rebelling against low expectations

TagSocial Media

How Instagram Leads Us to God

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I have always found pictures to be fascinating. Perhaps everyone does to some degree. After all, just look at Instagram. More than 80 million photos are uploaded to the site every day–and each one holds some sort of significance. They all tell a story or share a memory. However, it is not what’s in the image that captivates me the most. It is the concept itself. From the beginning of our...

Social Media: 4 Ways Teens Can Help Change the Culture

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In 2004, the world changed. Facebook arrived on the scene, and life as we knew it was never to be the same again. The year 2006 saw another explosion on the social media front-lines—Twitter. Instagram and Pinterest joined the frenzy in 2010, as people began Pinning and ‘Gram-ing their lives, and likes, for all their devoted followers to see. And let’s not even add YouTube and Snapchat to...

Why I Deleted My Instagram Account

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Three months ago I deleted my Instagram account. It seems like a simple feat in the scheme of things, but for me, it was a horribly difficult task. You see, I loved Instagram. In fact, I obsessed over Instagram. The artsy-ness, the photography, the fashion, the biblical voices. I loved Instagram so much that it began to grip my heart. It began to strangle my relationships. It became my...

Why My Mom Can’t Use Snapchat (And That’s Okay)

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There was a time my brothers and I tried to teach my mom to use Snapchat. In general, my mom is pretty good with technology—she even has Twitter and Instagram. So we figured she might have fun with Snapchat. Right? Nope. She kept complaining that she didn’t understand the app, it didn’t make sense, and it wasn’t intuitive. That didn’t make sense to me. Snapchat, I thought, was the most intuitive...

Raising An Author (Without A Smartphone): An Interview With Sean and Diana Crowe

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Families in our audience are likely familiar with Jaquelle Crowe, the bestselling teen author of This Changes Everything: How The Gospel Transforms the Teen Years. Well, today I get to share an interview with Jaquelle’s parents, Sean and Diana. I conducted this interview last year for the 500+ families in our online parenting course, Raising Kids to Do Hard Things. But given our recent...

Technology Overload: How To Cut Back on Screen Time (When You’ve Already Gone Too Far)

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Technology isn’t the problem. Overload is the problem. Modern families have a complicated relationship with technology. On the one hand, we love technology. It improves our lives, helps us stay connected with people we care about, and is increasingly necessary for daily living. On the other hand, we worry about technology. We worry that our children are wasting time. We worry that they are...

3 Things Every Teen Should Know About Social Media

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Social media has changed my life. It’s an incredible opportunity to connect with new people I would have never met otherwise. To share and learn new ideas and perspectives. But there is an uncomfortable truth I sense more and more when using social media. A lurking danger behind all the connecting, content-creating, photo-sharing, and influence-growing. Here are three truths every young...

Teens and Technology: An Interview with Tony Reinke

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“Technology is so immersive, it’s like oxygen.” So says Tony Reinke, a senior staff writer and researcher for desiringGod, who has studied culture and technology for years. “It’s so around us that we don’t even recognize technology as what it is. We’re sort of bathed in technology, if you will.” He’s right. In our day and age, technology is pervasive, and, in our culture...

What I Learned in One Week Without Technology

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One week without technology. I know it’s not a very original idea, but I did it anyway, and this is why. First of all, I was absolutely sick of it – sick of using my phone too much, sick of getting distracted on the internet, sick of it all. It was hurting my relationship with my creator. In the weeks before I took the challenge, I concluded that if I don’t feel close to God, there’s a...

How do you avoid an addiction to social media?

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ANONYMOUS WRITES: I’m relatively new to the social media game, and I don’t think I’m addicted to it. At least, not yet. The thing is, I’ve heard about so many people who get obsessed with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and they become addicted to it. How do I guard myself against wasting time on or getting unhealthily connected to social media? Share Your Thoughts in the Comment Section...

rebelling against low expectations

The Rebelution is a teenage rebellion against low expectations—a worldwide campaign to reject apathy, embrace responsibility, and do hard things. Learn More →