People ask me what I'm reading...A Book Review for You
If you care about your kids and grandkids you need to know what's in this book
Hi Friend!
Sherry and I just got back from a five-day camping trip with three of our kids and their families (7 adults and 6 kids). It was great to be with family away from laptops and TV for such an
extended time. Hiking, biking, campfires, cookouts, conversations, and stargazing. Refreshing!
Tech On the Brain
Today I heard a speaker from the World Economic Forum talking about how earbuds are being tweaked so they can read brainwaves and track our emotions. What’s next?
So, rather than a Bible study for this week, I thought I’d share with you a video reflection on an important book I’m absorbing. It’s called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
The Anxious Generation tracks the marked rise of fear, anxiety, depression, and self-harm in children and adolescents over the past 25 years.
Haidt answers the question, “Why did mental illness in kids skyrocket from 2010 onwards?”*
*hint: iPhones added a front-facing camera
The book is based on solid research and makes clear recommendations for every family and school regarding young people, smartphones, and social media use.
*ON APPLE IPHONES: Go to Settings > Screen Time. Tap See All App & Website Activity, then tap Devices to select which device you want to see usage for. Tap Week to see a summary of your weekly use, or tap Day to see a summary of your daily use.
*ANDROID: Open your device's Settings app. Tap Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. The chart shows your device use today.
BTW, You’ll have access to the poll stats as it fills up. Just revisit the link in the email. You can also drill down on your phone stats.
On my iPhone, I was amazed to discover that I averaged 8 hours a day on my phone, but then I clicked for details and saw 14 hours of Google Maps as I drove to Spokane and back. Still, I’m doing 4.5 hours a day between WhatsApp (I use it to talk to people all over the world) and other social apps.
Shrinking Our Brain
The type of mobile usage that actually shrinks the brain’s pleasure/happiness center is scrolling. It’s addictive, of course. That’s why they do it to us. (How many Trump/Biden debate videos have you watched this week?)
What’s so deadly about scrolling is that it numbs our ability to feel happiness and pleasure. I remind myself every time I let my thumb scroll down, “That’s one less moment of happiness you’ll get in life, buddy!” It works for me, but not for kids. We have to help them.
Their minds have truly been captured by adults whose names we don’t even know.
How the Media Wave Changed Our Life as a Couple
As most of you know, Sherry and I lead a non-profit called Emerge Missions. Emerge is focused on life transformation for kids and young people in SE Asia. We and our partner ministries battle generational poverty, sexual exploitation, and the impact of media.
One thing the worldwide web has caused is the first worldwide youth culture. Kids in India and Indiana are wrestling with the same things now. It used to be ring-fenced by culture, but now there’s just the single “culture feed” of values and trends all delivered by the same twisted media companies out of San Francisco.
The Year 2000
Remember how when Y2K hit nothing dramatic happened? Planes didn’t fall out of the sky as doomsayers had warned. The change was more discrete than that.
I believe the “prince of the powers of the air” encouraged the development of “the cloud” and the linking of billions of human minds.
Today’s Gen Z kids are the first raised with their minds tethered to media tech from birth. (It’s scary how well a two-year-old can learn to manipulate an iPad.
Sherry and I could see the coming media tsunami so we transitioned out of pastoring and seminary work. We got retrained at Media Village in Cape Town (Thanks Di and Graham!). We moved to Thailand and started training a new generation of media missionaries for the unreached world. We called our new school Medialight. It’s in Northern Thailand at our amazing base.
Pushing Back on the Darkness: What Medialight Offers
This Fall we’re running two programs:
Christian Content Creators Bootcamp: The first is a three-week work camp to help aspiring and working online creators find time and space to set up their online platform, create strategy, and create 6 months of content with the help of seasoned media pros.
Foundations of Online Life & Ministry: This course is four weeks long. Here students develop their own ability as presenters and producers of gospel content. They learn how to tell stories using amazing new digital tools, how to present their cause and its mission to a digital audience. It’s a hands-on intensive to help them develop the skillset and mindset needed for modern ministry in an online space.
If you know anyone who should be there send them to this link for more
https://www.medialight.network/
When people use social media as a platform to post something redemptive and then create conversation with those who respond, they don’t spend their time doomscrolling.
If you still have kids
If you have kids just look up “Screen Free Parenting” on YouTube and you’ll find some very encouraging videos from families who removed the toxic feed of TV and internet from their family life and discovered each other all over again.
Let’s take charge of our online life this week, my friend. Our mind is all we’ve got. We need it strong, focused, and operating out of a heavenly value system.
Every Blessing!
Chuck and Sherry
PS: Here’s the YouTube Version of this week’s video from above.
Hi Pastor Chuck, can I make a suggestion about the "share" feature for this post? When I hit share, a picture of Sade comes up with the comment "ask me what I am reading". I think it would be more intriguing, as it was to me, if the cover of your video/book appears instead of Sade. Not that she's not beautiful, I just want to grab the attention of as many people as I can, and that video/book grabbed mind. Just my two cents:-)
Brother Chuck, Pastor, Friend, Mentor. I am 62 years old and I have given approximately 6 hours a day over to media for the last 15+ years. That equates to a 4 year degree. I cannot begin to tell you how sick to my stomach I am over this, but I also know I am hooked, addicted, and sold out to serving this god. I have tried everything in my power to un-tether from it but to no prevail. I honestly am not the same person I once was. It is sad! I've lost all ambition to do what I know needs to be done. I barley read and or pray. I've told Sarita on multiple occasions that I have to get out of this rat race, or I am finished. Mailny, because it is apparent now that I have no discipline in my life and probably never had. With all that said, (I don't want to end on a down note:-), I have an amazing life, wife, and ministry here in the US and we are doing great, even though I am not happy with myself, I know the Lord is doing mighty things here and I want to be grateful. So, thank you and Sherry for all your insight, love, and guidance. The work you two do helps us all! And no, I am not depressed, at least I don't think so:-) Just assessing the reality of my life within the context of your post:-) Great job!!!