Media Content and the De-formation of our Kids

Here’s a warning to parents from Union University’s Phil Davignon. In a Touchstone article on increased secularization, he says we should be concerned about the influence of media content on our kids, but at the same time we let our kids watch all kinds of things online. He writes, “It is an open secret that the design for these apps relies on the same principles as casinos do. Psychologists suggest that using the language of addiction is no mere metaphor, since apps such as TikTok efficiently deliver a dopamine hit, leaving people craving more. Christian parents may prefer content-neutral social media to films with foul language, but doing so fails to recognize that form matters. Christians are people of the Word. To love God means to cultivate a mind that attends to God’s presence in the Word of Scripture and the Logos of Creation. The TikTok generation is losing the capability to attend to anything of substance, as their minds become accustomed to a steady stream of online diversions.”