Family Technology Guidelines

Well here's the final (so far) product.  It really hasn't been tweaked all that much from my previous post.  I say "final (so far)" because this is definitely a work in progress and we will continue to tweak it as the needs arise.  We are around one week into this and it seems to be working well.

Galdamez Technology Guidelines

Technology in our home = Computers, Kindle Fires, cell phones, Nintendo DS, Xbox, iPods, iPod Touch, iPhones, Wii, televisions, DVD movies (and anything else I forgot)

Observations:

·         Technology usage tends to pull you away from healthy interaction with your family and isolate you to your room.  It is easy to waste real life on virtual life.  We need to seek out ways to engage daily in real life and relationships.

·         The use of technology seems to easily become an idol, demanding more and more time and devotion and distracting you from the things of the Lord.  We should each regularly ask the Lord for help in this area.

·         Technology usage is a privilege, not a right.

Guidelines:

·         Up to one hour per day during week days (Monday through Thursday).

·         Up to three hours per day during weekends.

·         In general, technology can be used between 7:30pm and 8:30pm during weekdays, except Wednesdays – between 4 & 5.

·         Allotted time cannot be used until all homework & chores are completed (i.e. dishes done, trash taken out, down stairs picked up, animals fed, clothes put away, rooms cleaned, etc…).  Any chores not completed will be completed during technology time.

·         Use of these technologies (especially cell phones, Kindles, iphones, DS), whether for movie watching, or texting, or video game playing should be done in a family commons areas and not in one’s room in isolation.

·         All passwords to devices and internet sites (Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, etc…) must be known by mom and dad.  Any changes to these must be immediately reported or else consequences will follow.  Parents have the absolute right to monitor any and all technology usage.

·         Technology devices need to be kept in the study on the desk when not being used during allotted times.

·         Time should be spent with God (Bible reading/meditation, prayer) before technology is used.

·         Time on Kindles for reading books is unlimited (but must be used in family areas).

·         Technology should be avoided in the early mornings.

Family Technology Guidelines

This is work in progress.  Shelly and I plan to work out the specifics tonight during our date.  Here's what I have so far...

Galdamez Technology Guidelines

Technology in our home = Computers, Kindle Fires, cell phones, Nintendo DS, Xbox, iPods, iPod Touch, iPhones, Wii, televisions, DVD movies (and anything else I forgot!)

Observations:

·         Technology usage tends to pull you away from healthy interaction with your family and isolate you to your room.

·         The use of technology seems to easily become an idol, demanding more and more time and devotion and distracting you from the things of the Lord.  We should each regularly ask the Lord for help in this area.

·         Technology usage is a privilege, not a right.

·         It is easy to waste real life on virtual life.  We need to seek out ways to engage daily in real life and relationships.

Guidelines:

·         Up to one hour per day during week days (Monday through Thursday).

·         Up to three hours per day during weekends.

·         Use of these technologies (especially cell phones, Kindles, iPhones, DS), whether for movie watching, or texting, or video game playing should be done in a family commons areas and not in one’s room in isolation.

·         All passwords to devices and internet sites (Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, etc…) must be known by mom and dad.  Any changes to these must be immediately reported or else consequences will follow.  Parents have the absolute right to monitor any and all technology usage.

·         Technology devices need to be kept in the study on the desk when not being used during allotted times.

·         Time should be spent with God (Bible reading/meditation, prayer) before technology is used.

·         Time on Kindles for reading books is unlimited.

·         Technology should be avoided in the early mornings.          

Questions to answer:

·         Should there be a time in the evening when the internet is turned off, including weekends?

·         Should there be technology usage times?  Say, between 7-8 pm

·         Should usage be earned by chores, reading, etc? (probably not since they could quickly exceed how much time we would want then on it)

·         Is there a time when all cell phones need to be turned in?

·         What are our tech-free zones?

·         Should there be a technology fast day?

Well, this is what I have so far.  Once I finalize this I'll repost our family guidelines.

For His glory,

Ryan

Are Youth Wiser Than Adults?

I wonder how much of our culture has shaped how we view each other.  I'm sure it affects us more than we can possibly imagine and more than we would like to admit.  Below is an article from Albert Mohler as he considers the current trend of seeing youth as wiser than those with age and life experience.  I would encourage you to consider what he has to say.

NewsNote: Seen But Not Heard?
by Albert Mohler

Whatever happened to being seen but not heard? Diana West asks that question in a recent essay, noting that there has been a massive shift in Western culture away from adult authority and toward the "wise child." All around us are signs that authority and wisdom are now to be recognized in the young, rather than the old. This is nothing less than a reversal of what previous generations had believed and assumed.


As Diana West explains:

When your average doting adult today murmurs the expression, “Out of the mouths of babes,” it is less an expression of wonder than a validation of the widely held assumption that children — babes, tweens, and teens — are innately wiser than their elders. They know better (sexual and fashion choices). They are discerning (music). They feel, therefore they understand (politics). Or so we have come to think due to a stunning if under-appreciated cultural reversal. Once upon a time, we believed wisdom was an expression of experience and maturity. Today, we believe the exact opposite.

Indeed, it is the exact opposite. Marketers target children because they know that the young drive many consumer choices. On the television screen, it is the kids on the sitcoms who are wise. The parents and other authority figures are routinely corrected by the wisdom of the young. The bumbling adults learn to laugh at their foolishness and follow the direction of the children and adolescents on screen.

Teachers and others who work with youth and children often receive the same message, not only from the kids but from their parents. "How dare you correct my child? His opinion is as valid as yours."

West traces the development of this trend through the 1950s and 1960s. As long ago as 1958, Dwight Macdonald had noted the rise of the adolescent, with a flood of books on parenting teens emerging from a host of "experts." As Macdonald saw, "The list goes on and on, and it includes many titles that would have been puzzling even in fairly recent times, because their subject matter is not the duty of children toward their parents, but precisely the opposite.”

The shift from the duty of children to parents to the duty of parents to children was not subtle. All of a sudden, the young became the instructors of the old, on everything from the morality of war and peace to the issues of sex and the meaning of life.

As West observes, "It is hard to overstate the significance of this change more than half a century ago. It is this fundamental rearrangement of life’s building blocks that put successive decades on an entirely new footing from all that had come before. To say the tide had turned is to imply a temporary, cyclical shift. What had occurred — replacing the child’s duty to his parent with the parent’s duty to his child — has so far turned out to be permanent."

A quick review of contemporary entertainment, educational philosophies, and cultural influences would suggest that this shift is not only thus far permanent, but may be virtually irreversible. Diana West underscores the fact that this great shift was only possible because adults forfeited their authority and responsibility. The kids did not seize power in a coup. They were handed authority on a silver platter.

West has referred to this phenomenon as "the death of the grown-up." Reaching adulthood ceased to be the great goal of the young. Instead, adults now attempt to present themselves as adolescents. The perpetual adolescent is the aspirational role model of today's youth -- and a tragic percentage of the nation's adults.

From a Christian perspective, Diana West's essay, as well as her book, The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization, serves to alert parents and others to the challenge of raising children in such a culture. The goal of Christian parents must be to raise children to adulthood -- a genuine adulthood. The Bible honors children, but the biblical worldview establishes parents as the authority figures and adults as the figures of wisdom.


"Seen but not heard" is not the best model for parenting children. On the other hand, it is infinitely superior to the abdication of adult authority that marks the current age. Once again, Christian parents are reminded that raising godly children in this age requires the courage of a counter-revolutionary.

How Connected Are Your Kids?!?

The Kaiser Family Foundation has recently done some research into the lives of our American Kids.  Their findings are startling.  Consider this quote here:

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

Parents, notice that this is every single day.  This is not a week's total, but daily!  How are your kids doing?  This should be a wake up call for us as parents to think about what often goes on right beneath our noses.  We live in a vastly different world of technology than the one in which we grew up.  I would encourage you to read Albert Mohler's article on this topic: http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/21/like-the-air-they-breathe-the-online-life-of-kids/

As I am thinking of this study I am reminded of taking groups of kids on camping trips.  In the past I always thought it was a good idea to make them leave behind their walkman and their gameboy but in our current day the kids are so much more connected.  Many youth find it extremely difficult to spend more than a few minutes without either updating their friends as to their "status" or reading about what their friends are doing.  Where is the time for contemplation?  Where is the room for deep thought?  When can a youth find time to "be still and know that I am God?"  Media can be extremely distracting.  And without out strong self-discipline I fear that we will neglect one of our greatest spiritual disciplines: meditation on God's Word.

A few months ago we put together a hay ride for our teens and I was amazed and a bit dismayed by something that happened.  As I went out on one of the rides I found that the majority of the youth had their faces buried in their cell phones.  They were either sending each other messages, getting a hold of kids who were not there, or looking at other electronic media...ON A HAYRIDE.  The hay fights, the laughter, the singing, and the jumping-off-to-scare-the-girls were replaced by an electronic glow and bent necks.  I couldn't help but think that we were missing out on something.

I hope and pray that we as parents will have the courage and discipline to do what is unpopular and actually "parent" our children.  Youth are not the repository of wisdom and should not be left to make the final determination as to how they spend their time.  I need to remind myself that I have a great privilege and responsibility to train up my children.  Today is a day worth redeeming.

-Ryan