Home Sweet Home and the Internet

Internet Technology and the Christian Culture in the Home.

When a parent allows unlimited internet usage and screen time in the home, this is what the parent is effectively doing:

“Hey kids! Guess what?! I had this brilliant brainstorm, this idea that I think would be wonderful for our home culture! I’d like to welcome as many unwanted visitors to our home as possible, so here’s the plan… I am going to take out the front door to the house and install an unlocked revolving door instead! Is this brilliant or what! Visitors can come and go any time they want, and they won’t even have to ask our  permission! This revolving door will have no locks or controls, so it’s going to be an unlimited influx of questionable morals and bad influences, 24/7! Yes! We will have a virtual highway of harmful people and ideas entering and exiting our sacred home to their heart’s content. Imagine that! And at your fingertips you kids will be exposed to the worst that mankind has to offer… pornography and violent entertainment that actually rewires your brain; exposure to terrible ideas like gender theory and racial animus; sexual grooming for possible hook-ups; the virtues of social media; cyberbullying and mean-spirited interactions with friends and strangers alike! And don’t forget the added benefits of mental ailments like depression, anxiety, and loneliness; the shrinking of the healthy imagination; social impairment; and the growing inability to empathize with others or have the tools for any healthy human interactions. I know you’ll like this, kids… your addiction to all those screens will virtually guarantee poor performance in school! Yes! You’ll be behind in no time! To make matters even better, you kids can get addicted to this! You can spend countless hours engaging in the most harmful stuff imaginable! On top of that, all these visitors will make sure you don’t have adequate sleep at night, when you need your brain to rest so it can develop properly! Really now, what’s the downside here, kids? What’s there not to like?  

This is the practical effects of a parent who doesn’t bother to set healthy guidelines for screen time and internet for their children. Is it any wonder that so many school districts, not to mention entire states, have banned smartphones in their schools? Is it any wonder that social scientists like Jonathon Haidt has warned us that parents are probably being overprotective when it comes to the outside world, and underprotective when it comes to the internet and screen time?

Yes, there is plenty to like about what can be found on the internet, and what can be done better and more effectively. So, the internet and its vehicles like smartphones, computers and tablets are here to stay. That means that we need to learn how to manage them in our home, in cooperation  with our children. A Christ-centered home will not be so for very long if the revolving door of unlimited internet usage replaces the home’s front door with a lock and camera. We all need the innocence of the dove and the shrewdness of the snake for this. Learn to discern Christianly.