Participants:
Series Code: DID
Program Code: DID210005S
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00:18 Welcome to Digital Disconnect.
00:20 I am again your host Scott Ritsema. 00:22 It's a joy to be with you for this series of programs. 00:26 And I say that with a bittersweet feeling 00:28 because there so many heartbreaking aspects 00:31 of the data, the research, and the reality 00:35 as it surrounds our media and that of our children. 00:37 In episode 4 Anti-Social Media 00:40 we looked at some catastrophic suicide rates 00:44 and mental health implications that the digital age has 00:46 brought to us. For our young people 300% increase 00:50 in suicide among 12 to 14-year-old girls. 00:53 These sorts of numbers that make our hearts just rip apart 00:56 and say: "How long, O Lord? " 00:57 And what is the solution to this? 00:59 Well I want to give you some hope. 01:01 It's not just the teens, by the way. You look at college 01:04 students. You're 2.7 times more likely to be depressed 01:08 if you're a heavy social media user. 01:10 And a full one quarter of college students today 01:13 have now been diagnosed with a mental health disorder 01:16 so it's not a surprise that the founding president of Facebook 01:19 right alongside Mark Zuckerberg 01:21 his name was Sean Parker. He said: "God only knows 01:24 what this is doing to our children's brains. " 01:26 So we left off in episode 4 Anti-Social Media 01:29 with the implication and the impression that 01:32 the media mind is stressed and depressed 01:35 and anxious but the mind of Christ 01:38 can be filled with joy and peace and fullness. 01:42 'Cause I want to remind you: what did Dr. Victoria Dunckley 01:45 find in her practice of taking people off media? 01:49 Young people are given a media fast for three weeks. 01:52 And she found 80% of her patients had the majority 01:55 of symptoms disappear. That's a wonderful sign 01:59 that when we do life differently we can find greater joy. 02:02 And there was another study also that I referenced in episode 1 02:05 from the University of PA as well as another one in Denmark 02:09 that took college students down to 30 minutes of social media 02:12 per day or eliminated it entirely. 02:14 And we found their loneliness scores dropping. 02:17 You know what else dropped? 33% decline in depression 02:21 when you take people off social media for one week. 02:24 So we can see some very positive results 02:27 to getting back into real social, real nature, 02:31 and relationships and study of God's Word 02:33 and experiencing life the way He designed it to be experienced. 02:36 But this session entitled This is your Brain on Media 02:40 is going to get into the aspect of addiction. 02:42 A lot of people are flat out addicted to various types 02:45 of media. George Barna told us in the first episode 02:48 that it's the greatest addiction in America today. 02:51 But, you know, everybody knows video game addiction, 02:54 pornography addiction. We've got a session on that 02:56 coming up: Number 11... The Lust Trap. 02:59 But a lot of people don't realize social media 03:01 itself can become addictive. 03:03 To many people it has dynamics not just of mental health 03:07 conditions of depression and anxiety and stress 03:10 but also addiction. Now it's a good gauge 03:14 to see if you're a good candidate to take a break 03:17 from social media or maybe get off of it entirely 03:19 if you... They've looked at three questions or statements 03:22 that if somebody feels these feelings quite frequently 03:25 then they're a good candidate to not be on it 03:27 because they are impact more mentally by the social media. 03:32 And the three statements are as follows: 03:35 Many of my friends are happier than me. 03:38 Many of my friends have a better life than me. 03:42 I am often feeling inferior to others. 03:45 If these feelings sometimes intrude on your psyche 03:48 and your heart, then you are in the population, 03:52 the demographic of people that is harmed more 03:55 psychologically by social media exposure. 03:57 So consider limiting it or my wife actually just got off of 04:01 Facebook completely. She's got a wonderful testimony 04:03 about that. Shared it one time publicly. 04:06 She was in front of cameras in front of an audience 04:08 and shared that. And so I just pass that along to you 04:12 that 30 days off of Facebook for her was a real blessing. 04:15 We've got a session coming up called Digital Detox. 04:18 And we're going to talk a little bit more about fasts 04:20 and breaking free from some of these things, 04:22 but when you think about the use of these digital tools 04:26 think about the quantity. At what times of the day? 04:28 At what frequency of use? 04:30 For what duration of use? You know, that list of questions 04:32 that we went through at the beginning. 04:34 We will re-visit that as we think about 04:36 our media use... even for seemingly innocuous things 04:39 like social media accounts. We're not talking about 04:42 worldly media there and Hollywood entertainment 04:44 which we will get into as well in the subsequent sessions. 04:48 But This is your Brain on Media. 04:50 Here we are in episode five asking about the addiction 04:53 aspect as it relates to media. 04:56 And some people think: "Well, you know, Scott, 04:58 you're from the 90's. You don't understand what it's like 05:01 to be growing up in the digital age 05:04 and growing up with social media and everything. " 05:07 But I want to share something with you that takes me back 05:10 and it will take many of you back as well 05:11 to a sound that will be like music to your ears 05:16 if you were coming of age in the 90's. 05:18 To the kids listening this will be like: "What is this horrible 05:20 sound? " You're going to hear dial up. 05:22 This is the old sound of the Internet. 05:25 When we used to go online we used to literally 05:28 call the Internet and you'd pick up. It'd be like the phone 05:31 is being picked up but the computer is calling 05:33 and dialing. What is this terrible noise you're wondering. 05:42 What is that? This is going online. 05:45 OK, so when we would go there 05:49 it was an experience to go America Online. 05:52 That was the service at the time. 05:54 And the hope and the desire is: "Did I get any? 05:58 Did I get any? Did I get any? " "You've got mail! " 06:01 "Yes! I got mail... I got e- mail... electronic mail! " 06:06 Now I'll tell you something: when that happened 06:09 the ultimate dopamine hit occurred 06:12 and so I was addicted. I'm telling you 06:15 a testimony right now: addic- ted to the first social media. 06:17 You saw it on the graphic. You're alone; you're going 06:20 online and now you're on the big family online together 06:23 social online experience circa 1996 on dial up. 06:28 And the you've got mail thing: "Did I get any e-mail 06:32 from strangers and pretty girls that I'm looking up online 06:37 to chat with at age 16 till 2 in the morning? " 06:40 Super embarrassing to admit, I know. 06:42 I was in the world. I was into this trap of media addiction. 06:46 And so in this session of media addiction I share it 06:49 with you as somebody who has ex- perienced the online addiction; 06:52 experienced the love of video games; 06:54 the immersion in Hollywood. I used to play in a rock band 06:58 so I know what it means to be addicted to worldly media. 07:02 Now you know you're addicted when... 07:04 In a recent survey of millennial-aged young adults 07:08 they found that they value Internet connection 07:12 above hot water and daylight 07:15 in the things they value most for quality of life. 07:20 Sixty-six percent of people we are told 07:22 suffer from what is called nomophobia. 07:26 Have you ever heard of nomophobia before? 07:28 Well, people are suffering from this fear of not having 07:32 their mobile phone: no mobile phone phobia. 07:36 And that ranks as high on people's fear scale 07:40 as a terrorist attack. And where they did that survey 07:43 was in a place where terrorist attacks had been known to happen 07:46 in London. In the United Kingdom also 07:49 they did a survey and they asked people: "What is the word 07:52 that comes to mind when you think of not having your phone 07:54 nearby? " Seventy-three percent of people 07:57 said: "The word that comes to mind? 07:59 PANIC! " That was the word: panic. 08:02 Not like "Oh, it's a concern... a major concern. " 08:04 No... downright panic. You'll see on the graphic 08:07 here from Science Daily, a publication charting the latest 08:10 scientific study: Smartphone- loss anxiety disorder 08:14 is the latest actual diagnosable thing. 08:18 Smartphone-loss anxiety disorder. 08:21 Now Sherry Turkle at MIT has done research 08:24 on people losing the cellphone, misplacing it. 08:27 And she has found the emotional hit that people take 08:30 when they've lost their Smartphone 08:32 is equivalent to that of losing a loved one... 08:35 a loved one dying. 08:37 And so that goes back to the first session 08:40 the neuromarketing expert at Apple who discovered that 08:42 when we are interfacing with our devices 08:44 we are in love with our iPhones. Do you remember that? 08:48 Now here's a very serious quotation from the author 08:51 of the book Glow Kids. Dr. Nicholas Kardaras tells us: 09:03 So we might laugh at the craziness in our culture 09:07 but when it comes down to it 09:09 we are really struggling with a serious addiction. 09:12 Media addiction is diagnosed and diagnosable 09:14 in the psychiatry community 09:16 particularly gaming addictions, pornography addictions. 09:18 When you ask Dr. Peter Whybrow at UCLA, he's a neuroscience 09:23 researcher there, he says this media issue is like electronic 09:27 cocaine to the user. 09:29 Chinese researchers have a term that they use 09:32 called "digital heroin. " I've often used the term 09:36 digital Pharmacia. Pharmacia meaning drug use or sorcery. 09:40 Digital Pharmacia is what we are facing. 09:43 Now you ask Dr. Dunckley going back to her excellent work 09:47 Reset Your Child's Brain. She says: 10:17 So you got the idea there. 10:19 It is a stimulant and it has the same affect 10:22 on the brain as other stimulants like caffeine, cocaine, etc. 10:26 Back to Dr. Kardaras. He shares a similar thing 10:29 with us. He says: 10:50 So it's a digital drug like cocaine... a very serious thing. 10:56 In fact we've known for quite some time 10:57 that simply playing those video games - this goes back decades - 11:01 it increases the level of dopamine released in the brain 11:04 like taking the drug Speed. You remember the 80's rave drug 11:07 that was a curse upon so many people. 11:10 And so a stimulant these video games are no doubt. 11:14 One of the most famous video game designers 11:17 in the world called Ian Bogost 11:20 he has come out and said: "You know the scandal here 11:22 really is that the video game industry are the cigarette 11:25 companies of this century. " 11:27 You remember the whole scandal about cigarettes? 11:29 "Oh it's not an addiction; oh it's not harmful. " 11:31 And the tobacco corporations got in big trouble later on 11:34 because they covered that up. 11:36 And now we have Surgeon General warnings and we have a lot of 11:39 information about the danger of tobacco 11:41 when people used to be in total denial. 11:42 We're still kind of in the denial phase for many people 11:45 when we face the video game addiction. 11:47 But the bottom line is while the media mind 11:50 has become totally addicted to these media 11:54 the mind of Christ can be free. 11:57 I know that it's kind of a dark and oppressive 12:00 reality we face when we go: "Wow! 12:03 this is just like drugs! " 12:05 And that can become discouraging 12:08 but don't forget what the Bible says: 12:10 "Where the Spirit of the Lord is 12:13 there is liberty. " 12:15 "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory 12:19 through our Lord Jesus Christ. " 12:21 You know, "the enemy may come in like a flood" 12:23 the Bible says "but the Spirit of the Lord 12:26 raises up a standard against him. " 12:28 And so that victory is gained in Christ at the cross 12:31 and we can claim that. You might be in the depths 12:33 of video game addiction right now. 12:34 Or you're seeing in these quotes your own children 12:37 or your own grandchildren. 12:39 And the power of the Spirit of God and practical steps 12:42 we can take to break the chains of addiction 12:44 will absolutely gain the victory in this battle. 12:48 Now I want to go to a statement by a young teen 12:52 that was interviewed in an article in The Atlantic magazine 12:56 called Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation? 13:00 And the teen interviewed actually was lamenting that 13:03 they've been foisted into addictions. 13:05 And she said: "We didn't have a choice 13:07 to know any life without iPhones and iPads. " 13:11 She says: "I think we like our phones more than we like 13:14 actual people. " I thought that was a very interesting 13:17 insight that we like our phones more than actual people. 13:21 But the first part of the quotation from this young lady 13:24 especially captured my attention. 13:25 She said: "We didn't have a choice. " 13:28 Sometimes people take a message 13:30 about finding freedom from media addiction 13:33 as some sort of legalistic thing or controlling thing. 13:36 Oh these parents that limit their children's media... 13:39 these parents are so controlling. 13:41 But time out! It's actually the opposite. 13:44 When somebody has entered into an addiction 13:48 an addiction comes into their life without their choice 13:50 because from babyhood they've been inoculated 13:53 with media addiction then did we actually 13:57 affirm their individuality in that? 13:59 NO... we want to protect them from it. 14:02 In fact, there's a school... a type of school... out in the 14:05 West Coast where they limit media exposure 14:08 in very strict ways. And they say: 14:11 "We're not even going to do educational technology. " 14:13 We'll talk about that in an upcoming session. 14:15 But the founder of this school had a very interesting insight. 14:18 She said: 14:33 Another researcher said it this way: 14:53 Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of the book Glow Kids, 14:57 basically echoed those same thoughts when he said: 15:00 "We should let the child's frontal lobe first develop 15:04 before we introduce them to media and how to gain 15:08 control of these tools. " 15:10 Because as your heard from these prominent researchers 15:12 they are not in control; they're at the mercy of these things. 15:14 We have a moral responsibility! 15:17 And these are not even Christian voices. 15:19 Even the secular world is crying out 15:22 for protecting the children's brains 15:25 from the media addiction onslaught. 15:27 Now I remember seeing a program on 60 Minutes - 15:30 a news program - and people were really excited to share it 15:33 with me: "Scott, you've been talking about media 15:35 all these years, doing your Media on the Brain seminars 15:38 at churches and look the mainstream news is 15:40 now on board with skepticism over media use 15:44 particularly in childhood and youth, particularly 15:46 entertainment media. " And so they pointed me to this 15:49 this episode of the news. And I saw what the researchers 15:53 were saying and there was some very good stuff. 15:55 But one of the things that really troubled me was 15:57 they said: "We've got a $300 million study 16:00 that's been launched by the National Institutes of Health 16:03 and funded well by the federal government 16:04 and we're going to do a ten-year study. 16:07 And at the end of 10 years we will tell you 16:09 if media in young people and video games might be 16:13 addictive to them. " Like you're going to tell us 16:16 in ten years? Another person on the program 16:19 was saying: "You know we have a hypothesis that 16:22 it's possible that childhood entertainment media use 16:25 and interactive screen time on their iPads and stuff 16:28 might release dopamine in the brain. We're going to exam... " 16:31 We KNOW that, right? 16:32 $300 million in 10 years... we're going to find out? 16:35 So we do need to raise a rallying cry. 16:38 Because right now I want to quote Jim Steyer, 16:40 CEO and Founder of Common Sense Media. 16:43 A whistleblower... a watchdog on this. He says: 16:53 Dr. Kardaras says the bottom line here is: 17:12 Now that one might have hit people a little bit like: 17:16 "Wait a minute! Minecraft, there's nothing necessarily 17:18 worldly about that. We're not talking about 'shoot-em up' 17:20 video games. We're not talking about violence and bloodshed. " 17:23 "We're not talking about Hollywood entertainment 17:26 and worldly music. " 17:27 "Minecraft... it's an innocent game. 17:29 I mean, come on... angry birds and these types of 17:31 innocent fun games for little kids? 17:33 It can't be that harmful because it's not so 17:36 worldly and filled with immorality. " 17:39 The reality though is the devil is a little more tricky 17:41 than that. If he can do things to our children's brains 17:44 under the guise of "It's not that bad" 17:47 and it can affect their character development 17:50 and their happiness and their mental health 17:52 and get them addicted and be a gateway drug into 17:55 deeper and darker things then that becomes 17:57 the checkmate for the devil. 17:59 So I appreciate secular voices coming out 18:02 and being willing to say: "Your kid's brain on Minecraft 18:05 looks like a brain on drugs. " 18:07 So when we asked those series of questions 18:09 at the beginning, you know: What kinds of media? 18:12 At what ages? On what types of devices? 18:14 Are we going mobile? And for what frequency of use? 18:16 What duration of use? What times of the day? Etc. 18:19 Under what kinds of media 18:22 I would love it if we just saw the end 18:25 to playing video games entirely. 18:27 What kinds of media? Can we just say 18:29 "You know what? Let's use media 18:32 that beneficial to our children's development. " 18:35 "Let's use media that is educational and balanced. " 18:38 And "gamifying" their life and altering their dopamine 18:43 sequence and the pleasure/reward centers that we're going to talk 18:45 about in an upcoming session 18:47 harming their development, hampering their prefrontal 18:51 cortex development as you just heard from Dr. Kardaras. 18:54 He says: "That's going to inhibit their impulse control. 18:57 It's affecting their brain like cocaine. " 19:00 So I know that's a big chal- lenge. That's a high standard. 19:03 And it's not a question of moral versus immoral. 19:05 It's a question of: "What's best for their brains? " 19:07 We already tossed out everything worldly I hope 19:10 if you're a believing godly family. 19:12 We don't have violent video games. 19:14 We don't have Hollywood entertainment. 19:16 But raising that standard and asking: "Lord, what can we do 19:19 that's better than the innocent video games? " 19:22 Some food for thought. You know, I grew up in the 80's 19:25 when they had this commercial going. 19:27 And it was a... They had a frying pan 19:31 with a bunch of hot butter and oil. 19:33 There you see the graphic. And they put the egg in there 19:36 sshshskww... "This is your brain on drugs. 19:39 Any questions? " And there was this ominous music 19:42 and I'm a kid listening to these commercials. 19:44 I'm like: "No... I don't have any questions. 19:47 I don't want my brain fried by drugs! " 19:50 So you know the 60's and 70's had happened. 19:53 The crazy drug use epidemics of that time and addictions. 19:57 And I'm a child of that previous generation 20:00 hearing the warnings 'cause they don't want this to happen 20:03 to kids. And cocaine was... crack cocaine was on the march 20:08 in the 80's. Now we've got whole new classes of drugs 20:12 and types of ways that people are chemically messing up 20:15 their lives. And we do a great job 20:18 with warning kids: "Don't take drugs. " 20:21 In fact, when I was a kid chapel speakers would come in 20:24 and tell their testimony of how they had become drug addicts. 20:27 I remember this one guy came in 20:29 and it was like: "Hey kids. You know I'm from the 60's. 20:33 I did a lot of drugs and I played in the band 20:36 and lived in the world. " He had a great testimony! 20:39 But then he was like: "I don't remember what I was gonna say 20:41 next. " And it affected his life. 20:44 And he had a powerful testimony that reached and touched 20:47 my heart and I never touched... I'm telling you: I lived 20:49 worldly as a teenager... don't get me wrong. 20:51 Praise God for the victory and for the salvation 20:54 in Jesus Christ that I later found. 20:56 But even living in the world I did not want to touch 20:59 those narcotics 'cause I knew how they had ruined 21:02 so many peoples' lives. And everybody wants to have 21:04 a happy life... even a selfish person 21:05 doesn't want to be captive and become a slave to something. 21:09 But how much more for those of us who are seeking 21:11 to glorify God with our lives and live a life of purpose. 21:15 Should we be having these same kinds of warnings: 21:18 this is your brain on video game addiction. 21:20 This is your brain on pornography addiction. 21:23 This is your mental health on social media for the vulnerable 21:26 heart and psyche. 21:28 And young girls and a suicide rate... We've gotta be 21:31 giving STRONGER warnings for this media epidemic 21:34 than we ever did for the drug epidemic 21:36 'cause it's wider, deeper, and more catastrophic. 21:39 But I have some good news. 21:41 There's an area in the brain called the nucleus accumbens 21:44 and it's where we sense pleasure. 21:46 And a lot of times that gets co-opted by drugs, 21:51 by eating super-exciting unhealthy food, 21:54 by smoking, by video games, by your media quest 21:58 for pleasure-seeking. So the only way that we get satisfied 22:02 in there is through media. Well, if you fill that area 22:07 with the bond of relationships 22:09 it's amazing. The love circuits are wired right into that 22:13 so when you're having positive relationships 22:16 it can actually preempt the need... 22:20 Oh, we're going to talk about this more in a future session, 22:22 number 11, episode 11 called The Lust Trap... 22:26 and how we can break free from these addictions. 22:29 There is so much hope, and the Bible promises us the hope. 22:33 It says: "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. " 22:36 And we can claim that victory and walk in that victory. 22:39 More on that in a bit. But you know, we live 22:41 now in big tech age. 22:43 You know video games are a fairly old technology. 22:46 But today we have the problems coming from many angles. 22:51 I want to share with you a few different stories 22:53 from some people who became whistleblowers 22:56 out of big tech like the guy who invented 22:59 the Facebook like button. 23:02 Now a lot of people kind of like the like button 23:04 because it kind of democratizes things. 23:07 Somebody puts out some horrific nasty trash on YouTube 23:11 and everybody down votes it. And all right, great. 23:14 On the other hand, however, "The like button. " he said, 23:17 "on Facebook did so much to people's sense of self worth 23:21 and they were seeking and craving likes. " 23:25 And people who by the way crave likes on social media 23:28 are also more likely to be harmed psychologically with 23:31 mental health and with more social media exposure. 23:34 And so he says: "We were just playing right into people's 23:36 insecurities with that. " And he regrets making it. 23:39 There was another guy who actually invented 23:41 the function on your device where you pull to refresh. 23:44 And he came out and it's like: "You know what? 23:46 This has become such an addic- tive little compulsive behavior 23:50 people do. " And he says: "The refresh rate 23:53 with the band width and the signal, the data speeds we have 23:57 it's not even necessary to sit there and physically pull it 23:59 down anymore. But at that point at least 24:02 they kept doing it because it's the compulsive behavior 24:06 like the lighting up and smoking, like the pulling of the 24:09 slot machine or whatever it might be that's the trigger 24:12 for an addiction. " And people asked him in an interview: 24:15 "You know, you're pulling down and then it comes up 24:17 and it's like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding 24:19 and all of it lights up. Is that meant to be like 24:21 a slot machine? " He's like: "Yeah, that's pretty much 24:23 exactly what was going on there. " 24:24 He also referred to what's called variable rewards. 24:28 Something becomes especially addictive when you don't know 24:31 if you're going to get the reward. 24:33 If it's a guaranteed thing, that's one type of addiction. 24:36 But variation in the rewards, whether you're going to get it 24:39 or not, how much, what's going to come in 24:41 that can captivate you in a unique way just like 24:44 the casinos have done for many decades. 24:47 Now you remember Sean Parker? 24:48 I've referred to him a few times. 24:50 By the way, you've gotta hear him say 24:52 "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains. " 24:55 You've gotta hear the other executive from Facebook say 24:58 "We are ripping apart the social fabric of the country. 25:01 We are destroying how society works. " 25:03 It's one thing for me to quote them and explain it to you. 25:06 But I want you to hear it from them. If you type into YouTube 25:09 "The Media Mind, trailer 1" 25:13 "The Media Mind, trailer 2" 25:15 there's two videos like 2-3 minutes long 25:18 some of it is interspersed with me ranting about media 25:22 but I'm sending you to those clips to listen to Sean Parker 25:26 and listen to the other Facebook executive 25:28 in their interviews saying these things. 25:30 It's critical to understand that the very people 25:33 who were building these plat- forms are coming out and saying 25:37 these things. "God only knows what it's doing to our 25:40 children's brains. " Do you want to hear another one from 25:42 Sean Parker? Here he says about the dopamine, 25:45 he says... the inventors, the creators of social media... 25:48 he says: "It's me, it's Mark Zuckerberg, it's Kevin 25:51 Systrom on Instagram. It's all these people 25:54 understood this, understood this consciously, 25:58 and we did it anyway. " He says: "We give them a little dopamine 26:01 hit... " That was part of the interview. 26:03 "give them a little dopamine hit just at the right time 26:05 to keep them on the platform to keep them contributing more 26:09 content and that's the business model. " 26:11 So he says: "We knew exactly what we were doing 26:14 and we did it anyway. " He's saying: "Shame on us. " 26:16 He's on an apology tour just like the other guy who said 26:19 "We're ripping apart the social fabric of society. " 26:21 Again, The Media Mind trailer 1; The Media Mind trailer 2. 26:25 You've gotta hear them say that. That quote is on there 26:28 as well on the little videos on YouTube. 26:30 So he admitted they knew how they were going to overrule 26:34 your self-regulation; handicap your ability to self-regulate 26:38 by getting those dopamine receptors under the control 26:41 of big tech. Now there was one guy also who 26:44 kind of got a conscience if you will 26:46 about what he was doing with people's time. 26:49 He had created a Smartphone game called Flappy Bird. 26:53 And millions of people were downloading it and getting 26:55 addicted to it. And he looked at the analytics 26:58 and he was looking at how many of people were wasting 27:00 millions of hours of time on this. 27:02 And he felt terrible. He couldn't sleep at night. 27:03 He was making tens of thousands of dollars a day 27:06 but he pulled the game from the app store and said: 27:09 "I can't do this anymore. " 27:10 And other people made knock-off games 27:12 and walked away with the cash 27:13 but he walked away with his integrity. 27:15 'Cause when you look at what the research says even about 27:17 texting, the study of more than 400 eighth and 11th graders 27:20 found that many teenage texters 27:23 had a lot in common with compulsive gamblers 27:26 including losing sleep because of texting, 27:30 problems cutting back on texting, 27:32 and lying to cover up the amount of time they spent texting. 27:35 So you name the latest social media platform 27:38 and app whether it's Snapchat, 27:42 whether it's TikTok or whatever 27:45 the bottom line is in 2007 we picked up our phones 27:48 and said: "Cool! I'm going to control this. " 27:50 And then fast-forward a decade: it controls us. 27:53 It's as if it uses us. But God wants to be used 27:56 by us and technology to be used by us. |
Revised 2021-05-17