EVERY PARENT should read this. And then have your teenaged child read it. Although, most teens will say, “It’s not that bad,” I side with the author. It is that bad, writes psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow. (Just ask the teen to give up all social media for an extended period of time and watch their reaction.) Here’s an excerpt, followed by the link:
“A young woman saying “no” to the prom used to be a disappointment you shared with your best buddies. If you lacked self-control or decency, you might call her a name. A young woman saying “no” these days is a social media event that your whole school or several schools might know about. It is an injury not to your healthy ego, but to the thin-walled, explosive blimp of an ego you developed by posting hundreds of photos of yourself on Facebook and Tweeting out your whereabouts to “followers” and thinking you were an incredible combatant—a virtual knight with supernatural powers—on Wartune.”
“Being turned down doesn’t just mean seeing the girl you like at the dance with some other guy; it means getting her Tweets about how happy she supposedly is, seeing her posts about the big night she had and hearing how she Snapchatted all her friends a picture of her corsage. You aren’t just the boy who she turned down; you’re the actor she unwittingly cast in the feature film called Facebook—and you got the role of loser.”
“I have said it before and will say it, again, here: Cocaine is nothing as a toxic force, compared to Facebook and other techno-teen drugs. It isn’t even a contest.”
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I read that article also and it just makes my heart hurt. I teach 5th and 6th graders in Sunday School and my heart breaks. Sometimes I feel like Jesus telling His disciples about Himself and they hear something totally different. Sometimes it is like the last supper when Jesus was telling them about what was coming and they started arguing about who was going to be greater in the Kingdom. I know Jesus just wanted to cry because He knew how important it was and they just didn’t get it. Facebook has been a wonderful thing for me in getting to contact people I have not seen since 4th grade in some cases. It is a wonderful place to catch up, laugh and stay connected. For a while I posted some political things and did not post derogatory things or resort to name calling (one reason I cannot listen to talk radio for more than 5 minutes without becoming angry). I stopped that with rare exceptions. Paul tells us in Philippians what is important and gives us, as he does in other letters, the key to living the effective Christian life. He starts in chapter 3 telling us his resume and all the things that he has done to be proud of, all his accomplishments that in many cases only a few have accomplished. It would be listed on Facebook in the ABOUT section. Paul however goes on to tell us that all those wonderful accomplishments have become a disadvantage, rubbish, worthless, or garbage in comparison to what I have in Jesus. Our young people however count Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram as the ONLY source of knowledge, unless it would be movies or songs. Their focus in most cases are away from Jesus and anything to do with Him. Paul tells us he gave up everything to gain Christ. Jesus has to be more than just first place in our life, Jesus has to be our life. There can be no second or third place, He has to be our everything. In Philippians 4:8 Paul tells us focus your thoughts on what is true, noble, righteous, pure, lovable or admirable, on some virtue or on something praiseworthy. The next verse reveals the problem we have in our youth being able to do that today, verse 9 says to keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. There is no one that the youth are seeing doing or teaching the things that Paul is talking about. The adversary has done a fantastic job of increasing the water temp until it is at the boiling point and most do not even realize. Little by little the adversary has gotten us to accept things that are NOT true, noble, righteous, pure, lovable, or admirable, virtuous, or praiseworthy. Most of the time by getting us to believe the lie that it’s okay to watch, read, be a part of something because I am strong enough in my faith to know the truth and it won’t affect me. Even Paul said that the more I want to do the right thing, the more I do the wrong thing. Philippians 3:16 tells us to let our conduct, actions fit the level of our faith, maturity in Christ. Sadly, that is what we are doing instead of trying to increase our maturity and faith. Facebook is bringing to a head all the things that the adversary has been working so diligently on over the years and we have a fight on our hands for the lives and souls of our young people who are the future leaders in the church. Don’t get me wrong, ALL is not lost and there are still victories everywhere and not everyone is blind and going the wrong direction. As Christian brothers and sisters we need to hold each others feet to the fire so that we are teaching the youth the correct things and maybe more importantly they are seeing those things lived out in our lives. Anyway, I said all that to say, I agree brother! 🙂