I was not raised in this country; at age five, my parents moved my older brother and me to Central America. For ten years, we lived in three different countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras. While my cousins and friends in the U.S. were starting to learn about Game Boys, Walkmans, and computers, my brother and I were climbing trees, running, and playing in the rain. At the time, we resented our parents for tearing us away from our family, and we did not see or understand the value of the life they were exposing us and raising us in. In all three countries, we lived on closed university campuses, so after we were done with school, we would walk home with our friends, do our homework, and then go back out to play with those same friends. With little to do, the campus was our playground; we played cops and robbers. When it rained, we took out our slip-and-slide that we had been sent from a family member and played for hours sliding in the rain, getting muddy and wet without a care in the world. In one of our schools, we had a lake behind the school. We spent all day at the lake in the summer, playing and swimming. If we finished our homework early, we would play soccer or head to a friend’s house to hang out. Everyone on campus knew us, knew our parents, and we felt protected at all times; we only came home to sleep and eat.<\/p>\n
When we returned to the U.S., I was 15 and entering High school; I went from being able to go anywhere to feeling restricted and confined. My parents now drove me to school and picked me up; I went to a fairly wealthy school (even though my parents weren’t) where kids had cars and cellphones and went to lunch together off campus, and I once again resented my parents for bringing me back to a culture I could not identify with. I was 18 when I finally purchased myself a cellphone; I could only use one after 9 pm because my plan had very limited minutes, and I could only text on nights and weekends. At 19, with my parent’s help, I purchased my first vehicle; I was a freshman in college, working two jobs and going to school full-time. Now, I have a 13-year-old who is telling me which car he wants when he turns 16 and complaining because his school has banned phones at school.<\/p>\n
Growing up is hard. Hormones are changing, and information is being thrown at you from different places: school, home, church, friends, etc. We are trying to decide who we will be in this big world and what our place will be, and if that doesn’t seem like enough pressure, somewhere along the lines, we thought adding the internet and surrounding our lives with technology was a great idea.<\/p>\n
In his book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman examines the profound impact of technology on society; he argues that we have transitioned from a tool-using culture to a “technopoly,” a society where technology dominates every aspect of our lives. A tool-using culture is a social group that is in possession of a powerful tool but retains collective control over when and how such a tool is used. “But within a technopoly, the tool becomes the master. It takes on a life of its own, steamrolling over many prior moral convictions or constraints.\u201d[1]<\/a> As I read this, I felt the urge to shut my son’s computer and take his phone away, and then I remembered he was doing homework on said computer and using his phone as a calculator. So, how do we raise kids in a world where our moral convictions are heavily influenced by technology, but we are also forced to utilize it?<\/p>\n Growing up, it was easy to block out the world because you could not access it; your world consisted of those near you. If your friend had a Barbie that you wanted, you asked her to play with you. If she had a haircut or top you liked, you asked your mom if you could have something similar, but if the answer were no, you would not feel like an outsider. It was so much easier to keep your individuality. Social media changed everything for us; it exposed us to the world. While it allowed us to connect with people and receive information quickly, it also gave people the power to alter the way they saw and thought of themselves.<\/p>\n In his article “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” Jonathan Haidt argues that the rise of social media platforms has significantly altered public discourse, leading to increased polarization and the spread of misinformation. He notes that these platforms often prioritize sensational content, undermining rational debate.[2]<\/a> I am typing this here, wondering if the articles we read this week have misinformed us and if we are being fed content that resonates with someone with an agenda. Something created to help our society has become a tool many of us fear and do not trust. What is genuine and honest, and what has been curated to capture our attention and change our ideologies?<\/p>\n I could not complete this degree without the internet, social media, AI, and other platforms, so I am thankful for it. However, as I read article after article for this week’s assignment, I walked away feeling conflicted and a bit frustrated. It seems hypocritical for us to be concerned about this era of technology, but then we depend on and push it on people for so many things. We do school online, research, papers, etc, but at the same time, we are being told we are exposing ourselves and our children to too much too quickly. How do we stop or slow it down?<\/p>\n The nature of this assignment was not to cause all these conflicting feelings, or perhaps it was, but what I am choosing to take away from what I read this week is that knowledge is power. How we choose to use that knowledge and that power is what matters. In their article “The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why it Feels like Everything is Going Haywire,” Haidt and Rose-Stockwell discuss how our founding fathers designed the U.S. Constitution as an exercise in intelligent design. They knew that most previous democracies had been unstable and short-lived. “But they were excellent psychologists, and they strove to create institutions and procedures that would work with human nature to resist the forces that had torn apart so many other attempts at self-governance.” [3]<\/a><\/p>\n Haidt and Rose-Stockwell explain that James Madison, in his concern of this nation being torn apart, included in the Constitution mechanisms to slow things down, let passions cool, and encourage reflection and deliberation. According to the authors, Madison’s design has proved durable; “But what would happen to American democracy if, one day in the early 21st century, a technology appeared that over the course of a decade changed several fundamental parameters of social and political life?” [4]<\/a><\/p>\n I wonder what the thoughts of our founding fathers would be seeing our nation in the condition that it is in. How would they react, having lived through this last election and weeks where social media has been used as a platform and tool to divide the American people rather than unite them? And I can’t help but think what Christ would think seeing His people so divided, full of hatred and distrust, rather than coming together to unite in love.<\/p>\n If knowledge is power, we have learned that while the internet and technology can be dangerous, they can do great things if used correctly. Next time we grab our phones and start scrolling, looking for funny puppy videos or how to make sourdough bread, I encourage us to use the power we have acquired through our readings and use those platforms for good. Ask yourself: How would Jesus use social media?<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Smyth, Nicolas. Nicholas Smyth, \u201cSmash The Technopoly!\u201d, March 9, 2023, https:\/\/www.afterbabel.com\/p\/smash-the-technopoly?r=2cgdda&utm_medium=email.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt. “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid” The Atlantic<\/em>, October 10, 2025.https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2022\/05\/social-media-democracy-trust-babel\/629369\/<\/p>\n <\/p>\n