Tag Archives: social media

Our Legacy

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Nearly five years ago, the documentary “The Social Dilemma” (available on Netflix) took direct aim at social media, charging that companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter (now X), Snapchat, and others intentionally designed their products to addict users, especially children, and knowingly wreaked emotional harm on them.

Posted in Drugs/Alcohol/Addictions, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture | Tagged Daniel P. Todes, depression, Facebook, Google, Ivan Pavlov, Jean M. Twenge, Snapchat, social media, Twitter, X | Comments Off

What’s the Hubbub About “Influencers?”

Posted on May 6, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

In 2022, research found that almost 1 in 5 Gen Z-ers were willing to quit their job to be an "influencer" on social media. 12% would quit college. So, whatever an influencer is, it sure seems important to this generation. Is that for good or for ill? While there are rarely clear answers to questions like these, here are some thoughts that might offer a sound perspective on the newfangled industry of "influencing."

Posted in Child Exploitation, Education, Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged Gen Z, Influencer Marketing Hub, influencers, influencing, LeBron James, Morning Consult, PewDiePie, social media, The Conversation | Comments Off

Social Media Created a Mental Health Epidemic in Kids

Posted on April 29, 2024 by David E Smith

Most parents and teachers have noticed the severe increase in depression and anxiety among young children and teenagers over the last decade. Many have speculated that smartphones and social media cause these mental health and behavior problems. It turns out that they were right.

Posted in Media Watch | Tagged American Privacy Rights Act, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, children, Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, Clare Morell, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Instagram, Jonathan Haidt, Kids Online Safety Act, legislation, mental health, New York Times, Pinterest, Protecting Kids from Social Media Act, Snapchat, social media, Spotify, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube | Comments Off

Progressives in Illinois Threaten Parental Authority Again

Posted on April 22, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

No one knows for sure who first said the phrase, “If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.” Whether it was Mark Twain, Abraham Maslow, or someone else, it perfectly describes Illinois Democrats’ latest push to usurp control over our state’s kids.

Posted in Illinois Politics, Marriage/Family/Culture, Sexuality | Tagged children, families, Illinois, Illinois Legislature, LGBTQ, parental authority, Parents, SB 3316, social media, Springfield, woke | Comments Off

What to do with Generation Z

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Much of Generation Z is heading into adulthood, and we’re realizing that being an adult is hard, a bit scary, and often unenjoyable. Anxiety and fear are incredibly high among Gen Z-ers, also known as Zoomers. I saw an article last month reporting that 86% of Generation Z has “menu anxiety,” or overwhelming anxiety about eating out. Another article published in November reports that Gen Z is having difficulty adjusting to the demands of a 9-5 work week.

Posted in Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, next gen | Tagged anxiety, Christianity, depression, Gen Z, Generation Z, mental health, social media | Comments Off

The Reality of Social Media Part 2: Instagram

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Even though social media isn’t yet 50 years old, warnings against it have become a bipartisan concern. But, it’s also a huge part of our world used by many people to connect and businesses to engage with their clientele. For parents especially it can be stressful to figure out how to monitor their children’s use of social media, and let’s face it, it can even be difficult for adults. That’s why we are working on a series of articles about social media. Starting with a general overview, and then going more in-depth on popular apps.

Posted in Marriage/Family/Culture, Media Watch, next gen, Sexuality | Tagged influence, Instagram, sexuality, social media, The Reality of Social Media Part 2: Instagram | Comments Off

Anti . . . Social Media

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Three years ago, Exposure Labs created and released the documentary “The Social Dilemma,” exposing the dangerously manipulative technology that drives the wildly popular social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (now X), Instagram, and all the others. Between 2011 and 2013, researchers began to see a disturbing trend emerging. Depression and anxiety among young people began to increase.

Posted in Child Exploitation, Marriage/Family/Culture, Sexuality | Tagged Arturo Bejar, Bari Weiss, David Zweig, Elon Musk, Facebook, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Lee Fang, Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Sheryl Sandberg, social media, Twitter | Comments Off

The Reality of Social Media: Part 1

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

Everyone knows social media has negative effects. It’s the topic of countless articles, films have been made on it, people constantly discuss it, and it’s generally considered a bipartisan issue. Warning cries about social media have been sounded so often that they have become background music, even though it isn’t even 50 years old.

Posted in Child Exploitation, Marriage/Family/Culture, Media Watch, next gen | Tagged Addiction, child exploitation, children, mental health, Parents, psychology, social media | Comments Off

“Significant Harms” of Social Media Use For Kids

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Alyssa Sonnenburg

New technology tends to follow a cycle. When it's first introduced, it's only for the elite (or the geeks) that are rich enough (or nerdy enough) to buy it. Then, as everyday people begin to notice the ways it benefits their elite or geeky friends, they start to jump on the bandwagon. As the technology gains widespread acceptance, it's commended as "trendy" by its supporters and denounced as a "fad" by its opponents.

Posted in Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, Media Watch, next gen | Tagged Adam, anxiety, depression, dominion, mental health, Noah, social media, U.S. Surgeon General | Comments Off

Seattle School District’s Lawsuit Highlights the Dangers of Social Media

Posted on January 23, 2023 by David E Smith

Social media is dangerous. It’s easy to lose your real life to a virtual one. One school district in Seattle, Washington has decided it’s had enough of students suffering from the designed dangers of social media. In a 91 page complaint filed against the parent companies of the social media platforms TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, Seattle Public Schools asserts that these companies have specifically curated their social media sites to be addicting to youth by “exploit[ing] the neurophysiology of the brain’s reward systems...”

Posted in Media Watch, next gen | Tagged Facebook, Instagram, Kent Public School, Seattle Public Schools, Snapchat, social media, TikTok, YouTube | Comments Off

U.S. Senator Rand Paul Confronts Biden’s Cross-Dressing Pick for Assistant Health Secretary

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Benjamin D. Smith

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) put to shame every Congressman and Congresswoman who refuses to state publicly and definitively that no medical professional should support cross-sex hormone-doping for minors or the elective removal of healthy parts of their sexual anatomy as “treatments” for disordered feelings about their maleness or femaleness.

Posted in Sexuality | Tagged Congress, cross sex hormones, genital mutilation, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Leftists, medical professional, minors, peer pressure, Rachel Levine, Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul, social media, Trans, transphobic, United Nations Children's Fund, WHO | Comments Off

Dealing with Cancel Culture

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Benjamin D. Smith

In the article describing “hate speech” tactics, we saw how people are called haters if they oppose the homosexual or transgender agenda. The intent is to shame the opponents into silence, that the activists’ march through American culture can continue unopposed. In this article, we’ll see how the activists try to punish those who actually do stand against them.

Posted in Faith, Marriage/Family/Culture, Sexuality | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, America, America's Culture, Antifa, Apple, Cancel culture, Christianity, Culture, Facebook, George Orwell, Google Play, Harald Uhlig, homosexuals, Karen Blair, LGBT, Masterpiece Cakesho, Memories Pizza, Niel Golightly, Parler, pronouns, Robert Jensen, sexuality, social media, The Crossing Church, The Internet, transgender, Twitter | Comments Off

Parler: Leaving the Twitter Censorship Zone

Posted on July 4, 2020 by David E Smith

Prominent conservatives have launched a campaign on Twitter urging users to switch to Parler, a competing platform marketed as a "free speech social network." The social media giant has caused a tidal wave of an exodus to its more conservative competitor Parler after it deleted two popular conservative accounts and began adding disclaimers to the tweets of President Donald Trump.

Posted in Media Watch | Tagged Dan Bongino, Devin Nunes, Donald J. Trump, Hugh Hewitt, Jared Thomson, John Matze, Parler, social media, Ted Cruz, Twitter | Comments Off