Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Ernest Staats
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000328
|
00:30 Hello, I'm Shelly Quinn
00:31 and welcome again to "Issues and Answers." 00:33 Today we have something that you won't want to miss. 00:36 We're going to be talking about internet safety 00:39 and we'll specifically be talking about the spiritual 00:42 impact of the internet and media on our families. 00:47 You know, there's really I look at media as a great blessing 00:52 because obviously this is the tool 00:54 through which God is using 3ABN 00:58 as a tool of evangelism in His hands. 01:01 And because we're media, we're broadcasting 01:04 to every inhabited continent around the world. 01:08 What an incredible opportunity. 01:11 And I think of the internet and all the good 01:13 that's on the internet and it's a wonderful tool. 01:16 But at the same time 01:18 if we don't keep our lives in balance 01:20 and if we aren't aware of the dangers 01:25 and the evils that are lurking out of there, out there. 01:28 Then what can happen is the internet 01:31 and media can become our enemy. 01:34 And Peter, wrote something interesting in 1 Peter 5:8, 01:38 he says, "Be well balanced, be vigilant 01:42 and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, 01:46 the devil is roaming around like a roaring lion, 01:51 seeking whom he may devour." 01:53 So we got to be cautious and be vigilant. 01:55 And here to do some instruction for us today 01:59 and share some of the wonderful knowledge 02:00 that he's gained is Ernest Staats 02:03 and he is the IT or in--What is IT? 02:07 My mind went blank, is something technology. 02:09 It's the computer information technology. 02:12 And you are the information technology director 02:15 at the Georgia-Cumberland Academy 02:18 in the great town of Calhoun, Georgia. 02:22 That is correct. 02:23 Well, we are so glad that you've come here 02:25 and that you've come safely 02:27 and so is this how you got interested 02:32 obviously in what the internet and media is what kind of impact 02:37 its having on our spirituality. 02:39 Part of it was from academy, 02:40 I started getting into network security 02:42 when I worked for the State of Georgia. 02:44 And then-- when I came on fulltime staff 02:46 on to the academy staff, 02:48 I started seeing some real issues 02:50 and then I went on to get a masters in network security. 02:53 And while I was doing that I was challenged by Nancy Limbro 02:57 who is the division IT director to not look, 03:00 just look at it as technology. 03:01 See I always thought of myself as a technologist. 03:04 I am into data bits, bytes, zeros, ones. 03:07 She was more saying look at it as a ministry. 03:09 I always just thought 03:11 I was a technologist helping a ministry. Right. 03:12 And she challenged me to look at more as a ministry 03:14 and I said okay, if I'm gonna have a ministry, 03:16 where would this fit in. 03:18 And since I kind of got a-- 03:19 I really got involved with security. 03:21 I said, well, how would that fit into 03:22 and I saw there was a huge gap in our church 03:24 with the lack of understanding. 03:26 And not just inside our church, 03:27 I've spoke to other congregations too, 03:29 non-Adventist congregations. 03:31 And there is just a huge lack just across the Christian world 03:33 of understanding the security implications 03:35 of what's online, what they're doing, 03:37 what to do with their cell phones, all of that involved. 03:39 Oh, I'm really, I know that I'm going to be educated as well. 03:43 But let me ask you this because when I think about it, Ernest, 03:46 here we're talking about the spiritual impact 03:49 of media and television and the internet, 03:52 how that's impacting us. 03:54 But first we have to establish is it really becoming a problem. 03:58 I mean, are we-how much time are people spending 04:02 in watching the media and being bombarded by these influences. 04:07 Well, for example my watch here also plays mp3's 04:11 so I can have music on it. 04:13 This is Dick Tracy, aha. 04:14 And I have another watch that I can actually watch movies on, 04:18 that I can sit here and I've got my head phones 04:20 and I can sit here and watch movies. 04:21 You really are a techie, aren't you? 04:22 So, yes, but I mean its just everywhere, 04:25 there are more then 56 unique devices 04:28 that are being tracked by the consumer reports 04:30 right now that are electronic media devices. 04:33 So and that means totally different, I mean, 04:34 an mp3 is and mp3 player 04:36 but there's an mp3 player then there is this, 04:37 then there is this, I mean there is all these. 04:38 There's iPod's and the Blackberry's and that. 04:41 There is everything, exactly. 04:42 So most people are consuming between 8.5 hours a day of media 04:47 and this is children from the ages of 8 to 18. 04:49 8.5? 8.5 hours of media a day. 04:53 Where do people have time to do that? 04:55 Yeah. That's amazing. 04:56 Well, and kids complain about homework 04:58 but they don't spend 8.5 hours on the whole 05:00 but when they are doing homework 05:01 they are listening, they are watching stuff on TV. 05:03 There's most--lot of times people are--right now 05:06 60% of young people that were pulled 05:08 when they rather eating their meals, they are watching TV. 05:11 That's unbelievable. 05:12 So that means the communication that used to happen, you know, 05:15 when people sit down at the table 05:16 and talk as a family, that's not there. 05:18 You know I say that's unbelievable but I'm thinking, 05:21 my husband and I really don't eat a large supper, 05:24 we just have a little snack and often that's the time 05:27 that we turn on only bit of news 05:29 that we'll get to see for the day or something. 05:31 So it's really become-in the family 05:34 though you kind of think that a family is gonna sit down 05:36 and take that time but it's just not happening. 05:37 It's not happening, no. 05:39 And actually my wife and I were quite surprised 05:41 couple of years back when we invited 05:42 several students over for more of a formal, 05:44 just sit down, just nice dinner supper, 05:46 and the kids weren't, it was a foreign concept 05:48 to the few of the kids that were there 05:49 to actually sit down as a family 05:51 and talk without anything else on, no radio, no TV. 05:55 And they expressed that this was a real culture shock for them. 05:59 And it was real, I didn't think much about at the time, 06:01 I was like, okay. 06:02 You know it seems like there's different personalities 06:04 and I'm not sure but like I'm the type of person 06:07 when I get up in the morning, I appreciate some quiet time, 06:10 so I even get up an hour earlier than my husband, 06:14 at least 45 minutes early to have that quiet time. 06:17 He on the other hand is the type that he wants to get up, 06:19 he's got the TV on and the radio going on 06:21 another room and that constant, 06:23 he doesn't like to driving the car without it. 06:26 Now there is--has something to do with personality 06:30 but I've also noticed that this generation 06:33 of youngsters that are coming up, 06:35 they feel like they have fallen off the face of the earth 06:38 that they're in a vacuum 06:40 if they don't have some kind of media input. Right. 06:43 If they're unplugged, they're almost like 06:45 they're having a culture shock 06:46 and a environmental shock. Yeah. 06:49 'Cause it is, it's on your cell phones, 06:51 you know, cell phones, you can surf the internet. 06:53 You know, so even like 06:54 a Georgia Cumberland Academy, 06:55 we tried real hard to keep good filters on the system. 06:58 But if the kids come with internet on their cell phones, 07:00 they've unfiltered internet. Yes. 07:02 You know, so there's a lots of different aspects 07:04 where they can reach 07:05 and where they're just constantly 07:07 being bombarded by images, by different media and music. 07:11 We're also using it as an education, 07:13 we've got-- our chaplain does, 07:15 you know, a podcast and the kids listen to it 07:17 and they really enjoy it. 07:18 You know, we do a virtual newscast on our website, 07:20 you know, the kids tune into and they enjoy it. 07:23 So, you know, we tap into that 07:25 because we see that this is where the kids are at 07:27 but we also realize that there is also 07:29 some issues along with this. 07:30 So internet use is just continually growing, 07:34 isn't it? It is. 07:35 And there's something I think 07:36 you had a statistic about 150,000 new users a day. 07:40 Right, they were coming on to MySpace. 07:42 On to MySpace. Just under MySpace. 07:44 And MySpace itself has over 13 million people 07:48 viewing it a day which is twice the number of use of Google, 07:51 if you can imagine that. 07:53 And that's so amazing to me 07:54 'cause I guess I'm gonna sound like an old folk, 07:56 yeah, I use the internet all the time 07:57 but I've not been on MySpace 07:59 or any chat room or anything like that 08:00 because I just don't have time, 08:03 so that's interesting. Go ahead. 08:05 I was gonna say that well, 08:06 I have multiple MySpace accounts. 08:08 It amazes me. 08:09 I use it for different things at the school 08:10 'cause we go and check MySpace profiles of young people 08:13 who are interested 08:14 because we find some pretty alarming things 08:16 when we're there sometimes 08:17 and sometimes students are told that 08:20 no, thank you, we don't think 08:21 you'll fit into the program of GCA. 08:23 But what happens is they don't realize that, 08:25 that's also all the companies now are searching that 08:27 when you go look for your next job, 08:29 most of the time they'll check on MySpace profile 08:31 and see what you put out there. 08:33 Oh, you know, and here's something that I think 08:35 that most young people don't recognize 08:38 and many don't is that once it's on the internet, 08:40 it's pretty hard to get it off the record, 08:43 I mean, it's going to be cashed somewhere. 08:46 Well, I've gone around the country 08:47 and I've spoken to different young people 08:48 and they say, we know all about internet, 08:50 we know about security and stuff like that. 08:52 I said how many of you know about worldwide web archive. 08:55 And I get completely dumb looks. 08:57 You know, like I don't know what you're talking about 08:58 and I said, everything you put on the internet, 09:00 even once it's taken off, 09:02 it's still on the worldwide web archive, 09:04 so I can go back and search that. 09:06 Isn't that interesting. 09:07 And the kids are like oh, you mean that picture. 09:09 I said, yeah, that picture. 09:11 And we've don't it before where I asked one girl, 09:13 we came across media cart from the camp 09:16 where they had a bunch of inappropriate contact ones 09:18 and inside that media cart was one of our female students, 09:22 a picture of her in a bathing suit. 09:23 And I said, did you realize this is being passed around the dorm? 09:27 And she's like no. 09:28 And I said, she's like I never gave that picture out. 09:30 And I said, you didn't post it anywhere. 09:33 Oh, was on MySpace. Oh, merciful. 09:35 So she was put in there 09:36 with a bunch of really horrible stuff 09:39 and she didn't realize it. 09:41 You know, and she didn't think about the fact 09:42 just 'cause she put on MySpace, 09:43 she's like I need to get that off 09:45 and I said, oh, okay, good. 09:47 And once it's up there, you can't erase. Right. 09:48 There's no retrieval process that you can reduce it. 09:51 And you know, there's things that are going 09:52 on in high school, you hear about this, that, 09:55 where kids are taking in their cell phones 09:58 and they go into the locker rooms after gym or something 10:01 and they're taking compromising pictures 10:03 and then they put these up on something like MySpace account. 10:08 And they're doing so much damage, 10:10 so there's all of these issues 10:12 that schools have to think about, 10:13 but it's not just schools nowadays, 10:15 I mean, we really--our privacy is really being interrupted here 10:20 and intruded upon. 10:22 Now what kind-because of this large percentage 10:26 of families and teens who are spending time 10:31 in front of the television and on the internet, 10:35 what kind of trends do we see coming out of this? 10:39 Some pre-alarming trends 10:40 as I've taught with different colleges, 10:42 Adventist and non Adventist 10:43 and there's been studies done around the world 10:45 looking at young people and what's happening to them. 10:48 They're finding that they're having high anxiety, 10:51 high depression rates, eating disorders. 10:55 They're also finding that self abuse is going up 10:57 in several different form factors. 10:59 And self abuse can be anything 11:01 from the cutting to they're choking, 11:04 there's all different kinds of things they are doing. 11:05 There are several different forms 11:07 and just and putting themselves down 11:09 and beside what's one of the big issues 11:10 it's kind of spun out of this, 11:12 was something we didn't expect, 11:13 it's called cyber bullying. Yes. 11:15 And that's where they're text messaging each other 11:17 or they get on to MySpace, 11:18 they say horrible things about each other. 11:20 And, you know, people are getting hurt, 11:22 that's happening, that's very common. 11:24 Kids are committing suicide because of cyber bullying. 11:27 We heard of that famous case of a young 13-year-old girl 11:33 who thought that she was interacting with a young boy 11:36 and he was kind of--that language was luring her in 11:40 and it turned out then that the person 11:43 that she was communicating with on MySpace 11:46 turned on her viciously and she committed suicide 11:50 because of this and unfortunately, 11:52 I mean either way it's horrible. 11:54 But it turned out that this was not a young boy 11:57 but a mother of young boy 11:59 who was upset with this little girl 12:01 and so she done this vicious things 12:03 and you know, it's so hard to police. 12:06 Right. So it's very difficult situation. 12:09 And, well, and the FBI are short in staff. 12:12 They have a directive to hire 12:13 literally thousands of people to help them 12:16 but there's not the people out there to do it. 12:18 You know, so the security is the hot topic, 12:20 it's a good job, you know, interest, 12:22 if someone's interested in it but right now, 12:23 there's just a huge demand 12:24 because it's growing exponentially. 12:27 So what are the kind of trends are we seeing? 12:29 Some of the other trends we're seeing is the young people 12:31 are becoming--really specially towards the young people 12:33 that's more of my passion would lie honestly 12:36 working on in academy. Yes. 12:37 We're noticing that the young people 12:39 are getting really disconnected 12:40 from church and from God. 12:42 They're not, they're spiritual seekers 12:44 that we thought they were. 12:45 We're actually finding they would rather 12:47 go to car sales than go to church. 12:49 Well, you know, you're finding when you said that they, 12:51 you know, I was thinking this is a plugged in generation. 12:54 But they're plugging into the wrong power source. 12:57 They're not plugging into God. Right. 12:59 And so it's just another one of these distractions, 13:03 you know, Ernest, I have a saying that sin-- 13:08 what the devil does with sin 13:10 is he puts this beautiful shiny foil wrapping paper around it 13:15 and big old bow and then he serves it up to us 13:19 and it looks so attractive 13:21 and it's nothing more than gift wrapped garbage 13:23 but we don't recognize it. 13:25 And so these kids, they seems innocent 13:28 and they get involved in all of these 13:31 various electronic activities 13:34 and it just is changing their priorities taking, 13:38 robbing them of the time that they could spend with God. 13:41 And not only the time but one of the things 13:43 that's also we've seen a big change 13:44 and I've seen it even through teaching. 13:47 The author Leonard Sweet talked about this generation, 13:50 generation wise being epic, they're experiential, 13:53 if they don't experience it, it's not true. 13:55 They don't have ultimate right and wrong. 13:58 It's what they experience, it's what they participate in. 14:01 yeah, they've been involved in it. 14:02 They're very image driven and that's where the online, 14:06 the text messaging with pictures and videos even. 14:09 You know, all that's part of it and they want to communicate. 14:11 They want to talk about their experiences 14:13 and that's one of the areas 14:14 where I feel like a lot of times as a church, 14:16 we need to look at how we're treating our young people 14:19 because if we don't tap into realizing that they're epic, 14:22 that they want to have images, 14:24 that their communication that they want to participate, 14:26 they want to experience it but there's a problem here 14:29 because that's where they go to places what they do, 14:31 what they do experience, they say, 14:32 oh, that's my reality, that's my truth. 14:35 So they're looking at it differently than we do. 14:37 You know, and how interesting 14:38 because what you just said 14:40 is really what's created this mindset, 14:44 this trend within this younger generation 14:46 is all of these things that we're discussing 14:49 has created this attitude. 14:52 But now, instead of us trying to combat it 14:55 because how do you combat it once it becomes, 14:58 so what you're saying is that 15:00 we actually have to feed into the technique 15:03 if you will, if you're going to reach them. 15:05 I think so, yes. Okay. 15:07 Ellen White in Evangelism talked about in her day 15:10 the big thing was the press. 15:11 There's people who really said 15:12 maybe we shouldn't get into the press 15:14 'cause there was bad books being printed and stuff. 15:17 And she said, no we need to reach the people 15:18 where they were or where they are excuse me 15:20 and that's exactly right. 15:22 Our young people are online. 15:24 At GCA we have over 150 rules just blocking MySpace. 15:30 But I also encourage all of our staff to go out to MySpace. 15:34 Because that's where our kids are. 15:36 While we block it on campus 15:37 to keep them safe and stuff like that. 15:39 We realize when they go home 15:40 when they are on their cell phone, 15:42 they are on MySpace. 15:43 So we try to make a positive outreach there. 15:46 So you're telling me that somebody like myself 15:48 even should learn the use of MySpace 15:52 and to learn how to know what kids are doing online. 15:56 Political candidates are doing it. 15:59 You know, if they are trying to reach 16:00 and they are trying to reach the younger generations, 16:02 I think if you want to reach the younger generations, 16:03 I think we should, yes. That is amazing. 16:06 So what are some of the specific 16:09 implications of on our spiritual life. 16:13 You said that children are tuning out from God somewhat, 16:18 what about these online lives, 16:21 what are the kind of spiritual implications does this bring? 16:25 A lot of people are getting a lot more disconnected. 16:28 Substituting real life relationships, 16:31 that's happening sometimes between spouses, 16:33 that sometime happen between kids and parents, 16:36 that's happening between us and the Lord. Yeah. 16:38 Because even if I'm looking up at spiritual stuff, 16:41 I'm always doing spiritual stuff online, 16:43 that's a different type of medium. 16:45 If there's not some quite time to hear the voice of the Lord. 16:49 Then there's a problem and people are not realizing 16:52 and I call the big G's and little G's. 16:54 I say we need to go back to the big G 16:56 which is the Word of God. Okay. 16:58 And we need to unplug from the little G's, 16:59 the Google's, the MySpace, 17:01 all these other G's that are part of our life. 17:04 So I think there's a certain amount of time 17:06 that we need to detoxify basically. 17:09 When I was in Union College, 17:11 one of our professors there 17:12 always told us in literature class 17:14 that while she read a lot of literature for every hour 17:16 she spent in secular literature, 17:18 she would spent two hours in the Bible. Amen. 17:21 If I did that with my media life, 17:22 that would be an amazing amount of time in the Bible. 17:26 And, you know, the one thing about the Word of God is, 17:29 it is inexhaustible but it takes--it's interesting that, 17:34 you know, the Psalmist said, 17:35 taste and see how good the Lord is. 17:37 But it takes more than just dipping 17:40 your toe in occasionally to really enjoy. 17:43 You've got to learn how to jump into it 17:45 and really to swim but I will say one thing, 17:48 I love Bible software. 17:50 I mean, to me Bible software has changed the way I study, 17:55 it's made my study experience so much richer, 17:58 so there's some really good things about this as well. 18:02 Some excellent things, 18:03 I use these sort a lot, I really like it. 18:05 I have it on my laptop, 18:06 you know, it's got different maps, 18:07 I can pull up the Greek, I can still say, you know, 18:09 what was the real meaning behind this. 18:11 And try and dig a little bit deeper into that. 18:14 And there's so many resources out there 18:16 and the nice thing I like seeing in our church now, 18:19 as I'm starting to see more resources for young people. 18:22 You know, Review and Herald, several other sites, 18:23 these children sites up that are fantastic. 18:26 And I think we need to have more and more of that 18:28 not less that are plugging and pulling young people 18:31 'cause they're already gonna be out there online. 18:33 My 3 year old girl Nariah, you know, 18:35 she's four now but when she was three years old, 18:38 she called me said, daddy, 18:39 I was at strawberryshortcake.com today with mommy. 18:42 And I was like, oh, my...you know, 18:44 she's already getting used to it 18:45 and she can drive a mouse very well as a four year old. 18:48 And they do it-- And they do it. 18:49 She knows her way around. 18:51 So of course besides having some educational stuff, 18:53 I want to make sure she's getting 18:54 some spiritual content also in there too. 18:56 Amen, amen. 18:57 So what are some of the--with the teens, 19:00 other than the fact that they're just unplugging, 19:04 what are some of the implications for youth 19:07 when it comes to the media online lives 19:12 that they're living? 19:13 As I mentioned before we're seeing higher anxiety, 19:16 higher depression rates 19:18 but lot of them are now on medication, for things, 19:22 you see a lot more of that what used to. 19:24 We have small numbers of hyperactive children before. 19:27 Now we're seeing a lot more or higher numbers 19:29 and they're more medicated. 19:31 And, you know, I rarely watch television 19:34 but as I sometimes I'll flip the channels 19:37 to be looking for a specific program 19:39 and I saw a commercial the other night 19:42 and noticed this increasingly 19:44 so lately is that commercials 19:47 within that 30 to 60 second timeslot, 19:51 you're bombarded with a couple of hundred images, 19:54 they just bam, bam, bam, bam. 19:55 Now this is what's happening to little kids 19:59 who are watching television all the time, 20:00 they're having all of these images 20:03 and I'm wondering if that's not what's giving 20:04 them the ADD and ADHD, 20:07 it's just their brains don't learn to go 20:11 from step A to step Z, it's kind of like A G B F 20:16 and it's just back and forth 20:18 and it's shooting that at all the time. 20:20 Yeah, and that's what we're finding 20:21 a lot of them are pulling their spirituality from to, 20:24 as far as who they are with the Lord, 20:26 what they do is they pull little from here, 20:29 a little from there, they pull little from this 20:31 and I'm talking not even just from one religion. 20:34 Because they're seeing all this stuff is out on the internet. 20:37 There's a little bit of Hindu mixed in here, 20:38 a little bit of Buddhism mixed in here, 20:40 it's on the TV shows, it's on their favorite movies. 20:44 So they pull all these little trends in and out 20:46 and that makes who they are. 20:48 So they're now being coming very pluralistic 20:51 in their philosophies and their religion. 20:53 Oh, mercy, that's dangerous. That is very dangerous. 20:55 And I saw when we go on, go on for four years, 20:58 lot of the kids there, they were Adventists 21:00 because it was such a catholic society, 21:01 call themselves Catholic Adventist, 21:03 which at first I said, this is a contradiction. 21:06 It was really hard for me to wrap my head around 21:07 but because their families were so catholic, 21:10 they would go to rosaries, they would do all this. 21:12 They would sit here and then they would come back 21:14 and it would go back around, so I would see how, 21:16 they would see even opposing views 21:18 on the State of the Dead for example. 21:20 They will say, they were Adventists 21:21 but they talk about so and so 21:22 being in heaven right now with Jesus. 21:24 So the kids are pulling these little pieces 21:27 from here and there. That's so dangerous. 21:29 And so what can we do if there's parents 21:32 out here watching or even teenagers 21:35 who might be watching. 21:36 What can we do to make sure that we're not squandering 21:41 our spiritual health if you will online? 21:46 First, I would recommend unplug and detoxify, 21:50 for a while, I mean, I work, 21:51 you know, I've all the great geeks 21:54 at the school work for me 21:55 and they're great group of people. 21:57 I've got one girl and a bunch of guys 21:58 and they do fantastic work. 22:00 But even there, people think of them as the nerds. 22:03 They enjoy going out and going rock climbing. 22:04 I got a climbing wall behind my house, 22:06 they enjoy doing that. 22:08 You know, they enjoy doing some stuff 22:09 that's totally non technological at all. 22:12 And we need to find avenues, so we can plug in there. 22:15 We need to spend time with them. 22:16 The biggest thing that I tell parents, 22:18 it's not rocket science, you don't have to understand 22:20 all the super intricacies of technology 22:22 that maybe someone like me 22:23 or other people may know but you need to know is, 22:26 its good parenting is good parenting. 22:28 You spend time with your kids. 22:30 Even online that's what you're saying, okay. 22:32 Right, you spend cyber time. Okay. 22:34 And just like my little girl Nariah, 22:36 she's 4 years old I know who all her friends are, 22:38 I know their parents. 22:40 I need to know when she gets older, 22:41 who her friends are online. 22:43 I want to know who they are. 22:45 I want to be involved with her life. 22:46 Now how does a parent, I just know there's someone out there 22:49 saying, you got to be kidding me, 22:50 my teenage daughter and how does she see it, 22:52 if I sat down and try to be her online partner 22:56 and see what she's doing. 22:57 How does a parent go about doing something like this? 23:00 And I'm not going to tell you that its that's the easy walk, 23:03 it's a challenge, there are several different ways, 23:05 one of the thing is to open the two way, two line communication, 23:09 you can't just pull the plug 23:10 and rip the computer out tomorrow. 23:12 If you do what will happen is the kids will go underground 23:14 with it and you have just lost the battle 23:16 'cause now you have no idea what they are doing. 23:18 So my suggestion is you start talking say 23:21 hey, if you are not involved with their daily life friends, 23:24 you need to start there. 23:25 get involved with their friends 23:26 that they have that are coming around the house 23:28 and then it will just be a natural transition 23:30 into what are your friends like online. 23:32 I want to be a part of your online life too. 23:35 Because I love you, you're my child, 23:36 I want to be involved in your life. 23:38 So that's where you kind of have to make the transition. 23:41 And that is a lot of prayer to go into that-- 23:44 And a lot of prayer, a lot of prayer. 23:46 Okay, what are some specific steps that parents can use 23:50 to learn to help their children balance their online time. 23:54 You know, 'cause as you were talking, 23:56 I was thinking one thing I would do maybe as a parent, 23:59 if I knew my child is spending too much time plugged in. 24:03 Is that I would entice him to do exciting things, 24:08 have some exciting adventures to go 24:10 through that something we'll have to use both hands 24:14 and feet and can may be plugged in. 24:18 I worked in summer camp for Nariah's summer, 24:19 so my first answer is gonna be summer camp. 24:22 Because and then make sure that the summer camp 24:24 has a policy were they are unplugged. 24:25 And I found several Christian Adventist and non Adventist 24:28 camps where they say, no headphones allowed. 24:31 You know and that's part of the importance to make sure 24:34 the kids are out doing stuff in nature 24:37 being involved in the real world 24:39 giving them opportunities to lead. 24:41 That's one of the things we strive very hard 24:43 for at the church that I attended, 24:45 we make sure that the kids, 24:46 they are not junior elder, they are elders. Wonderful. 24:49 They are part of the church board 24:51 so they see everything they become a part of it. 24:53 They are just you know board associates 24:56 they actually sit on there full votes, 24:58 they are full board members. 25:00 But you give them leadership, you let them experience it, 25:03 you let them participate, you have some image 25:05 and you know, you let them communicate 25:07 that's how you pull them in. 25:09 You know, it's so amazing, 25:10 my husband and I were in the Cayman Islands 25:13 just recently and I want to say 25:16 hello to all of our brothers and sisters down there. 25:19 And we had such a wonderful time and wonderful people 25:22 and wonderful hospitality. 25:23 But coming back in the airport, I believe we were in Miami 25:27 and there was a soccer team, 25:30 young men they were sitting all around 25:33 and I punched JB on his shoulder and I said, honey, 25:36 look out of about 18 boys that were sitting around us, 25:40 only one of them was not plugged in doing something 25:43 as we were sitting there. 25:45 And the thought comes to me there's some parent out there 25:49 who's saying, you know, there's so many dangers 25:52 on the internet and if this is, 25:53 if my child is going to maybe be introduced to pluralism 25:57 as far as worshipping many different forms of a god 26:01 or different gods, would it be best just to say 26:06 okay, unplug, none other stuff. 26:10 And I would say no 26:11 because you're gonna get have straight rebellion. 26:14 At least I'll be really surprised if few wouldn't. 26:17 And that's were I think that's the easy road 26:20 is to say we're just unplugging we're done. 26:22 The better road which often times the harder road 26:26 is to get involved with there online life 26:28 and to sit there and say, how can I help you lead you. 26:31 Ask them about their philosophies, 26:34 you might be surprised. Amen. 26:35 And so it mean, we start talking to them just communicate 26:38 and say what do you believe about when you die 26:41 and listen, don't try to correct. 26:44 You know when you said that might be the easier way, 26:48 it's just kind of like when you want to teach 26:50 your child how to cook. 26:51 I mean, it's actually easier to get into the kitchen 26:53 and do the cooking yourself than to teach them to cook 26:55 but that's where we have to model various skills to then, 26:59 so I agree with you. 27:00 Ernest, I can't believe this has gone by so rapidly 27:03 but we really do want you to come back 27:06 because we want to talk some more about 27:08 what's going on in the internet. 27:10 I think next time we're gonna be talking about 27:13 predators and bullying on the internet. 27:15 So, Ernest Staats, thank you so much for coming 27:18 and sharing this with us today. You're welcome. 27:21 You know for those of you at home, 27:23 if you take away anything thing from this program. 27:27 If you are parent, get involved with your kid's online life 27:32 and don't be surprised that they are lot deeper involved 27:36 than you might think they are, very young 27:38 and part of this younger generation particularly 27:40 25 and under and so get involved 27:44 make it your point to really learn about the internet. 27:48 Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 27:51 the love of the Father 27:52 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 27:54 be with you always. |
Revised 2014-12-17