How to Influence Your Children More Than Social Media

Whether your children have phones and iPads or not, they are massively influenced by social media because of the culture we live in. It can be scary. But you’re still the parent, and you get to have the biggest influence in your child’s life. Youth Pastor and podcast host Aaron Mamuyac, student pastor and host of the We Think God is Awesome Podcast, joins me to discus ways we can make sure that we are still capturing the heart of our children.

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Show Highlights

Technology immigrants vs. technology natives
The social engineering behind the addictive nature of games
Technology as a force for good as well as evil
Tweens average 6.5 hours a day exposure to media. Teens average more than 6.5 hours a day.
The brain development of a child, referencing Episode 97 The Radically Changing World of a Preteen with Dan Scott
The role of behavioral scientist in developing social media apps
- You facebook, instagram, and social media feeds are uniquely designed for you, to keep you on the app longer.
- Age aspiration – where a 13 year old desires to be a 17 year old and is targeted with adds from Cosmo, etc. exhausting that lifestyle. At the same time, the 30-40 year olds are targeted with marketing that makes them want to look like 20 year olds again.
- Age compression – an 8 year old has to deal with sexuality and identity
The fragile psyche that develops from the narcissistic, self oriented world of social media likes and follows
The emotional tailspin that happens when “normal” hard things hit someone who lives comparing their lives to the false narrative of everyone else’s life
The 3 aspects of Social media: Curation, Fabrication, Promotion
The core of the problem – sin. It’s breaking relationships. How can you have real relationships when you’re putting up false images of yourself?
3 Fears: People will see me, people will reject me, people with hurt me
The Solution of the gospel – forgiveness, identity, and belonging.
How to have more influence than social media in your children’s life:
- Social media is a megaphone. What’s louder than a megaphone? A whisper of a parent in the ear of their child.
- Determining a strategy for how much time and access your children will have to phones and iPads.
  - Start with a phone and text. No passwords, no social media.
  - Go slow with introducing new apps on a phone. Very slow. Extremely slow. Even slower than that.
  - When your kids are younger, you want to think for them, when they are older, you have to train them to think for themselves.
  - Be curious about their social media, their friends social media. Scroll with them, ask questions, refrain from judgment of their friends, because your children are gauging how safe they are with you by the way you react to their friend’s sin and foolishness.