I have a flip phone myself: non Internet connected, makes calls and can text with difficulty. I love it. I keep a Garmin GPS in my car for maps, and otherwise I've never missed the Internet in my pocket. In fact, that's the precise reason I gave it up. Without going into detail, having a pipe to all the world's knowledge (including the dark and seedy alleys) is not good for me. it probably isn't good for most people, different reasons for men vs women, but bad for both.
Getting young people to eschew smartphones is probably impossible. Too much of the modern, urban world requires them. When they started driving, we got Android phones for our kids. However, they have very limited plans with only 200MB of data each month. In hindsight, I wouldn't even do that though.
I can't even get the parents to push back on the old problem of extra-curriculars, now on Sundays, taking away from a robust church life let alone quitting the dangers of smartphone/social media. It is hard because parents are sucked in as well and it is socially accepted, nothing worse in middle America than to look weird or stand out from the crowd or to lose status.
Selection effect, churches draw from the swamp of society (I am part of the swamp, for the record) even if they get the best. This is compounded by the fact that from the pulpit you can expected feminized slop that is pre-focus grouped, to use the words of Kruptos, managerial Christianity.
We have not even come to grips with the de facto schizophrenia that is listening to a radio, but we continue the experiment on humanity expect to produce saints in a similar fashion to the past? Insanity.
I don't know. I can't even get my homeschool group to do it, and I push for it every year. I'm leaving right now for a organizational meeting and I will bring it up again, but it won't go anywhere.
Thanks for another great article! I am hopeful that things are turning. Brian, I've already told my sons (ages 10 & 13) that I will never buy them a smartphone or allow them social media. I've gotten 3 dozen of my friends to agree to the same. I'll have a post in the coming weeks about how I did it.
I'm actually running a teens and technology seminar for my homeschool group in a few hours and I've got 12 families signed up. I'm not completely anti smartphone (they are increasingly necessary -- you can't pay for parking in some cities without one), but my focus is in trying to get parents to help their kids form healthy habits around them. Part of those healthy habits is delaying smartphone access until late teen years, but you can't delay it forever. Like the internet; you can't eliminate it so you have to help your kids navigate it.
I wish smartphones didn't exist. I wish they weren't ubiquitous. But if wishes were fishes we'd all swim in riches. Instead, we swim in a moral cesspool that our kids have to find way to navigate without losing their innocence too early or their souls at all.
I’m not anti-smart phone. But I am anti-kids and teenagers having them. Read my post on gambling for a few reasons why! :)
I don’t think as a culture that we’ve really examined what it would be like to not give teenagers smartphones. I hope we start to look at it as a viable option. I think we can all agree that what we’ve been doing thus far is not going well
I think your second point is really critical. That's what I like about Jonathan Haidt's (afterbabel.com here on substack) research and advocacy. He's about the only one trying to help people forom this picture of what a work without teen smartphones would look like. When most parents think about it, they like it. And here's the weird thing, when most teens think about it, they like it too.
My seminar went great. One of the parents asked if I would give it at a large homeschool convention in a few weeks.
Several thoughts. It's a spiritual battle and thus we face opposition to speaking the truth in love. Many if not most pastors want to be liked. I did and further I never handled criticism well. Speak up about team sports on Sunday? I did that once and was accused of shaming people. We also must acknowledge that many pastors are addicted to their phones. I've had my struggles with addiction to doom scrolling!
I have a flip phone myself: non Internet connected, makes calls and can text with difficulty. I love it. I keep a Garmin GPS in my car for maps, and otherwise I've never missed the Internet in my pocket. In fact, that's the precise reason I gave it up. Without going into detail, having a pipe to all the world's knowledge (including the dark and seedy alleys) is not good for me. it probably isn't good for most people, different reasons for men vs women, but bad for both.
Getting young people to eschew smartphones is probably impossible. Too much of the modern, urban world requires them. When they started driving, we got Android phones for our kids. However, they have very limited plans with only 200MB of data each month. In hindsight, I wouldn't even do that though.
So, why is this hard for churches?
I can't even get the parents to push back on the old problem of extra-curriculars, now on Sundays, taking away from a robust church life let alone quitting the dangers of smartphone/social media. It is hard because parents are sucked in as well and it is socially accepted, nothing worse in middle America than to look weird or stand out from the crowd or to lose status.
The key book to read on that is "Family Unfriendly" by the great Timothy Carney. He will show up soon at Rational Sheep. That book is here: https://www.amazon.com/Family-Unfriendly-Culture-Raising-Harder/dp/006323646X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1T3GI2YTR1ZAT&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.orIBILTUGEg0kyRm-OYpNMOtnNKvolEEXheWHPSrlCx4-FkV1EHTRtEqPxJJjVRbSklE3EIZXVmkjqMk9x9strzYnB1Qohsn6q0jGIEopQDvmFosLlVgm7j0Y6KLiZKuy385LEcZfKEZpa5aaq-eBRfCXRvUMcNIcprM6qoz_aB7iXlFlrp7kod5FqKM3IN6-mI2cAL4dk9o7srZY1oxZJv_Jk0iqoYsWbAZnc7yVE4.-NnYBv6nLecB036u3tW3k6fea4lT4Hnh6ZoCeqj3OvY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Timothy+Carney&qid=1719408800&s=books&sprefix=timothy+carney%2Cstripbooks%2C84&sr=1-1
Thank you, I will check it out!
Selection effect, churches draw from the swamp of society (I am part of the swamp, for the record) even if they get the best. This is compounded by the fact that from the pulpit you can expected feminized slop that is pre-focus grouped, to use the words of Kruptos, managerial Christianity.
We have not even come to grips with the de facto schizophrenia that is listening to a radio, but we continue the experiment on humanity expect to produce saints in a similar fashion to the past? Insanity.
I don't know. I can't even get my homeschool group to do it, and I push for it every year. I'm leaving right now for a organizational meeting and I will bring it up again, but it won't go anywhere.
Thanks for another great article! I am hopeful that things are turning. Brian, I've already told my sons (ages 10 & 13) that I will never buy them a smartphone or allow them social media. I've gotten 3 dozen of my friends to agree to the same. I'll have a post in the coming weeks about how I did it.
Thanks for this update. PLEASE keep me posted. Any church folks listening to you?
I'm actually running a teens and technology seminar for my homeschool group in a few hours and I've got 12 families signed up. I'm not completely anti smartphone (they are increasingly necessary -- you can't pay for parking in some cities without one), but my focus is in trying to get parents to help their kids form healthy habits around them. Part of those healthy habits is delaying smartphone access until late teen years, but you can't delay it forever. Like the internet; you can't eliminate it so you have to help your kids navigate it.
I wish smartphones didn't exist. I wish they weren't ubiquitous. But if wishes were fishes we'd all swim in riches. Instead, we swim in a moral cesspool that our kids have to find way to navigate without losing their innocence too early or their souls at all.
I’m not anti-smart phone. But I am anti-kids and teenagers having them. Read my post on gambling for a few reasons why! :)
I don’t think as a culture that we’ve really examined what it would be like to not give teenagers smartphones. I hope we start to look at it as a viable option. I think we can all agree that what we’ve been doing thus far is not going well
People will need group support. This my mantra — parents, pastors, teachers, counselors.
I think your second point is really critical. That's what I like about Jonathan Haidt's (afterbabel.com here on substack) research and advocacy. He's about the only one trying to help people forom this picture of what a work without teen smartphones would look like. When most parents think about it, they like it. And here's the weird thing, when most teens think about it, they like it too.
My seminar went great. One of the parents asked if I would give it at a large homeschool convention in a few weeks.
Several thoughts. It's a spiritual battle and thus we face opposition to speaking the truth in love. Many if not most pastors want to be liked. I did and further I never handled criticism well. Speak up about team sports on Sunday? I did that once and was accused of shaming people. We also must acknowledge that many pastors are addicted to their phones. I've had my struggles with addiction to doom scrolling!
Thank you. Honest reaction there. This is also not an issue that falls into a Blame the Left model.