Dashboard lights.
They’re important.
Especially the check engine light and the check oil light.
Ignoring them or hoping they go away on their own is a foolish strategy. One way for a teen to learn this lesson is for their car to die only to discover the reason was that they never asked about those pesky dashboard lights. The repair bill ends up costing more than the car you just bought them — not that I’d know from personal experience…
Painful consequences can result from not paying attention.
I feel like society’s warning lights have been on for a long time. The warning lights that read:
- Too much screen time is bad for kids*.
- Social Media is hazardous for kids*.
- Online platforms are negatively influencing our kids*.
- The algorithm can’t be trusted.
*(not just for kids, but for all of us)
The 2020 documentary The Social Dilemma explicitly details the science and psychology used by tech giants that monetized us, enslaved us and made us addicted to our phones. A warning.
The 2024 book The Anxious Generation shows how adults have failed an entire generation by “rewiring childhood” through both overprotective parenting and unfettered access to screens. Another warning.
But this week, with no warning and without their consent, those same kids were fed violent, gory, terrifying assassination video content. Followed up by an onslaught of caustic, callous celebrations of this public murder of a husband, a father, and a Christian. All delivered directly to them by The Algorithm that cares nothing for their souls, their mental health, and the fact that they can’t unsee and they can’t forget.
We can’t keep ignoring the dashboard lights.
Now I’m not about to throw away my devices. I am the first person to admit “my entire life is on my phone.” It’s true. My phone tells me when to wake up. It’s where I keep track of my appointments, my task list, my grocery list. It’s how I read books. It’s how I communicate with my kids. It informs me when a loved one’s birthday is coming up. And it reminds me to pray.
So far, so good.
But it’s also where I scroll absentmindedly until a precious hour (…or two) of life has literally slipped through my fingertips. It’s where I find nothing but bad news all around the world, 24/7. It’s where I’m tempted to despair or tempted toward outrage. It’s where I’m suddenly discontented because an ad for those cute shoes came up again. And it’s where I go to put those shoes into my Amazon cart.
I don’t have the answers. But I think there’s something to this “digital detox” trend going around. I think there’s something to joining with some other likeminded parents and setting up some digital fences around our child’s lives. I think there’s something worth considering about saying “No” to our kids even if no one else is saying no to their kids. I think there’s something to talking early and often about the very real dangers inherent in our unbridled digital consumption.
Search out voices that are speaking wisdom into this topic. Start with the documentary and book listed above. You can also find countless podcasts and research studies to consider the implications not only on our children’s behavior and well-being but also on the formative effects on their brains and what you can do to help. Look to reputable Christian authors and pastors who have spoken up about how to sort through this quagmire as a follower of Christ.
I don’t have the answers but the warning lights are on, have been on, and we will be fools to continue to ignore them and simply hope they go away.
“So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).