Are you my Daddy?
Try this thought stream on for size.
Where as Children are always looking for affirmation...
and where as historically Children have received said affirmation from their Dad...
and where as psychologists almost completely agree that the majority of a child's self-esteem comes from their interaction and encouragement from their fathers...
and where as our society has a complete and utter vacuum of healthy male role models, and even fewer father figures...
and where as the internet, blogs, chat rooms, my space, youtube, lavalife and the like have now replaced the personal affirmation benefactor in the lives of children (old and young) world wide.
Be it resolved that from this moment on we officially change the name from the internet and begin to call it by the name indicative of the purpose it is serving worldwide...DAD.
Has Daddie been replaced by Google?
Try this thought stream on for size.
Where as Children are always looking for affirmation... and where as historically Children have received said affirmation from their Dad...
and where as psychologists almost completely agree that the majority of a child's self-esteem comes from their interaction and encouragement from their fathers...
and where as our society has a complete and utter vacuum of healthy male role models, and even fewer father figures...
and where as the internet, blogs, chat rooms, my space, youtube, lavalife and the like have now replaced the personal affirmation benefactor in the lives of children (old and young) world wide.
Be it resolved that from this moment on we officially change the name from the internet and begin to call it by the name indicative of the purpose it is serving worldwide...DAD.
Has Daddie been replaced by Google?
oh come on...be bold...think about it...it's dark, you've caps locked your home you are tucking your children in bed...they have logged off for the night and are ready to let their screensaver take the daily images away...you gently backspace their sheets under their mainframe, set their real player playlist with some calming and soothing music that will help them defrag their day...Until they can esc in the morning...and press start to a new day...
tickle tickle...google loves you...
tickle tickle...google loves you...
8 comments:
Dave - I just reviewed your 'blog' site. Quite an assortment of thought processes.
I'll give you a call to discuss the potential opportunity you presented this Sunday past.
Thanks
Sounds great Bill...looking forward to it.
Dave - replace the word Internet with television and this is a conversation society was having ten years ago! Had we had more meaningful conversations at that time, perhaps we could have avoided this cultural abyss.
Cultural conservatives blame the entertainment industry. Liberals, especially those dependent on entertainment industry dollars, blame the gun industry. The gun industry blames everyone else. Religious conservatives blame the breakdown of family. Feminists point out that all the teen-aged assassins from Littleton to Atlanta are future men. Many educators and parents blame a corrosive and soul-less youth culture (a wholly owned subsidiary of the entertainment industry). Youth culture outsiders blame an officially sanctioned school culture of intolerance and repression that drives today's young rebels over the edge. Can they all be right?!
The world changed in the early 1980s when the Federal Communications Commission dropped the limit on the number of ads allowed per hour on TV. In the same spirit of deregulation they dropped the requirement for broadcasters to offer even a token amount of constructive children's programming. At the same time, cable access became the middle-class cultural norm. The strategy was "narrow"-casting and communities and families were divided into niche markets. You got Lifetime for Mom; ESPN for Dad; MTV for Big Brother; Nickelodeon for Little Sis; and AMC for Grandma. By the end of the 1980s, many middle-class households had a TV, with cable connection, in every bedroom.
Looking back we were "lucky" to have TV as our "Daddie." Some 25 years later, our new "Daddie," in the Internet form can still numb our soul and mind - but now he offers porn, real-life violence, bomb-making classes, hate-material and sexual predators waiting to be your friend.
There is a way to end this Cultural Abyss - but society isn’t ready to see that many "Daddies" unemployed to make it happen.
Katie and Scott welcome to our world...nice to have you onboard.
Could not agree with you more on your premise about TV stay with us because I am most interested to see what the emerging leadership across Canada has to say...
We're listening...
Dave:
It's a harsh reality today isn't it? I mean we are a society that likes to use whatever it can to tend to our children. Sit them down in front of the built in babysitter to watch who knows what, while mommy and daddy check the email or the blog. Jr comes over and says "daddy can we play outside", "not now son, daddy just has to finish today’s blog, go play your play station 3, see if you can kill all the bad guys today!" And we wonder why our kids are a generation of angry, maladjusted youth with no self respect for themselves let alone anyone else or their surroundings. Dave you have hit it right. The huge corporations like Apple or Microsoft just love all this techno stuff to make it easier for our kids to grow up and for us to raise them. So who then is really in control here? The parents or the companies? This all has a familiar ring to it. Remember HAL from 2001 space odyssey? Could HAL be taking over the role of Dad.... closer to reality than we think? But let’s not push all the blame here on the big corporations. Yes they are totally irresponsible in my view for the negative impact on our kids, but let’s look to the destruction of the family, the tearing down the idea that Dad is the head of the household and that Dad is the one we look to for the answers. Society has seen to it that no longer is Dad an important role model or father figure here. Dad can be replaced with a 17 inch monitor and a nice mouse and I can find my dad on Myspace, because he will listen to me much better than the dude sitting in his chair with remote in hand. While all the techno stuff has its place and I love it don’t get me wrong. It scares me to think that the family and the idea father child relationships is lost to the world of cyberspace.
“Hello David, its me HAL again, did you manage to take the trash out yet”? “no, your too busy chatting with your online family,” “ahhh well, not to worry I want you to meet your new mommy by the way, press enter to select one from the site…………… welcome home Dave!
So...now that we've had an opportunity to rant... (there feel better?) Now where do we go from here people?
How about instead of ranting we talk about some ways to connect to this Dad empty...technology filled world.
Just a thought.
Good Point Dave, where do we go from here? I suppose my obvious answer would be preach it from the pulpit, but then that only reaches those who actually attend church right? So then how do we reach the rest of the world with this concept of father child relationships? Lead by example.... well yes family and friends would see how we parent our children but then that only reaches a handful. Media...Possible, I mean the big corporations use that to sell us all that techno stuff in the first place right? Why not hit the Dads and kids where they are, in front of the TV or PC. Latter Day Saints do this quite effectively using media to tickle our senses on family values. I guess a start for us all as parents is to make sure we pass this value down to our own children. For me it was very important being a dad to my daughter, to be there in all things at all times, still am. I learned that from my dad who was always there for me, and still is. It's a hard thing today's world to change people's minds into believing in family values but it does start with each of us passing it along to our own and leading by example. With that said, I think I will now call my girl, just to say hi and tell her I love her.....
Great thinking...
I love when people boil these discussions down to "what do I have to do..." then I know that God's in charge.
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