At our family meeting this week we discussed earphone culture.

April expressed her heart that spontaneous interactions that build relationships aren’t happening as often because there’s too much earphone wearing going on.

These are hard conversations.

Listening to music can provide energy.

Listening to audiobooks is educational.

How do you balance these immediate goods with the subtle way this technology is affecting our family culture?

It’s so much easier to see the immediate upside to new technologies but we often don’t recognize the unintended downside until the damage is done.

Every technology is a trade off.

But what’s being traded isn’t obvious.

That’s why it’s important to proactively articulate what kind of family culture you want to cultivate.

Then you’ll notice when that culture is threatened.

There’s a value inside of April’s heart that needs to be expressed and defended.

Are there values deep in your heart that are being subtly eroded by a technology?

What is that value?

Is it important enough to make that value core to your family’s culture?

Then share your heart and see if you can win your family over.

These are hard conversations but necessary.

New technologies will steadily remake your family culture if you don’t choose to work together to make it on purpose.

Jeremy

This entry is a part of Jeremy’s Journal, a newsletter Jeremy sends out every Wednesday morning to encourage you on your parenting journey. You can sign up to get them every Wednesday here.