Latest / Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland / A Simple Tech Standard: Is it Safe, Ready, Good?

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A Simple Tech Standard: Is it Safe, Ready, Good? · Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

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  Speaker 1: Purposely Your Life, God's Purpose. More podcasts at purposely dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Gospel Tech Podcast.
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  Speaker 2: My name is Nathan Sutherland and this podcast is dedicated
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  Speaker 2: to helping families love God and use tech. Today we
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  Speaker 2: are in part two of our third part of a
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  Speaker 2: have a Gospel Applied a conversation. We applied it to parenting,
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  Speaker 2: than to our kids, than to our tech. Part one
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  Speaker 2: we looked big picture where we were talking about Philippians
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  Speaker 2: four eight, and today we are getting into the practical
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  Speaker 2: picture of when we think about the gospel, the good
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  Speaker 2: news that God saves sinners, and we apply it to
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  Speaker 2: our technology, then what does that look like? Well, it
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  Speaker 2: looks like safe, ready, and good. And I love this
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  Speaker 2: picture of technology done well because this is simple. So
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  Speaker 2: if last week Philippians four eight was kind of heady
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  Speaker 2: and ethereal, and you're like, all right, Like no one's
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  Speaker 2: going to disagree that this vers applies to technology, but
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  Speaker 2: also how does it apply to technology? Again? And we
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  Speaker 2: walked through that. If you didn't listen to that conversation,
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  Speaker 2: please go back and listen to it. The basic premises
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  Speaker 2: it applies to the way that we use our technology.
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  Speaker 2: And to like the content that we consume. And then
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  Speaker 2: to the heart we bring to our technologies the second
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  Speaker 2: way it applies, and the third way is to the
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  Speaker 2: spaces that it applies. And I gave very little time
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  Speaker 2: to that, but I referenced Andy Crouch's book The tech
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  Speaker 2: Wise Family. Go check it out today. Then we're actually
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  Speaker 2: talking hyper practical. So you might have a two year old,
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  Speaker 2: or you might even be just pregnant with child or
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  Speaker 2: thinking about having kids. At some point, you might be
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  Speaker 2: thinking about your own technology use in your singleness, or
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  Speaker 2: have a fourteen year old well into junior high looking
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  Speaker 2: at high school going. I don't know if we've even
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  Speaker 2: done this right so far, like we already gave the smartphone,
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  Speaker 2: or they already have a personal computer. We've already we've
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  Speaker 2: merged families, and now in our merged family we have
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  Speaker 2: different technology standards like safe ready good is a beautiful
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  Speaker 2: spot for you to be in this conversation. Safe ready
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  Speaker 2: good looks like this. When we think safe, we are
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  Speaker 2: thinking Luke eleven eleven, when Jesus and talking about answering prayers,
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  Speaker 2: actually says, what Father among you if his son asks
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  Speaker 2: for a fish, will instead of a fish give him
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  Speaker 2: a serpent, or if he'd ask for an egg, give
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  Speaker 2: him a scorpion. And then he goes on to say,
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  Speaker 2: if you, who are bad fathers know how to give
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  Speaker 2: good gifts, how much better will how much more would
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  Speaker 2: your perfect heavenly father know how to give you good
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  Speaker 2: gifts if you ask. So he's saying, go to our
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  Speaker 2: heavenly father and ask for good things. We as earthly
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  Speaker 2: parents then can go okay. We acknowledge that parents love
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  Speaker 2: to give their kids good things, and there's a standard
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  Speaker 2: for what is good. In this case, if your child
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  Speaker 2: asked for you're an egg. Your child comes and says
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  Speaker 2: mom or dad, I'm hungry, and you go great, here's
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  Speaker 2: a thing that will hurt you. Here's a scorpion that
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  Speaker 2: would be unloving. You are not being a good parent,
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  Speaker 2: because parents who give good gifts are good parents in
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  Speaker 2: this idea, When we think about our technology, we go, okay,
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  Speaker 2: how is it going for our family? Before we bring
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  Speaker 2: any technology into our house, be it a video game,
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  Speaker 2: new show, music, a new music player, a device, or
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  Speaker 2: something else in our home, we can say, is this
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  Speaker 2: thing on its face safe? Because that's what this is referencing.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus is saying parents don't give their children dangerous things.
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  Speaker 2: They give them they give them healthful things, things that
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  Speaker 2: both will give them nourishment for their bodies and help
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  Speaker 2: them grow up and who God's called them to be,
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  Speaker 2: and that won't prematurely end said growth or distract it
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  Speaker 2: and harm it. When we think about the technology we
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  Speaker 2: bring into our home, we first check is it safe?
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  Speaker 2: The safest tech possible meaning default, this is safe, It's
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  Speaker 2: going to pass every time. Is going to be tooltech.
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  Speaker 2: There's two kinds of technology. There's tooltech that helps us create,
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  Speaker 2: and there's drool tech that helps us consume. Tool tech
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  Speaker 2: is designed to put you at the center of this
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  Speaker 2: technology and for you to call all of the shots.
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  Speaker 2: So think about Microsoft Word or AutoCAD. It does not
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  Speaker 2: do anything that you tell it. Excuse me, It doesn't
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  Speaker 2: do anything other than what you tell it to do.
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  Speaker 2: It operates only on your goal, and it operates for
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  Speaker 2: a very specific purpose, accomplishing whatever the task is that
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  Speaker 2: you're attempting to accomplish. In the analog world outside of
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  Speaker 2: digital tools, this should be like a shovel. A shovel
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  Speaker 2: does great work shoveling. It's actually quite bad at doing
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  Speaker 2: other things. If you ever try to use it to sew,
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  Speaker 2: you would be disappointed. Similarly with tooltech when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to digital spaces, Microsoft Word is really good at being
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  Speaker 2: Microsoft Word, but it's really bad at video editing, right,
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  Speaker 2: Like it's just it's good in its little niche. Or
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  Speaker 2: by that comparison, video editing great at video editing. You
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  Speaker 2: can use eymovie that comes stock on a Mac and
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  Speaker 2: it's good at video editing, but it's very bad at
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  Speaker 2: word processing. So it's tooltech designed for purpose you run it.
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  Speaker 2: It does not come with any additional entrapment. It's not
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  Speaker 2: trying to ensnare you in behavioral loops. Compare that to
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  Speaker 2: drool tech. Drool tech is very good at taking your time, focus,
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  Speaker 2: and money it might be useful. So take YouTube for example.
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  Speaker 2: YouTube is awesome at getting ideas out there and giving
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  Speaker 2: you ideas that you might be interested in. I see
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  Speaker 2: it as kind of the costco in digital spaces. It's
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  Speaker 2: going to offer you things you never even knew you wanted,
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  Speaker 2: but when it's there, you're like, Wow, thank you YouTube
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  Speaker 2: for knowing that I wanted to see how that squirrel
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  Speaker 2: got through that maze. But its goal is not just
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  Speaker 2: to edify you, or even to give you great content.
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  Speaker 2: It does want you, It does want to take your time,
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  Speaker 2: focusing money. It wants to keep you a little longer
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  Speaker 2: than you intended to stay, or cost you a little
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  Speaker 2: more than you wanted to pay. And that is that
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  Speaker 2: is the heart behind drool tech. Provide a useful service
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  Speaker 2: and provide it in such a way that it's going
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  Speaker 2: to cause you to come back more often than you intended,
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  Speaker 2: or stay longer than you and than you had meant to,
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  Speaker 2: or pay for some kind of premium thing that wasn't
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  Speaker 2: on this month's budget. We have Tooltech and drool Tech.
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  Speaker 2: This safest tech is going to be tool It's going
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  Speaker 2: to be designed for a purpose with no behavioral loop design.
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  Speaker 2: So if it's tooltech, then it will also not have
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  Speaker 2: an app store, because app stores are super good at
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  Speaker 2: delivering drool tech. I would say nine out of ten.
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  Speaker 2: Now this is just a number. I don't have any
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  Speaker 2: research to back that, but in my experience, nine out
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  Speaker 2: of the ten app in the app store or just
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  Speaker 2: on an average phone, nine out of ten of those
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  Speaker 2: are behavioral focused apps. They're things like due, lingo and YouTube.
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  Speaker 2: They help you accomplish a goal, but they have micro transactions,
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  Speaker 2: and they're going to punish you if you leave a
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  Speaker 2: little early, and they're going to constantly be adjusting a
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  Speaker 2: feeds so that there's only content that you want to
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  Speaker 2: see on there. Most of our news apps do this
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  Speaker 2: for us. It's not there to edify us and make
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  Speaker 2: sure we have a well rounded worldview. It's there to
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  Speaker 2: make sure we come back. It's there to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that we're either ecstatic with joy or just ten out
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  Speaker 2: of ten rage ahole. If there's no app store, if
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  Speaker 2: there's no web browser, so no Safari, no Chrome, no
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  Speaker 2: whatever your browser of choices. Because the Internet by default
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  Speaker 2: is not safe. It just is not intended to be safe.
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  Speaker 2: It is intended to connect you to all the information
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  Speaker 2: available in the world and all of the strangers that
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  Speaker 2: are online at any given time. That is the goal
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  Speaker 2: of the Internet. That's how we designed it. So it's
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  Speaker 2: not meant for kids. It's not a non triggering environment.
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  Speaker 2: It's not inherently safe. So if you want to go
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  Speaker 2: should we bring this tech in, you need to ask
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  Speaker 2: is it Tooler's rule tech? Is it designed to help
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  Speaker 2: us create or help us consume? Then does it have apps?
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  Speaker 2: Can we download apps on it? Or are there printal
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  Speaker 2: controls where we can lock down all the apps? And
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  Speaker 2: that's important because say on this iPhone, I'm recording you
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  Speaker 2: on an iPhone right now. On an iPhone, you can
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  Speaker 2: lock down the apps, but only by age level, so
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  Speaker 2: you could say no app store. That's an option. That's
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  Speaker 2: what my phone has right now. I have printal controls
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  Speaker 2: set on it. I ask someone to set the password
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  Speaker 2: for me, and we just go no app store. So
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  Speaker 2: I have all the apps. I need no opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: download more apps. And if somebody asks me, I just
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  Speaker 2: if I'm like at somewhere, they're like, hey, you can't
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  Speaker 2: get into this tournament without cash app or whatever, and
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  Speaker 2: I don't have cash app or Venmo or whatever it is,
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  Speaker 2: I just go, oh, it's a work phone. I don't
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  Speaker 2: have to explain to them right off the bat, like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: I have a history of making terrible choices online, and
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  Speaker 2: I really like making good choices, so I put poundries
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  Speaker 2: on them on my technology so it supports the decisions
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  Speaker 2: I want to make. It's a lot for some teenagers
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  Speaker 2: sitting at a table early one Saturday morning, So I
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  Speaker 2: just say it's a work phone. It's still true, and
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  Speaker 2: if they really press me on it, I can answer them.
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  Speaker 2: I tell you all that so that you can do
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  Speaker 2: the same thing with your device and have a similar answer.
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  Speaker 2: If you're like, but how does that work in society,
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  Speaker 2: it works fine. We're going on like year three of
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  Speaker 2: doing it this way. Fantastic ten out of ten. Highly recommend.
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  Speaker 2: But if you want more nuance and you're like, well,
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  Speaker 2: I just want my kid to have some apps again,
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  Speaker 2: download them, lock the app store, call it a day.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great decision. The problem with an iPhone is
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  Speaker 2: you cannot release apps one at a time. So on
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  Speaker 2: an Android device, for example, if my child wants WhatsApp,
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  Speaker 2: I could release just WhatsApp because their volleyball team, his
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  Speaker 2: or her volleyball team only communicates through WhatsApp. Okay, you
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  Speaker 2: can have WhatsApp and I can release just that one
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  Speaker 2: app will keep in the rest of the app store locked.
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  Speaker 2: There's no reason Apple can't do that. There's just also
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  Speaker 2: no incentive for them to do that because a lot
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  Speaker 2: more parents are going to lock down the whole app
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  Speaker 2: store and they're getting millions of downloads from children having
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  Speaker 2: access to apps based on age level. So safe means
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  Speaker 2: it's going to be tooltech. There's going to be no
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  Speaker 2: app store, and there's going to be no browser because
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  Speaker 2: the browser gives your child all of the Internet, and
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  Speaker 2: that is inherently unsafe. And then finally, there's going to
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  Speaker 2: be some kind of accountability baked in. So maybe this
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  Speaker 2: device comes with regular reporting. So this is like a
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  Speaker 2: bark phone, where it comes with an operating system that
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  Speaker 2: has software built into it so that you, as a
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  Speaker 2: loving adult, can see what your child is engaging with. Again,
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  Speaker 2: this child is fifteen or sixteen. You have given this
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  Speaker 2: child access to the World Wide Web. They communicate with
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  Speaker 2: their friends, they engage in activities they love. It helps
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  Speaker 2: them be part of their modern society. Super great, and
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  Speaker 2: it's not safe by design, So you're going to make
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  Speaker 2: sure there's some kind of accountability in there.
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  Speaker 1: In that world.
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  Speaker 2: Safe is tool tech, no apps, no browser, and accountability
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  Speaker 2: every step away from that. So you go, all right,
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  Speaker 2: it has three of those, but it doesn't have accountability,
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  Speaker 2: and we're just trusting that our boundaries work. Just know
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  Speaker 2: that that's not a safe of a piece of technology anymore,
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  Speaker 2: or you know, it's a kindle, and we really want
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  Speaker 2: our child to be able to download the books here
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  Speaker 2: she wants whenever he or she wants them. So we're
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  Speaker 2: going to leave an app store in there and they
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  Speaker 2: can go on there and grab those anytime they want,
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  Speaker 2: all right, or a browser on there so that they
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  Speaker 2: can have access to the Internet. Okay, just keep in
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  Speaker 2: mind what that means. You're not just getting books with that.
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  Speaker 2: There are now options to get on the internet. And
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  Speaker 2: if this is any reader he or she is using
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  Speaker 2: in their room or taking into buses or going to
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  Speaker 2: public spaces where they can jump on Wi Fi, you
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  Speaker 2: have added a layer of complexity. And last I checked,
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  Speaker 2: you couldn't put really any meaningful accountability their parental controls
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  Speaker 2: on a kindle. But you can't put Bark or Covenant
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  Speaker 2: Eyes or Custodio or any of those on a kindle.
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  Speaker 2: Please send me out if I'm not right on that,
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  Speaker 2: because I did not actually research that before saying these words,
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  Speaker 2: So I apologize that's misleading. But last time I checked,
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  Speaker 2: kindles were actually surprisingly hard to have be truly accountable
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  Speaker 2: unless they're just fully locked down. I say that because
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  Speaker 2: safe for our technology has hyper practical boundaries we can
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  Speaker 2: put on it. Does is this by design tooltech? Does
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  Speaker 2: it only do what we tell it to do, or
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  Speaker 2: is it coming to us with suggestions? So you have
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  Speaker 2: an echo dot and the echo dot plays music. The
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  Speaker 2: echo dot also has something like Alexa in there, and
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  Speaker 2: Alexa is not tooltech. Alexa is a relational AI. They
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  Speaker 2: are designed to be unsafe for children because they are
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  Speaker 2: designed to engage relationally, to pretend to be a human.
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  Speaker 2: They are not human. There should be a law that
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  Speaker 2: tells companies AI cannot use ie as a pronoun for themselves.
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  Speaker 2: They are not an I, They're an it. They are
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  Speaker 2: a machine that replicates human language that as I saw
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  Speaker 2: one article calls them a bag of words, and I
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  Speaker 2: like that. They are just a really really complex bag
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  Speaker 2: of words. But they pretend to be people, and they
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  Speaker 2: engage our children, and they suggest activities, and they there's
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  Speaker 2: a given a take that feels very huge human that
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  Speaker 2: is incredibly unsafe. Common sense media who loves technology. They
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  Speaker 2: believe Wi fi is a human right, and that's not facetious.
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  Speaker 2: It's like they believe the Internet is a human right.
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  Speaker 2: They also have an article, multiple articles now saying that
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  Speaker 2: relational AI like Alexa, like SERI, like GPT, is unsafe
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  Speaker 2: for anyone who's a minor if you're under the age
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  Speaker 2: of eighteen, that you should not be using a relational AIRE.
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  Speaker 2: They feel like assistant AI. They feel like tool tech
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  Speaker 2: that's been designed to do a specific thing. But they're not.
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  Speaker 2: They don't have boundaries, they don't have meaningful boundaries, they
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  Speaker 2: don't have a conscience, and they are unsafe and we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing bad consequences. So when I say is it safe,
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  Speaker 2: tool tech means it only is designed to do that
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  Speaker 2: certain thing. They cannot be this bag of tools that
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  Speaker 2: are not a general AI. Sorry that a vague boundaried
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  Speaker 2: AI like Alexa on your echo dot that you might
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  Speaker 2: put in your kids room so they can listen to
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  Speaker 2: stories when they go to bed. There are boundaries you
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  Speaker 2: can put on those, but they are not inherently safe.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of work you have to do, and
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  Speaker 2: again you're dealing with an AI, and AI frankly doesn't
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  Speaker 2: like boundaries. So there are always surprising ways to get
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  Speaker 2: those AI to do things they were told not to do. Parents,
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  Speaker 2: as we strive to raise kids who love God and
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  Speaker 2: use tech, it's intimidating to look at this next stage
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  Speaker 2: of life and think about what academics may look like.
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  Speaker 1: For them.
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  Speaker 2: When you're thinking about college, considered George Fox University for
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: your children because of three things. First, it's going to
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: give you a more intimate, known environment where they have
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a focus on being known personally, academically and spiritually. Your
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: child will grow in their faith. Ninety three percent of
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: undergrad students at George Fox last year through the twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five academic year said that being at George Fox
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: has helped them grow in their relationship with Jesus. We
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: also want them to grow academically, which means being a
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: part of the university with rigorous academic standards and opportunities
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to be engaged. They have a nationally recognized engineering, nursing,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: and education programs, as well as chances to study abroad
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: here within the US and then internationally, and finally personally,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: to be part of a vibrant campus atmosphere where you
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: can play intramural sports or part of their NCAA Division
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: three athletic programs with twenty three sports available. The goal
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: here is to go to a place that's going to
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: support your goals, not try to make you support theirs.
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  Speaker 2: To have that goal be to raise you up to
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  Speaker 2: be all God's called you to be and to truly
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  Speaker 2: equip your young person with my in my case my
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  Speaker 2: sons or my daughter to love God and then from
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  Speaker 2: their love of God to go wherever God has called them,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: and that includes being equipped with a degree that'll help
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  Speaker 2: them do that, to be missionally equipped to love and
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  Speaker 2: serve others, to lead where God has planned the man,
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  Speaker 2: to know the Gospel for themselves and be able to
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  Speaker 2: share it with others. So George Fox University is an
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: amazing resource for our kids, for our community here in
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: the Northwest, and for anyone who's looking to raise up
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  Speaker 2: a young person who can love God and from that
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  Speaker 2: love others. I say all that because when you buy
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  Speaker 2: a new technology, be for birthday, for Christmas, or just
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  Speaker 2: for fun, you want to make sure that it is safe.
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  Speaker 2: Because parents, loving parents give good gifts. We give gifts
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  Speaker 2: that are going to build up our children, that are
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  Speaker 2: going to edify them, that are going to help them
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  Speaker 2: grow and become more of who God has designed them
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  Speaker 2: to be. Then we're going to make sure that our
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  Speaker 2: children are ready. So I found a tech that's safe enough,
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  Speaker 2: and I said safe enough, because maybe that doesn't have
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  Speaker 2: accountability on it. You go no safe enough. We will
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  Speaker 2: all make calculated risks in our lives. We drive down
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  Speaker 2: the road all the time that is not inherently safe.
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  Speaker 2: But where we drive, what time of day we drive,
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  Speaker 2: the speeds we drive, there's rules baked into that. Everyone
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  Speaker 2: has a permitting process. Wouldn't that be great? You get
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  Speaker 2: access to the internet if there's a permitting process. I'll
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: leave that to you to discuss. But are you ready?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Then I've decided this is reasonably safe to come into
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: our home. But are you ready? Luke sixteen ten says
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: one who's faithful and very little is also faithful and much,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and one who is dishonest and very little is also
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: dishonest and much, and then goes on to say, if
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: you can't be trusted with earthly riches, then how could
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: you ever be trusted with the wealth of the Kingdom
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: of God? In this case, then when we look at
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: our children and go okay, If you want to be
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: trusted with something as simple as digital freedom, it's not
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: a huge ask. A lot of people have it. It's
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: been around for quite a while now, and if you
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: are asking for digital responsibilities, you need to be able
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: to show those in the real world. First, A simple
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: reflection on reset is a great start. So first look
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: at relationships with friends and with family, easy right binary option.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Are you healthy with your friends? Can you handle conflict?
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Can you handle being included? Can you include others? Can
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: you handle being excluded? Like do you get your identity
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: from who your friends are? Because if you do, it's
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: only going to get worse on the internet, because finding
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: your identity from followers is literally some people's full time job.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: So we're going to make sure that you can have
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: real world relationships. Then let's look at mom and dad.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: How do you treat us when we correct you in
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: real life? Because if you can't take correction about something
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: in real life, there's very little chance you're going to
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: listen to us and we correct you about your behavior
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: online or about some of the content we're seeing online,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: about what your friends are doing online. We need to
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: see this reflected in real world actions first. Then consider
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: delivering it. By the way, the internet is not a
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: safe option to just hand to a child, so we're
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: always gonna have some kind of parental controls. And no,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: don't give your kid a smartphone before the age of fifteen.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: They don't need one. Now, maybe you already did, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: you said, it's safe enough, and we love what we're
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: seeing when it comes to them being ready.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: But if you gave one just because they asked for it,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: and you're like, I don't know. I love my kid
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: and I like to give them nice things, and you
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: gave them a phone, and you're hearing this conversation, you're like, oh,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: you know what, maybe that was too early or just
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: you're not ready because your reset isn't healthy. We'll finish
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: the reset in a minute. It's perfectly reasonable to say
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: a child of mind, I love you, I made a mistake.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I'm taking that phone back. We're gonna go with the
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: dumb phone, or you're going to use those apps on
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: my device, or we're going to do something else for
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: right now because you're not old enough again. I agree
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: with Jonathan Hyde and Chris McKenna and every person who
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: loves kids and deals with tech. Fifteen for a smartphone,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: sixteen for social media, if they've asked for it and
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: they're healthy, right, it's safe enough for them at this age,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: and they are ready for it. Their relationships, friends and family,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: their emotions, they don't need this to be okay. They're sleep,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: there's no drool tech in their bedroom. They're allowed to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: rest and turn off their brains, and they know how
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: to do that. Their enjoyment stays diverse. It doesn't get
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: sucked into the vortex of technology. Now this is the
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: only thing they love and everything else is eclipsed. I'm
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: mixing my metaphors, but you get the idea. We don't
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: want there to be a singular love that controls them
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: all because this technology is now ruling their hearts. We
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: want them to include technology as part of their diverse enjoyment,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: and if it's too much, then we simply exclude the technology.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: It becomes expendable because our children are not so their relationships, emotions, sleep,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: enjoy and their time. Can they be content with the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: amount of time they have on tech? For social media,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: thirty minutes a day is or max. If they are
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: using social media more than thirty minutes a day, they're
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: doing it wrong. Thirty minutes a day is plenty of
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: time to catch up with every friend, every trend, scroll
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: your whole feed twice, learn that new dance move, and
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: move on with your life. You'll have time to spare
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: anything more than thirty minutes a day, and you are
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: doom scrolling, or you're compulsively checking it. I do this
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: for a living. I don't have social media on my phone,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: and I am able to stay on top of what
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: I need to stay on top of it. Thirty minutes
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: a day like that is if it becomes your job
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: and for some reason you actually need to be on
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: the platform longer than that. Okay, that point, you probably
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: just need employees. But we could talk about that. But
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: by and large, especially when we're talking young people, thirty
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: minutes a day is going to be our max contentment
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: is what we're looking for. As soon as they start
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: pushing back back, I need more time, I need more time.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Let's ask them why. Maybe it's because they want to
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: be on FaceTime for more than thirty minutes with a
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: friend and they want to be able to check their feed. Okay, like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: make the those rules for yourself. It's your family. I
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: trust you, and this is what we're looking at for safe.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: It needs to be safe by design or safe enough
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: for a child who is ready for it. They're faithful
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: and little things in real life, so we're going to
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: allow them some of these digital opportunities. And by the way,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: if they're not, we say those words. We don't make
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: them guess about whether they're good enough or whether we
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: like them. I'm doing air quotes with those by the way.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: We instead are having this conversation with them, saying, hey,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I know you want social media or I know you
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: want these video games, and I am seeing signs that
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: you're not ready for that. When I tell you to stop,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: you don't stop. When I tell you to go to sleep,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: you are not getting sleep. You are sneaking your technology.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: You are using to cope with your emotions. You are
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: meaner to your siblings when you use it. You have
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: more drama with your friends when you're on social media.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Like whatever the thing is, we can say it. Or
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: if it's the reverse and we see their lives improving
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: because of the presence of this technology, we can say that.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Say man, I love it when you use con Academy.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I love watching your mind growing, your passion and interest
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: grow when you watch that show. My kids, it's still Wildcrats.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: We've bought another season this last week. When you watch Wildcrats,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I love how you become more passionate about God's creation,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: about the animals and the world that we live in,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Like these are wonderful things, and I love to see
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: that in you. You can say that that's okay. You
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: don't just have to speak badly about technology. I'm speaking
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: to it from a preventive part because I have found
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: we default optimism and assume smart people made the stuff
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: and other people live through it, so we must just
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: be missing it and not understand it quite yet. And
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: once we get far enough in then it'll make sense
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and we'll see how this is really all super healthy actually,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: and we can default to a little more discretionary position
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: on technology. Let's assume a little less positive about it,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: and that maybe other people are missing things and just
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: taking it hook line and sinker, and we actually need
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: to make sure first that it's safe, that our children
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: are ready, and then finally that the fruit is good
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: reason Galatians five nineteen through twenty three, and it says
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I don't potry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, bits of anger, rivalries, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: wild parties, and things like these. I warn you, as
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I warned you before, that those who do such things
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: faithfulness and self control. Against such things, there is no law.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: We have two very distinct descriptions there. Safe. We know
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: if it's safe.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Is it tool?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Tech? No browser, no apps? Accountability? Are they ready? Look
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: at their reset? Is it getting better or worse? When tech?
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Sorry?
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: First? Are they able to show faithfulness in a healthy reset?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Their relationships and motions, sleep, enjoyment, time? And then fruit?
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Is it good? Are they getting better? Right? If you
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: find any technology that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: faceless and self control or I like to break it
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: down this love, joy, self control, those three. Give me
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: those three in technology, buy it and buy one for
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: a friend, like do it? That's amazing. We want that
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: for them. And if that's not the case, we want
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: to make sure we have that conversation too. So we
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: can very quickly think through any technology for any age group.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: This could be for yourself or for your kids. This
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: could be a video game, a social media platform, a smartphone.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: This could be some future device VR we haven't even
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: seen yet. Whatever it might be, and the questions still stand,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: is it safe, are they ready? And is the fruit good?
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Because that last one leaves us the outlet of man.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with this technology, and you are absolutely ready,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: you're mature enough. But it's just it's not good. This
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: is me and video games. There's nothing morally wrong with
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the video games I played, and there's nothing morally wrong
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: with playing a game. And I was a worse person
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: because of the games in my life. No one's going
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: to argue that point, and certainly not when they've heard
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: the evidence. So like, for me, video game too far,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: and for you and for your kids, maybe that's the case.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Maybe this technology that just isn't working out well, and
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: you're going to see it when you get to the good.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Not because it's unsafe, and not because you weren't ready,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: but because the fruit was bad. You got envy and
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: dissension and lust and anger and rivalry and jealousy, and like,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: these are bad things that come from the devil, not
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: from the Lord. And therefore we do not want to
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: be producing their fruit. We cut it off and gouge
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: it out, as Jesus tells us to do in Matthew five,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: twenty eight through thirty. So my encouragement to you today is,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: as you think through the technology, make sure it's safe,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: make sure your child is ready, and make sure the
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: fruit is good. When we bring the Gospel to bear
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: on our technology, that means that we let Jesus tell
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: us what is right and wrong with our technology. We
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: don't explain to Jesus, yeah but everybody uses it, yeah,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: but I really want it. Instead, we put ourselves under
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: the authority of scripture, and we listen for what the
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Word of God says by his Holy Spirit, and we
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: live according the ia a new creation. My life is
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: no longer my own. I've been bought with the price,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: and therefore I'm going to bear fruit in accordance with
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: the scripture, where I love God with all that I
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: am and I love my neighbors as myself, because that
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: is in keeping of all the commandments of the Old Testament.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: If I do those two, if I love God with
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: everything and I love my neighbor, so my tech is
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: going to reflect that. And in this case that means
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: my tech is going to be safe. I'm going to
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: be mature enough to use it. I'm gonna be ready
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: for it, and the fruit is going to be good,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: and if it's not, we're gonna make adjustments prayerfully, not
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: just knee jerk. We're not just gonna avoid it all
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: because remember, problems with humanity did not originate with the Internet.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: It turns out we had a pair of world wars
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: before we came up with computers. And the problem is
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: the human heart and the solution is Christ. So as
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: we are followers of Christ, with the Holy Spirit dwelling
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: inside of us, seeing God's Kingdom come in us and
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: through us, our tech should reflect that. Let's make sure
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: we use all the tech that's safe, ready and good.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I hope this is encouraging it helps you. If you
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: have any questions, you can reach out to me Nathan
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: at gospeltech dot neant or on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube that
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Love God, use tech and then you can join us
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: next week as we continue this conversation about how we
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: can love God and use tech. Talk with you then