putting this app in a category all its own. (And I'm not just saying that! If I wasn't married to the meBible creator, I still would count it as my favorite Bible app!) :-)

But don't just take my word for it, check out a recent review on iTunes:

"I'd give this 10 STARS if I could!  I just opened this Bible app for the first time & already love it. Firstly, because it's completely FREE.  Secondly, I love all the options - highlighting, adding my own notes, bookmarking. Thirdly & most important to me, are all the free foreign language translations.  Overall, I will use this app every day for hours & I'm very pleased with it. It looks great, the setup is user friendly, & I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of the additional tools once I figure them out."

You can go to iTunes and download it for yourself and give it a spin:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mebible-ultimate-research/id476441818?mt=8 

You can also check meBible's website for loads of great information:  http://mebible.info/ 

meBible connects the ancient truths of scripture with the modern amenities of the Internet right at our fingertips. Try it, I bet you'll like it!

Now You See Me...

Snapchat Icon

...now you don't! That could well be the byline for a relatively new app called Snapchat (available for iPod touches, iPads, and Android devices). The premise of the app is that you take a picture of yourself, send it to a friend, and it disappears in seconds, never to be seen again. If you look up its rating on the App Store, you'll find it's suggested for people 12 and older for these reasons: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor; Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References; Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes; Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity.

Now a picture app seems relatively harmless, right? Think again. Apparently a major use of this app has been for sexting, that "practice" of taking sexually provocative pictures and sending them to someone else. You have probably heard the horror stories of people who have sent inappropriate pictures of themselves to "friends" only to see them plastered in the school hallways or on Facebook. Snapchat takes away that concern. Now you can take a picture, send it along, and determine how many seconds it can be viewed. According to a recent article, something like 50 million "snaps" are sent each day!

So what's the bottom line for parents? Make sure you know what your kids are doing online. What apps are they using? What are the ratings of those apps? (Remember, these are apps that are rated according to secular standards.) How are they using these apps? How do you monitor their online behavior? It's not an easy job by any stretch, but it's certainly worth it to make sure you're doing all you can to be "in the know" about your child's online safety.

Web Wisdom

Over the past couple of weeks, my brain has been inundated with a variety of posts, forwards, and emails with erroneous information that was gleaned from the "all-knowing" Internet. This may be stating the obvious, but just because something is in print online does not make something true. Verify through a variety of sources. Check out websites like www.snopes.com which do the fact-checking for you. If something sounds a bit off-center, it probably is. Don't be deceived.

I've also come to realize that I can basically find information online to prove my point, even if my point is incorrect or invalid. Between PhotoShop and blog posts and spoof sites like "The Onion" and "The Spoof" whose sole purpose is to make things up, wisdom has got to be the byword when surfing the web. If I want to "dig up dirt" on an individual, I'll find it. If I want to find unflattering pictures of celebrities, I'll find it. But it doesn't mean that it's true!

Jesus said, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16) There are many "wolves" on the internet...our job is to be shrewd, wise, prudent.

Information Overload

We live in a time unlike any other experienced in all of history. In mere seconds, news can travel from one corner of the world to the other via any variety of social media. We literally have the ability to contact people at our fingertips...any time of the day or night. Take a look at this statistic...as of March 2012, there were 644,275,754 active websites on the Internet, and that was an increase of over 30 million from the previous month. (Netcraft) Ironically, if you do a Google search for "information overload" there are over 8.5 million results to peruse! There is absolutely no shortage of information.  However, there IS a shortage of discernment when it comes to dealing with all of this information.

Some wisdom from Ecclesiastes 12:12--"But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body." Would it be safe to say, in our current century that "there is no end to the making of many websites, and information overload wearies the body"?  I used to teach 7th grade, and part of our year included writing a research paper. As the years passed and the Internet was a larger tool in the classroom, my students didn't have a lack of information to use for their papers, and they were very savvy at searching it out online. I realized that my role was shifting more into teaching them how to find GOOD information, teaching them that just because it's on the Internet does not mean that it's true. The Amplified version of Ecclesiastes 12:12 amused me--"...Of making many books there is no end [so do not believe everything you read]..."

So what's a parent or a grandparent or a teacher or a youth worker to do? First, make sure you're having regular conversations with the children and students in your life about their media consumption...what are they viewing? What are they listening to? What pages are they "members" of? Secondly, make sure that you are teaching your child to be discerning. Jesus gave the charge in Matthew 10:16 to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. 

Have you seen posts on places like Facebook that have a ring of propaganda or untruth to them? They usually involve some kind of "scam" that Facebook is supposedly running or something political in nature. And people repost them and repost them and repost them, assuming that they're fact. Quite often, they're not. A website I've used often to check the validity of these sorts of websites is www.Snopes.com. They have almost every urban legend known to man, they give the history of it, and they will let you know whether or not the information presented is fact or fiction.

Bottom line? We can't control the quantity or quality of the information that is "out there", but we CAN control our responses to it.