Do you remember the last time you dropped your middle-schooler off downtown in the big city nearest you? I mean let them and their friends out in the middle of… well, you know what I mean, don’t you? No? Well, how about the last time you approved of your high-school-age kids going to the local red light district or spending time in the local nude bar/club? Shocked? Me too! That’s why I’m writing this blog post.
Do you find this offensive? I do too. That’s why we need to talk about this together. I am going to provide an unashamed indirect sales pitch, but it won’t be by asking you to buy something. I’m just going to share with you some real-world knowledge about the Internet and current social media platforms, and then share a few stories about the realities of collaboration. You decide what you should do and what is best for your family.
My Kids Know More Than I do About Social Media
When was the last time you said those words or something similar? Have you ever just thrown up your hands and given up trying to understand what little Johnny is doing playing all those video games or Little Suzie is doing during all of those hours “on-line with her friends?”
Worried? Well, you should be…
The fact is that your children may know quite a bit more than you do about social media and the Internet. That’s still no excuse for looking the other way while they wander alone, or with their “friends,” through the largest red-light district in the world.
Why You and Your Spouse Need to Read this Blog
I think I will try to actually blog here. I tend to write articles more than blogs, because the topics I tend to address don’t lend themselves well to short sound bites or 2-3 minute blog reads. But, I think maybe if we travel this dark alley together and stay focused on specific concerns that parents and teachers need to have, maybe we can identify some sound practices for teachers, schools and parents when it comes to students and children and how we choose to teach and parent in matters related to on-line behavior.
If I told you that your children are living in a war zone where actual “bad-actors” are deliberately manipulating them and others like them – would you believe me? What if I told you that your children are playing games with each other in the midst of drug dealing thugs like the cartels, organized crime syndicates, professional pimps and call-girls and worse? Would you believe me? Have you considered that while you are on Facebook arguing with people you barely know about topics you probably know less about than the people discussing them, you are teaching your kids that this kind of nonsensical behavior is “normal.”
We’ve lost a sense for TRUTH because “everyone” has an opinion, and in the delusional on-line world, we come to believe what we believe, even in many cases when we are wrong. Confirmation bias becomes a dynamic that feeds both dysfunction and disinformation. In the chaos of lost thought, lies become true to us and TRUTH gets lost in the turbulence.
We’ve lost a sense for TRUTH because “everyone” has an opinion, and in the delusional on-line world, we come to believe what we believe, even in many cases when we are wrong.
davidHENDERMAN (2020)
Artificial Intelligence then collects the data, confirms our behavior patterns and then feeds us what someone behind the scenes wants us to know, do or act on… Behavior modification and control are not only possible, but through on-line data collection, we have become predictable and those predictions become the data needed to control our behaviors.
Don’t dismiss this as if to say you are immune or these deliberate dynamics aren’t affecting you or your family. They are…
These phenomena prompted several books to be written to address these emerging social disfunctions. But, the average person has literally no idea these emotional and psychological conditions exist, or more, that they may be susceptible to them the more they engage and focus their virtual life inside the Internet and Social Media.
Would you believe me if I told you that your children’s behavior is being manipulated and controlled in such a way as to cause them to do things they would not ordinarily do outside of the Internet, and that this behavior will at times carry over into their ‘real lives’ outside their cyber world?
What do you know about on-line addictions and how this relates to drugs, sex, alcohol, violence and other addictions rising in young people at alarming rates across the U.S. and even the world?
What about suicide? Do you believe that middle school children are taking their lives because of Internet behaviors and addictions? If not, you’re fooling yourself. I think I have probably cast a large enough dark cloud over the proverbial “cloud” we call the Internet – but before I move on, please take note that I have barely scratched the surface.
One teacher I interviewed told me that she had to download a copy of the “Urban Dictionary” just to be able to keep up with and understand what her middle school students were talking about on a daily basis. She said much of it is sexually oriented and a lot of it is deviant at best.
Is this what you want for your children or your family? In the next blog, I’ll get specific. We’ll begin to deal with real-world topics and even some cases. I’d like to talk with you candidly about Artificial Intelligence and how it is being used to manipulate and control your behavior. Yes – you.
It’s time that people who care about the country and the rising generations of future leaders and citizens begin to THINK AGAIN. In one case, an elderly woman who is homebound lives in the confines of Facebook and the news. Literally, she is no longer able to sit down and read a book. Her thoughts and emotions are largely controlled by the news and the only social interaction she has in her life is largely those “friends” she barely knows on Facebook.
Raising a Standard Against Social Anarchy
Intelligent Social Media (ISM) was designed and built to counter the toxic affects of social media in the government and educational space. It looks and acts a lot like social media and provides a platform that requires little learning curve for those who use it in the corporate, government or educational space. However, in reality, it is a user-friendly, ultra-secure space that allows for learning, collaboration, information sharing and multi-media communications without the risks associated with the big platforms that monitor, manipulate and sell you and your identity for profit.
In the end, there is a huge price to pay for “free.” ISM will never sell or even monitor a person’s information. The platform is designed to offer users complete security while allowing decisions, operations and sharing to be done completely free of manipulation, monitoring, and the deliberate harvesting of personal information and data.
If you can imagine all the “tools” you use daily at your fingertips in one secure platform, that is Intelligent Social Media. If you can imagine a secure platform that allows you to perform daily tasks just like you do at home or work, without the intrusion of your personal information being monitored so-as to cause you to buy or spontaneously act on things you might not do otherwise… that is Intelligent Social Media.
If you would like to share information privately and without fear of compromise and without fear of others “stalking, arguing and maneuvering to manipulate you – then you should really take a little time to look at and understand how ISM can help you and your family, school, business or first responder agency.
The Next Blog
So this blog is literally off the top of my head. I sat down here and banged this out to get things moving. The more I think about this and the more I learn from our customers, partners, and from those I professionally deal with in this area, I am all the more convinced that social media is without question the most dangerous weapon of mass destruction of our time. While I’ve spoken on this topic multiple times over the years, I have never seen a time in history where the toxins of social media and the power of networks have become so destructive.
If the Christian community continues to do virtually nothing, our families and schools will suffer greater losses that we can imagine. COVID has not helped these phenomena. People are now spending more time on-line and both gaming and social activities are at an all-time high. Literally, our societal behavior is changing and for whatever reason, we seem to be ok with it.
You and your children are at risk and I’d like to try to help. Let me give this a little thought and we’ll start here. Please don’t allow the Internet to babysit your kids. Please don’t think that your grown kids are immune. Let’s travel some of these places together and let’s see if we can find solutions to these problems that very few seem to want to talk about these days.
Give it some thought, and I’ll see you back here in a few days!
©2020 davidHENDERMAN
CenturionXL 