Social Media | Jonathan's Blog From The Source

How to Help Your Kids Dodge Digital Distractions

Posted on: 07/14/19 11:53 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Hands down, the biggest question I’m asked at my parent workshops is, “How can we help our kids if they are spending too much time with screens?”

Great question. And here’s another place you can find the answer.

I’ve been collaborating with Focus on the Family a lot lately, getting to know their leaders (my podcast interviewing Jim and John from the Focus Daily Show), speaking for them, writing articles, shooting podcasts and doing radio shows. It’s been fun working with them in this role, so much in fact that they have brought me on as a “Focus on the Family Associate.”

This doesn’t mean we’re married… but we’re dating. 🙂

In short, I provide them with content, and they plug much of our content at TheSource4Parents.com. A win/win for both ministries.

They just released one of my new articles on their site with four tips moms and dads can use to help their kids who might be clocking in too much screen time Continue reading “How to Help Your Kids Dodge Digital Distractions” »

Posted in Parenting, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: parenting, screen time, smartphone, smartphone addiction | Leave A Comment

Helping Teens Become Wise with Their Screens

Posted on: 05/15/19 3:22 AM | by Jonathan McKee

How should parents, mentors, teachers and youth workers respond to a generation that can’t seem to pry their eyes from their screens? The answer is conversations… and here is a YouTube video where I present four necessary conversations we need to have with today’s young people!

This is a talk I gave at Summit Ministries’ Basecamp event in Colorado Springs last week… and they just posted my talk to YouTube! The topic was helping teens become wise with their screens… only 30 minutes and change. Enjoy! (He introduces me at 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.) Continue reading “Helping Teens Become Wise with Their Screens” »

Posted in Internet, Music, Parenting, Self Image, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: screen time, smartphones, social media | Leave A Comment

Teens & Social Media 2018

Posted on: 09/17/18 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Common Sense Media just came out with their brand new report about teens and social media revealing exactly how many teens now have smartphones (89%), their favorite apps (Snapchat), their feelings about how social media makes them feel (they’re fooling themselves) … here’s their infographic with the highlights: Continue reading “Teens & Social Media 2018” »

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, News, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: common sense media, social media, teens | Leave A Comment

Walking Through Social Media Safety with Jim Daly

Posted on: 08/6/18 11:20 AM | by Jonathan McKee

My Interview on
Focus on the Family
This Wednesday

I always enjoy the dialogue with Jim and John when I’m invited to be a guest on the Focus on the Family daily broadcast. On this Wednesday’s broadcast Jim interviewed me about my new book The Teen’s Guide to Social Media & Mobile Devices, asking how it can help parents open up this important dialogue with their kids. At this point in the interview he asked me how to help parents engage in a conversation about online safety in a way that kids will actually listen.

Here’s my reply:

You can catch the whole show on their broadcast this Wednesday on Focus on the Family… or online at FocusOnTheFamily.com

Posted in Parenting, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media | Tags: Focus on the Family, Online predators, online safety, Safety from online predators, social media, Social Media Safety, teens and social media | Leave A Comment

The Newest on Teens, Social Media & Technology

Posted on: 07/24/18 3:33 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Pew Research just released their newest report on Teens, Social Media & Technology giving us the newest numbers confirming what we already knew: almost all teens have smartphones and use social media a lot!

But their numbers also revealed some interesting realities about where teens navigate and their perceptions about social media. Here are some random facts that stood out to me from their report:

95% of teens have access to a smartphone. That’s huge! They don’t even talk about phone ownership, but access. Last time Pew released this report (in 2015) 73% owned a phone and 85% had access.
Only 3% didn’t use social media Continue reading “The Newest on Teens, Social Media & Technology” »

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: smartphone ownership among teens, smartphones, social media, teens, teens on instagram, teens on snapchat, teens on social media | Leave A Comment

Does Google and Apple care about your kids’ digital addiction?

Posted on: 06/5/18 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Yes and finally yes? (It’s about time!)

We’ve all heard stories of tech companies concocting evil plans to launch new gadgets and apps addicting children to their devices. Sound like a rumor? Sadly, these legends have proved to be true on many levels. Like when former Facebook president Sean Parker had second thoughts about what the social network was doing to our children’s brains and cast a little insight behind the scenes.

“It was developed to be addictive,” he admitted.

He wasn’t alone in his concerns. In fact a Continue reading “Does Google and Apple care about your kids’ digital addiction?” »

Posted in News, Parenting, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: Apple, digital health, Google, smartphone addiction | Leave A Comment

Refreshingly brutal advice to young guys

Posted on: 04/24/18 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Today’s guys face a lot of distractions… a lot more than I faced as a young man.

Let’s be honest. When I was 13 in 1983 I had access to porn, drugs, and raunchy entertainment media.

But porn wasn’t just a click away in my pocket, it was in a magazine at my friend’s house if we dared to sneak into his dad’s bedroom.
Marijuana was available, but it wasn’t mainstream or encouraged… and it sure wasn’t legal.
I loved movies, music and television, but my house had one screen and a boombox. Now I have a dozen screens, and my entire entertainment media library is available in the cloud. Name a movie or music video. I can watch it within seconds, regardless of rating.

But I think the biggest difference between then and now is Continue reading “Refreshingly brutal advice to young guys” »

Four conversations parents must have

Posted on: 04/17/18 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

As requests are coming in for speaking this fall, I wanted to let you know about a new workshop I’m launching… FOUR CONVERSATIONS! It’s the first parent workshop I’m doing where I have parents and kids in the same room!

Right now my go-to workshop for parents is PARENTING THE SMARTPHONE GENERATION… I taught this workshop in almost 30 churches in the U.S. last year Continue reading “Four conversations parents must have” »

Posted in Parenting, Smartphones/Cell Phones, Social Media, Speaking/Training | Tags: Jonathan McKee, parenting, parenting teens, phone contracts, smartphones, social media, teens | Leave A Comment

Lil Dicky gets a lil raunchy (and how parents should respond)

Posted on: 04/10/18 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

The song debuted in the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. The music video is full of celebrity cameos and has already garnered over 100 million views. When I mentioned that particular song speaking at a church last Sunday morning, teens in the audience literally shouted, “Yeah!” in acclamation (and I mentioned about a dozen songs).

I’m talking about the brand new racy music video from Lil Dicky, Freaky Friday, where Lil Dicky wakes up as Chris Brown and Chris Brown as Lil Dicky. The music video is creative, kids think it’s hilarious, and it’s full of sexual references and imagery. Continue reading “Lil Dicky gets a lil raunchy (and how parents should respond)” »

Posted in Entertainment Media, Music, Parenting, Social Media, Youth Culture | Tags: Chris Brown, engaging teenagers in conversation, Freaky Friday music video, Lil Dicky, parenting, teenagers | Leave A Comment