Screens, Streams, and the Savior

Screens, Streams, and the Savior: Helping Your Teen Discern Media with Wisdom

Oh, the dreaded technology battles. 

While battles may seem too harsh a word, I assure you it’s not. This doesn’t mean that we have had fights with my son over technology and blood has been spilled over it. It does mean that my wife and I have really had to wrestle with what technology is appropriate for our son at that point.

But the older our son gets, the more important it is to instill wisdom in him. In a couple of years, he won’t have us to guide him in what technology and media he uses. He needs and will need to know how to discern media messages.

We are guiding him to be a thoughtful, faithful critic of media messages instead of a passive consumer.

So why does this matter? Well, according to various sources, teens spend 7-9 hours per day consuming media. This media shapes them, forming them, often into people that we don’t want them to be.

So, how do we help our teens move from passive consumer to a thoughtful and faithful critic?

Start With Shared Screens

This isn’t so you can spy on them and track their every move. Rather this stage is to help them process the messages and separate the truth from the lie. Some questions to ask are:

• What do you think this is saying about love/success/life?

• How does this line up with what we believe?

Teach Them to Spot the Lie (and truth) Beneath the Story

Stories and songs are meant to capture our attention and carry a worldview. Sometimes positive and sometimes negative. And most of the time, a twisted mess of both. Some questions to teach them to ask are:

• What does this teach about what it means to be human?

  • Where does this line up with Scripture?

  • Where does this differ from Scripture?

• How does this teach us to view the world?

Use These QuestionsAs your teen grows up, they will come home wanting to watch this show, or listen to that song, or download that app. Here are some questions to help them process whether or not they should and how they should interact with the messages.

• Why do you think everyone is talking about this show/song/app?

• What messages about the world, relationships, and/or people is it sending?

• Does this make you want to be more like Jesus…or someone else?

One last thing: Sometimes, you will need to set very clear boundaries that your teen considers mean. Do your best to explain the reasoning for your boundaries and stick to them, even if it means taking away devices. My encouragement would be to save that for only extreme cases. Remember that they are only a few years away from having to make these decisions on their own.

Mike VanDrie                                                                                                                                                 

Pastor of Discipleship & Mission