17 iPhones Later...
We handed our kids smart devices before any of us really understood what we were handing them.
As a mom of six now-adult kids, I’ve spoken to fellow parents and the now young adults we raised.
You know the ones. Maybe you are one.
The first generation of kids raised with smart devices.
The generation that first got a phone or tablet around 11-13 years old, when it was all new and cutting edge and before we understood what the internet would become, for better and for worse.
These young, prepubescent brains were formed into adulthood around these devices.
Textbooks were quickly replaced with laptops and home computers. Papers were no longer turned in in person, but online.
It moved so stinkin’ fast.
Faster than we realized. Faster than we parents liked. And we didn’t know how to slow it down or take the reins.
With lightning speed, their entertainment, movies, books, music, cameras and video cameras all started coming from the colorful little apps on the rectangle in their pocket.
Ironically, it was a rectangle we parents bought with our hard-earned money because we wanted our kids to be on the cutting edge of learning and the future.
Before we knew it, many of us parents had lost control of how our kids interacted, how often, with whom, and what was being exchanged.
Meanwhile, the devices “knew” far more about our kids and their online habits than most parents, or even the kids themselves, realized.
Their interests and habits.
Their online patterns.
What sucked them in and where their clicks took them.
How long they stayed.
All being tracked.
And the systems behind those devices continued getting better at keeping them there longer and getting them back there faster.
And here we are today.
So many Millennials and Gen Zers want to give some of it up, but aren’t sure how without losing connection with their real-life friends.
For some, these apps aren’t just a way they connect. Through middle school, high school, college and now adulthood, they have become the primary way they connect.
Without them, they risk feeling outside the social norms or out of touch with what’s happening in the “real,” albeit cyber, world.
And this isn’t only a young adult problem anymore.
It’s an us problem.
How many of us pick up our phones without even thinking about it?
How many times have we opened an app to do one thing and resurfaced 20 minutes or 2 hours later wondering what we were even doing there?
How many dinners, conversations, quiet mornings, soccer games, date nights, bedtimes and ordinary moments have been interrupted by that little rectangle?
The cyber world is here to stay, so the answer isn’t abandoning technology.
I don’t want to abandon it.
I want us to learn how to use it without allowing it to use us.
And I think that begins with truth.
How are we actually spending our time?
Do our daily choices reflect what we say matters most?
Are we giving our attention to the people and priorities we say we value?
And what would change if we could actually see the answer?
These are questions I care deeply about because they are at the heart of LifeStory Strategies and the Growth Table.
We can say we want to live a great LifeStory, but ultimately, our LifeStory is being written in the ordinary choices we make today.
A New Growth Table Begins September 7
On September 7, I’m beginning a new Growth Table for men and women who are ready to stop living by default and become more intentional about living by design.
We’ll look at what matters most to you, where your life may have become misaligned, and what needs to change so your calendar and daily choices begin reflecting the life you actually want to build.
And this Table is going to have something special.
Participants will receive beta access to Today Matters, a new tool designed to help you see the truth about how you’re actually spending your time.
Not so you can become more obsessed with productivity.
So you can become more intentional with your life.
Because awareness gives us the opportunity to make a different choice.
And different choices, repeated over time, can create a very different LifeStory.
If you’ve been feeling like life is moving faster than you are, or you know what matters to you but your days aren’t always reflecting it, I’d love to have you at the Table.
The next Growth Table begins September 7.
Join the September Growth Table
Around the Table
Does the way you spend your time reflect what you say matters most?
Where has technology made your life better, and where might it be quietly taking more than you intended to give?
If you could see the truth about where your time goes every day, what do you think it might reveal?
I’d love to hear from you. Hit reply and tell me this: What is one area of your life where you want to become more intentional with your time?
With you, as you seek to Live Out Your Own Great LifeStory!
TRACI :)