5 SOLUTIONS FOR KIDS ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & TEXTING

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I recently read an article by Michael Hyatt called “What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (And What We Can Do About It).”  Michael’s post was based on an article he read in Newsweek called “Tweets, Texts, E-mail and Posts: Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy?”

Both are great articles, but some of the info has me jacked up…

• New brain scan technology shows that our brains are being rewired. Heavy web users have fundamentally altered prefrontal cortexes. The brains of Internet addicts, it turns out, look like the brains of drug and alcohol addicts. Even worse, Chinese researchers have shown that our grey matter—the part of the brain responsible for the processing of speech, memory, motor control, emotion, sensory, and other information—is shrinking or atrophying.
• Numerous studies show that the more a person hangs out online the worse they are likely to feel. Web use often displaces sleep, exercise, and face-to-face exchanges, all of which can lead to loneliness, a sense of isolation, and depression.

Ok…it’s time to make some changes at the Sprad home!!

5 SOLUTIONS FOR KIDS ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & TEXTING…

• BURN THE PHONE:  In the 80′s my youth pastor would have a “burn the devil’s music” party.  He would preach a ridiculous, convicting, guilt ridden sermon and I would bring my Loverboy, Def Leppard and Grease double fold out album to the party and burn them so that Jesus would like me more.  (Remember those parties?)  I think we should have a burn the devil’s phone party!!  If your son is addicted to how many LIKES he gets on Instagram, or if your daughter sends/receives 3,700 texts a month like most teens… BURN THE PHONE!  If that doesn’t work for you, try one of the next 4. 
• REMOVE THE PHONE FROM YOUR SON’S HAND:  Simple solution, but give it a shot.  I will actually remove the phone from my son’s hand for certain periods of time.  “Cole,  you are not allowed to be on your phone from ‘xyz time to xyz’ time.”  I don’t want to ruin his social life, coolness factor and great self esteem from how many friends he has on Facebook, but I don’t want him to fall into the abyss of mind altering, disappear from life mobile surfing and addiction either.
• NO DORMIR CON IPHONE:  This is a huge, non-negotiable, I will put a boot up your hind end law in the Sprad home.  We don’t let our kiddos go to bed with their phone.  Nope!  Not gonna happen!  I want my kiddos meditating on Jesus, the catastrophic destruction awaiting us in the Book of Revelation or the Team Sprad “NO CROCS” commitment but we will not fall asleep to Facebook, Instagram or texting!
• START EM YOUNG:  The opportunities for your young ens’ to create electronic focused habits are endless.  I don’t think you should ban LeapFrog, PSP or other great learning tools…just create boundaries at a young age.
• SCREW THE RULES:  I have a tendency to create weak, behavior modifying rules to get my kids to act a certain way.  Maybe we should NOT impose any of the rules mentioned above and simply teach our kids to set their own boundaries, moderation and how to make wise choices.  Novel idea!!?!

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share 1 solution you will start today.

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