June 24, 2025 • 49 mins
From rotary phones to smartphones, mixtapes to TikTok — the tech divide between generations runs deep. In this episode, we dive into how the rise of the internet, social media, and digital life has transformed everything from our worldviews to our attention spans. Ronnie shares what life was like before the internet (spoiler: she survived without Google), while Kaina reflects on what it means to grow up in a world where a “like” can make or break your day.
We explore how tech has shaped generational values, media literacy (or lack thereof), relationships, self-perception, and the all-too-familiar doom scroll. With humor and nuance, we unpack the good, the bad, and the algorithmically ugly. Whether you still write checks or haven't touched a pen in years, this episode will get you thinking about how tech shaped your life — and where it might be taking us next.
- Join the conversation: How do you think tech changed, or didn't change your generation? How did your weekly challenge go? Share your reflections in the comments or via our social media @generationalteapod
- What She Said: "We are not held back by the old ways, but neither are we fully free in the new” - Unknown author
- Follow us on TikTok and Instagram, watch us on YouTube, and listen to us wherever you get your podcasts!
- Microphone flags by Impact PBS
- Intro music by Cymatix
- Logo by @makariann
- Business email: generationalteapod@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
You having a hot flash overthere?
Yes.
Oh, and here we go again.
It's actually not that hot here.
I was like reading outside thismorning and I had a blanket and
a long sleeve shirt.
Really?
Yeah.
It's nice.
It's supposed to be really nice.
It's probably the last coolweather I'll enjoy before I'm
just melting.
(00:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Melting.
Help me.
I'm melting.
Help me, please.
Welcome to generational tea.
Yes.
I'm Kaa.
And I'm Ronnie.
We're so to up.
You came.
We're trying.
Yes, yes.
Wake up.
Wake up.
Oh, even this is too early.
No, I'm just kidding.
(00:52):
This is actually.
Like, not really at all becauseI've started waking up at 6:00
AM every day.
'cause I'm now a coffee barista.
Oh, that's right.
Mm-hmm.
I love that for me.
Never can sleep in again.
But anyways, well, I'm lookingforward to seeing you next time
because Yeah, it can get me somegood coffee going.
(01:13):
Oh, the coffee is so good there,This coffee that I'm drinking
right now tastes like.
Bunky hole.
Yeah.
Straight up dirt.
Straight up dirt.
This is actually the better cupbecause the first cup had the
mushroom coffee in it, and thatwas particularly bad.
Exactly.
It is.
I started putting like ateaspoon of coconut oil in my
(01:35):
mm-hmm.
First cup where I've got the,mushroom coffee in there.
Mm-hmm.
And it actually tastes better.
Okay.
It just takes that bitternessout of it.
Yeah, it's pretty, it's prettybitter.
Yeah.
But then when you're drinkingit, it's, you've got this oil
and so I'll be drinking it andthen all of a sudden my lips
just feels so good.
I'm like, did I just put lipgloss on coconut oil, lip gloss
(01:59):
coffee?
Let's start marketing it now.
Yes, exactly.
Two in one.
Oh my God.
Who wants to be our investorsplease?
Somebody.
The two for one coffee lippossible.
Yes, exactly.
Multi-functioning coffee.
Oh my God.
Oh my gosh.
Well, well today we're gonnatalk about how Ronnie still
(02:23):
writes checks and I have likefive plus social media apps on
my phone.
Just the rise of technology andhow it's transformed, what it
means to be human, and howdifferent generations are
working through that, and allthe little nuances in between.
It's gonna be a goodconversation, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm excited about it.
(02:44):
Well, we're gonna start way backwhen in the analog era.
So Ronnie, can you help us painta picture of what pre-internet
life.
F really looked like for thoseof my generation and younger
that grew up in a totallydifferent way.
Right, right.
Well, several things.
You had to go to the library ifyou wanted to do research, if
(03:06):
you needed to do any kind ofresearch.
Most, uh, family homes had onbeautiful display the whole
world at Encyclopedia Additions.
You know, they used to have atraveling guy.
There was a traveling salesmanthat would come around to
people's houses and sell them.
Yeah.
Encyclopedias.
(03:26):
And you, oh my gosh, you, youwere living large if you had a
full set.
We never had a full set, but I'dgo to my friend's houses in
these big fancy houses and theywould like the full set, the
bulletins, can I come, can comeover and look at your
encyclopedias?
Oh.
So that was, uh, definitely,different also.
(03:49):
I would say the biggest thingand the biggest thing that I
love first of all about cellphones was all of a sudden every
call could be identified.
Mm.
Yeah.
Because you had to pay extra, Ithink, to get that.
There was a, a way that youcould do a star something and
(04:10):
you could block.
That you were calling thatperson.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
You know, um, but other thanthat, you know, it was like, I
surely I missed a call from thatguy.
You know?
Surely.
So, so it was just really funny.
I was listening to a Sam Huntsong this morning, where he
talks about, you know, Sittingby the phone, you know, waiting
(04:34):
for that call to come.
And that's what you had to do.
You had an answer machine.
We, in our house never had morethan two phones, one of them was
cordless so you could gosomewhere else and talk.
But yeah, so, and then if youneeded somebody else's number,
you called 4 1 1 and you mightbe able to get it that way.
(04:55):
So they had called our id.
Oh, as it got a little bitlater.
And so then you could go throughlike your little answer machine
and see who called and hope thatyou know their nu number.
So it was a whole thing.
Um, I feel like romance was likepeak at that point.
'cause that's the thing.
Like especially now with socialmedia, like it's always like
(05:15):
comparison and looking forwhat's next and what's better.
And then like back when you weregrowing up and like probably
like high school age, you'regetting out of high school.
Yeah.
It was still like the waiting bythe phone, the Yes.
Handwritten notes, like all thatjust feels so much more rtic
than what we're dealing withnow.
Yes, for sure.
And loved, you know, likegetting postcards, that was a
(05:38):
big thing when, when yourfriends would go on vacation or
you would write home at camp,there was no way you were
getting in touch with yourparents at camp unless you were
believing, thank God.
That sounds nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you couldn't call anybody,so you would write note.
Um, yeah, romance was, waspretty cool because it just felt
(06:00):
more intentional.
Yeah.
You know, like your boyfriendcomes over to see you and they
bring you some balloons andstuff like that.
Whereas now I feel like a lot ofit is like a balloon emoji or a
flower emoji, and somehow that'ssupposed to, you know, yeah.
Fill in that gap.
Also, send you a gif, gif.
Gift with a card.
(06:21):
Yes.
Yes.
And that'll be like, yes.
A gift.
Yes, exactly.
But it's not, you're like,you're welcome.
Um, so yeah.
Uh, try harder, sir.
Right?
Oh, and we did not have, I'lltell you the other thing that
they had call waiting.
That I think was what, what wasthat?
Okay, so call waiting was, youcould be on the landline and
(06:43):
someone else could be trying tocall in.
Mm-hmm.
And if you had call waiting, youcould put the other person on
hold.
So if you had that feature, youdidn't have to lose a call if
you were on the phone, but justimagine like.
Calling people and getting abusy, oh, I know that.
(07:05):
That sound, you know that sound.
And then you just keep callingback, calling back, calling
back, and you're like, they'retalking to someone.
I just don't know who that is.
Oh, was it ever a situation oflike, you're trying to call your
boyfriend, but it's just.
Constant busy line.
You're like, is he talking toanother girl?
Absolutely, absolutely.
(07:25):
Or have they taken it off thehook and they just don't want to
talk to me because people, you,you could just take your phone
off the hook for a while andnobody could get in touch with
you.
Okay.
So still some of these sameissues, they just manifested in
very different ways.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, and then there was like star69 that you could do.
(07:47):
To where your phone numberdidn't show up.
Okay.
When you called.
So that was our like, you know,um, sneaky part of us.
That's, that's all we had.
That's all we had.
I remember being like.
Middle school or younger and wewould do prank calls, but I
don't remember.
It was like star or something.
I don't know if it was the samething, but we just prank try and
(08:09):
prank call like our familymembers.
So they didn't know who wascalling.
Honey.
We would prank call the school.
We would prank call the schoolour neighbors and say, is your
fridge running?
Better go get it.
I was just thinking that.
I was like, what's the one prankcall where your refrigerator's
(08:29):
running away?
That is a classic.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Classic.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
And, and the other thing was ifyou at school, like when you put
down your information, you putdown your home number, if you
didn't include like a worknumber.
For your parents, you couldinterrupt, you could interrupt
(08:54):
communication between yourschool and your parents.
Oh God.
And I definitely, oh, definitelyAce that one.
Oh a plus.
A plus plus.
So yeah, like the informationwas scarce.
Obviously there was not reallyany real time information other
than mm-hmm.
What was on the news, like rightthen.
(09:15):
Or whatever was going on.
So, um, you would always havemore of like a face-to-face,
which we definitely miss that inmy generation.
Yes.
And I think that's why we're themost social, but lonely.
Like we're, it's almost like,like with food where we say
(09:37):
you're overfed andundernourished.
Mm-hmm.
We're like, yeah, we'reoverstimulate over
communicating, but still verylonely.
Like, feeling lonely.
Lonely.
It's not fulfilling in a room.
It is not fulfilling.
It is not fulfilling at all.
I think it's so cool.
Um, and if I, you know, were ayounger.
Person.
(09:57):
I would definitely, if,especially if I was like looking
for somebody or knew somebodythat you really love, like go
back and take some of that thatwe had and just kind of weave it
in.
It doesn't have to be a all ornothing kind of thing.
I still love getting like abirthday card in the mail and
stuff like that.
Yeah.
Um, that didn't happen a wholelot, but I still like my mom and
(10:19):
yeah.
My grandparents, grandparentsstill do that for the most part.
Yeah.
Which, it's a nice touch.
It's very, it is nice.
Something to look forward to forsure.
Yes, yes.
Well, yeah, I definitely agree.
There's a lot of upsides to thatthat we're missing today.
Like you said, like the deeperin person connections where
we're more connected than ever,but are we really?
No, we're not.
Yeah, we're lonelier than ever.
(10:40):
Yeah.
Also like fewer distractions,because that's a big thing
today.
I feel like my generation isgetting a DHD just because of.
Like the instant gratificationof using social media and how
addictive it is.
I feel like we're all just onlike a very short time span and
yeah.
That's something that yourgeneration didn't struggle with
and get on you'cause it sucks.
(11:00):
Right, right, right.
Also the slower informationslowered, the pressure.
Yeah.
Some of the upsides though, likewe had said, deeper in-person
connections.
The one that I found once mykids started getting into social
media mm-hmm.
Was like, in our day, if you,you didn't get invited to the
party, you didn't even knowthere was a party until Monday.
(11:24):
Oh, that's nice.
That was huge.
Huge, huge, huge.
That's the thing that I saw thatreally like steered wrongly when
all the communication.
Um, options came up because nowall of a sudden you're seeing
pictures and videos in real timeand you see all these people
(11:45):
that are at this party andyou're not invited.
So now you've spent, you know,all weekend putting yourself
down or trying to figure out whoyou offended or why that didn't
happen and you know, you're awreck.
Whereas with us, it was like,oh, did you go to that party the
other night?
Well, no.
I guess I wasn't invited.
Well, it's three days passed, soeverybody's over that anyways.
(12:08):
Yeah.
Oh gosh.
I definitely felt that.
Yes, yes.
Just like constantly seeing howother people as, as a teenager,
that was deeply insecure andsocially anxious.
Mm-hmm.
Seeing like all these kids thatare in my age, my grade, doing
all this fun stuff and I'm like,what's wrong with me?
Why didn't I get invited?
Exactly.
Why am I not not cool enough tohang out with them?
Exactly.
And it absolutely destroyed me.
Yeah.
(12:28):
So yeah, that part.
That part for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think that that probably isone of the biggest, other than,
you know, just comparing, butthey go together.
Mm-hmm.
Like comparing yourself toeveryone else and yeah, we've
all heard it so many times, butit is true.
People are only highlighting thepeaks of their day and their
(12:51):
life.
And like I know people who will,down to the minute.
Try to figure out when they wantto post something.
Mm-hmm.
Based on how many people log inat that time.
At what time?
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Like you wanted to post it likearound five or five 30.
So when people got off work andthey checked their internet.
(13:12):
Or they check the social media,you're, you're gonna definitely
get more hits that way.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, I can't bebothered by that.
That is just exhausting Forsure.
Well, some of the downsides,'cause there are some of those
because whether technology hasharmed or helped us and Yeah.
The long run it has helped us ina lot of ways.
(13:33):
So, yes.
You know, the downsides wereobviously the less access to
information, so.
Yes.
That I think is something that'sgreat nowadays.
Dangerous, but great.
Yeah.
Fewer global perspectives, likeI said, like I think the, like
we are more connected than everand whether those connections
are unfulfilling or not, like wedo have access to people from
all over the world so that wehave a greater understanding of.
(13:55):
Of, I think humanity as a whole,and that is empowering and
that's an empowering connectionin itself.
Yes.
I feel like there was also ahigher stigma on things like
mental health and self, selfexpression, because when you
were living in this tiny town,your whole life, communicating
with the same exact people andmaybe you weren't pursuing like
more information.
I feel like a lot of thosethings like mental health and
(14:16):
self-expression and just beingopen-minded was more stigmatized
back then.
Just because, I mean, you didn'thave access to.
To information to change yourworldview.
That's just how it was.
Right, right.
As far as the like worldview nothaving that, that's how people
were, able to just.
Almost isolate.
(14:36):
Mm-hmm.
And not go outside.
So if you go to the same church,the same school, the same
meetings, then you kind of justidentify with the people that
are in that room.
You don't have, mm-hmm.
You didn't have the access toknow, hey, there are lots of
people who think differentlythan I do, or mm-hmm.
Think differently than what I'm.
(14:57):
What I'm living in.
Yeah.
Like maybe there's, this is nota hundred percent Okay.
Yeah.
You know, that kind of thing.
So Yeah.
I I definitely, that's a hugebenefit.
Right.
And like you were saying aboutthe mental health and
self-expression, I, I feel likethere was, um, there wasn't a
medium, I hope I'm saying thatright.
(15:18):
Mm-hmm.
To, to do that.
It just wasn't accessible foryou.
Yeah.
To express your feelings.
Um, and I think that socialmedia definitely, and just all
that helps us because if we'refollowing the right people and
we know who the person isunderneath mm-hmm.
(15:38):
I feel like there's so much thatcan happen just by connecting
with someone else and realizingI'm not the only one that's
dealing with this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's a great point Forour next one, like.
Less medium, but once again,yes, yes.
There was less medium forexpressing feelings because
that's what I, I do love aboutsocial media, particularly
(15:59):
TikTok and my generation islike, it's a freeing space for
people to just express how theythink and for other people to
like cons consume it.
And just like learn by notnecessarily like you're learning
from this random influencer andbeing like, oh, she believes
that I believe that, or she'sfeeling this, I'm not feeling
that.
Whatever, like.
I think it's just verybeneficial for us to have a way
(16:22):
to express feelings and learnacross many different
generations, all over thecountry.
All over the world.
Like what people are feeling,what their opinions are and
things, what their experiencesare.
'cause I think when you have abetter understanding of
humanity, you're better able tohelp it.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Right, right.
And dysfunction has a hard time,repeating itself once you
(16:44):
realize.
That there's other options.
Mm, yeah, that's, that's forsure.
And you know, just the wholething about if you didn't talk
about it doesn't exist, that canreally quickly back you into a
corner and you can feel soisolated.
So while extra social media canbe isolating, not having that I
(17:06):
feel like is more isolating.
It can allow generation aftergeneration of just dysfunction
because it's all you knew.
It was all the people that youknew around you and you didn't
really have, uh, options to,like, I would've loved to have
had somebody that could talk tome about Hindu or Buddhism or,
(17:30):
you know, like different ways oflife or mm-hmm.
You know, I maybe knew twofriends that's parents were
divorced.
That was it.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's totally different thanYes.
And I think some of that, yeah.
And I think some of that waspeople stayed in it because they
didn't know there was anotheroption.
Mm.
Yeah.
Or, or better yet, stay in it,but utilize the tools that you
(17:55):
have.
And then if it doesn't work, youknow, like.
Nowadays, I feel like you've gotall these options and you can
make a more educated decision.
You can also, learn how tobetter communicate.
I think about guys just ingeneral.
Mm-hmm.
Males and how freeing it must befor them to be able to
(18:17):
communicate, especially justsouthern.
You know, like the men wasalways strong, and we already
talked about that in a previousepisode.
Mm-hmm.
But it, it definitely, squasheda lot.
And so men were just, theyshouldn't express their
feelings.
That was frowned upon.
Talk to be.
Yeah, to be emotional was, wasfrowned upon.
(18:39):
Golly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well I think that's a greatpoint.
Just about dysfunction ingeneral.
Yeah.
And growing up thinking thateverything is normal when really
it's very dysfunctional.
And that's definitely somethingtechnology and social media has
brought is like.
Maybe you had dealt with abusein your family growing up.
Yeah.
And no one ever talked about it,but you find these people on
social media that experiencedthe same thing and then you have
(19:02):
watched or listened to theirjourney coming out of that and
changing that and like breakingthat generational curse or just
like giving you a space to feellike, right, okay, this was not
okay.
This is what it did to me.
Mm-hmm.
But like I acknowledge that andhere's how I start to heal.
Yep.
Like just that in itself.
And also what you brought upabout women like historically.
Women, especially like women infaith of the South, feel like
(19:22):
divorce is wrong.
Yeah.
And so, like, you made a greatpoint.
Like they didn't think they hadany other option.
No.
But now that we have access topeople all over the world, all
over the country, like we knowthat that's not the case.
Right.
Right.
I mean, even if you, you know,I'm all about like, try to make
it work in any way possible.
Yeah, absolutely.
(19:42):
And I feel like obviously wehave all that at our fingertips.
And, I think honestly I wouldlove to know, and maybe we
should look this up one day, thedivorce rate and how it might be
changing a little bit becausepeople now have access.
Their toolbox is bigger, youknow, and it's got more, more
(20:04):
things.
So I would hope, I'm not sure.
It's vastly different.
Yeah.
Especially in certain parts ofthe country.
Exactly.
Tell me about growing up aonline.
This is very interesting'causeI've not had this kind of
conversation with my children.
Yeah.
Oh boy.
So this is good.
Well, to preface my experiencegrowing up online, I will say
(20:25):
like I didn't even have a phoneuntil ninth grade, and it was
like a flip phone where I didn'thave access to the internet or
whatever, but like probably bysophomore year in high school, I
had social media, I had asmartphone, I had all of that.
But I feel like that was kind ofdelayed for me when it's,
especially now like.
The generation coming up behindme, like they have phones from
when they're like single digits,which is crazy to me.
(20:48):
But anyways, yes.
I'll just speak to myexperience.
Yes.
And you know, I think my parentssaw the harms in social media
and like that's why they delayedme getting access to that for so
long.
But I also don't feel like theyfully acknowledged, like when I
did have it, the harm it coulddo to me and safeguarding
against that, or at least havingconversations with me about
(21:09):
that.
And I'm not railing on myparents.
I think they did the best theydid with what they knew Uhhuh,
which wasn't very much becausethey're from an older
generation.
Yeah.
But I do think a digitalchildhood equals an identity
crisis in hd, literally.
Mm-hmm.
Like it was bad.
My self worth was tied to.
Engagement and how manyfollowers I had, and I was
(21:30):
constantly trying to be like thepeople I considered were cooler
than me on social media, whichis very dangerous.
And I think it was particularlybad for me because I don't feel
like my self sense of self-worthor self-esteem was cultivated to
that point to where I couldhandle that.
I was very so socially anxious.
I was very insecure and socialmedia just made all of these
(21:52):
issues, like tenfold worse.
It was bad.
how did that manifest itself ina day-to-day situation?
Well, I think obsessing oversocial media for one.
Okay.
Like always looking at like whatI posted, how many likes I had,
like constantly scrolling myfeed.
I think like very distortedthoughts on like my body and
like my self-worth that likethat was very distorted in my
(22:15):
brain and I was constantlytrying to figure out how to get
to this very unrealistic point,hoping that people would like
me, like right.
Looking back on it, it, my, mythinking was so distorted about
myself and about others aroundme, and it's sad, it sucked.
And I also had mental healthissues, so like all of this was
just coming together to createthe storm where.
(22:36):
I was gonna be a very deeplyinsecure person and like just a
shell of the person I am nowfor, right.
Years and years and years.
So I think it's very, verydangerous.
Like we just said, I acknowledgeall the benefits of it, but I
think it's important for parentscoming up now to have boundaries
and ways to safeguard theirchildren.
And I also think that theyshould be having open
(22:58):
conversations like this and likewhen I.
Have kids, I'm gonna plan ontelling them everything that I'm
talking about now and how itaffected me and how I don't want
that to happen to them.
So I, I do think it's veryuseful, but like, you have to be
very careful and you have tohave boundaries because all of
those constant exposure to thesecurated online lives, these
highlight reels are going toaffect self-esteem and create
(23:20):
unrealistic standards, I thinkno matter how grounded you are
at a young age.
So, okay.
Handled care.
I, I have another question.
Mm-hmm.
So you were socially awkward, soit was difficult.
I mean you you said that Iwasn't home skill.
That's why help.
She's so smart.
No, I was just wondering, youhad this tool to maybe
(23:45):
communicate with more people,but then the backside of that
was the further decline of yourself worth.
In your mind, did it cause youto be less social?
Did it isolate you, I guess iswhat I'm thinking asking?
I would say yes.
That's one of the many factorsin which I was like self
(24:05):
isolating.
Okay.
But it made it, I feel like initself it's an escape from
reality.
And so when I was feeling verysocially anxious or depressed or
just feeling like I wasn't goodenough for the world, or I
didn't fit in like I justresorted to social media because
yes, it was addictive and likealso.
Funny videos.
Yes, yes, yes.
Like it's just a lot.
(24:27):
And looking back at it, I'mlike, wow.
I wasn't,, I mean, I guess I wasa teenager, but I'm like, dang,
girl.
Didn't you see what washappening?
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like with you and mykids' ages, we dodged a bullet.
I mean, we were right on thecusp.
On the pre the precipice.
Yeah.
Yes.
(24:47):
I feel like Garrett didn'treally, there was no really
Facebook until almost he was incollege.
Mm-hmm.
And then Weston was, you know,older, which he's never really
been.
The man doesn't care aboutsocial media, but he loves a
good education reel.
He loves him a hunting reel.
(25:08):
He loves some YouTube reels,whatever.
Yes.
Loves honey.
Yes.
But yeah, I, so I definitely, Iwould love to hear from maybe
somebody that's.
S early in college and see howdifferent it was for you home.
Yeah.
So I'm, I feel like I'm 25.
Okay.
And I'm in Gen Z.
So if any of our listeners,you're younger than that, and
(25:29):
you maybe had a differentexperience where you literally
grew up online versus where minewas kind of delayed.
Let us know what you think we'recurious to hear.
'cause Yeah, for sure.
I can't imagine it would bebetter than the experience I
had, but also, I don't know, Ithink parents nowadays are more
highly sensitive to.
What's happening in the resresult of all these things,
which is great, and there is alot of research coming out now
(25:51):
to support it.
For example, there is a lot ofstudies that highly link anxiety
and depression to trying tomaintain an online persona in
whatever form or whatever.
Site or app.
So yeah, there you go.
Wanna just handle with care.
Handle with care.
Yeah.
Let's talk about some of thepros before we get back into
(26:12):
more of the cons.
'cause there's a lot of cons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like the pros though, andwe've kind of already kind of
talked about'em just based offof what we see that your
generation didn't have.
And that is like communityaccess learning tools.
Yes.
Yeah.
I feel like now that Iunderstand the harms of social
media and I can.
Create boundaries and safeguardmyself from them.
(26:33):
I love having access to all thistechnology because I want to
pursue truth and I'm a learnerat heart and having all this
information is just like, Idon't know.
It's, I love it.
It's like food for my brain.
It's great.
And then also global awareness.
I think it's great.
I'm a person that's veryinterested in politics, like in
our country and also globally,so.
(26:53):
Being able to see what'shappening in real time, even
though it's really depressing,is something that I think is a
great benefit.
Yeah.
As long as you're not likeconstantly consuming, depressing
news, because that's alsodangerous.
Yes.
And I've struggled with that, soYeah.
Yeah.
Let's get into the cons.
It's time.
Like I said earlier, we're allgetting a DHD, chronic
overstimulation short ofattention spans, like.
(27:16):
It's crazy to think about, and Idon't feel like we have a ton of
long term studies quite yet,just because of how new a lot of
this technology is.
But like, I'm, I'm just worriedwhat it's doing to our brains in
the long term because I consumemore information in a day than
someone else That was.
Way in the past, probablyconsumed in a whole year.
(27:39):
Yeah.
You know, it's true.
Like sometimes it's that realand I'm like, I don't feel like
I'm meant to be doing this as ahuman, but like it's here and I
can see the benefit.
So I just gotta be careful anduse it.
But yeah, that's the reality.
And you know, like we weretalking about superficial
connections and also thepressure to like brand yourself
or like fit into social groupsbased off social media.
(27:59):
Yeah.
And all this like performativeliving we see.
That's really dangerous too,especially when you're a young
woman that's struggling withidentity or a young man
struggling with identity, so,mm-hmm.
Yikes.
Yeah, it is a trap for sure.
I'm looking at this pressure tobrand yourself as young as 12
are probably even younger now.
(28:20):
I get sick, when I come acrosspeople on TikTok that are very
young and they're making likethese very detailed videos and
like.
I feel like I can see the innerchild in them and what they're
trying to get out of socialmedia and it just like, I makes
me feel so sad because I'm like,oh my gosh, you're a kid.
Go enjoy your life.
Yeah.
They ride your bike.
(28:41):
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
It makes me sad, but.
Yeah.
Whole world we live in now.
But anyways, yeah.
So research study that cameacross indicates that intense
use of social media, which Ifeel like is a lot of my
generation and younger, lead tochanges in brain structures
associated with attention andsocial behavior.
So that reinforces what I'vebeen saying, that we're all
getting DH, adhd and we're allbecoming increasingly more
(29:04):
isolated.
Yikes.
Well, we're just do, we'redopamine junkies.
Mm-hmm.
With everything.
With every like, with every, Apositive thing that happens.
It's a shot at dopamine.
It's like getting high, gettinghigh, getting high.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and then also like the,random scrolling, you know, it's
(29:27):
just people get online and, theyjust scroll through and until
they're tired and then they goto bed and.
You know, they've just not dealtwith life.
It's, yeah.
It can be an escape.
Mm.
That is, and you wanna make sureyou're using it in a healthy
way, right?
Right.
In moderation that you're notYeah, I mean, just go to dinner.
(29:48):
I would challenge anybody to goto dinner and just sit around
and watch.
Yeah.
And see how many people are ontheir phones, who's actually
having a conversation.
And you, it will shock youbecause it is so sad.
And these aren't just youngpeople.
(30:08):
These are people my age, maybe alittle bit older.
Yeah.
It's sickening once you start tosee it everywhere.
Yes.
Yes.
How reliant we are on it.
Yeah.
I do feel like my generation andyounger has lost the ability to
just like, sit in happy silencewith themselves.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Which is golden if you, if youcan sit in silence in a room
(30:32):
full of people and not feel likeyou've got to fill in every gap
with something.
Yeah.
That, to me is one of the truestmarks of maturity.
Yeah, period.
And just like peace withyourself.
Yes, too.
Yes.
Like I find it so hard to dothis.
Like I've, I've gotten better atit, but like I probably couldn't
(30:54):
sit down for two hours by myselfand just be chilling.
You'd be in a book and I thinkit comes from a lot of different
things like hustle, culture, myown experience of perfectionism
and also imposter syndrome makesme feel like I can't just sit
and enjoy time.
Without feeling like, you know,I have to be doing something to
whatever.
Right.
And also like social media andstuff, like all this exposure to
(31:18):
comparison culture and fear ofmissing out and performative
living, and this like idea thatyou always have to be pursuing
this.
Better version of yourself oryou're lazy, like that's so
dangerous.
But it definitely affects theway I view like self-care time.
And so I'm trying to rewire mybrain out of that.
Yeah.
And like I don't have to feelall this tremendous pressure all
the time to be doing X, Y, andZ, or I am X, Y, and Z, you
(31:39):
know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That being able to also to likejust relax.
Mm-hmm.
Many of you know, That Jim, myhusband, lost his job in
September of last year, and wejust weren't really sure what
was gonna happen with that.
And after multiple attempts tofind a different job, given his
(32:00):
background and his work history,just nothing panned out and I
really didn't know how that wasgonna look, but I tell him often
and I really mean it.
The fact that he's okay to justrelax, to take an afternoon nap,
that his self-worth is notdirectly tied with his
(32:22):
productivity, which that is abig gap too.
Yeah, that's great.
That's a big gap.
Well, because our parents, andespecially his mom, you know,
grew up on a farm.
Mm-hmm.
You, you worked from the.
Morning up till sundown and wentto school and did all this
(32:45):
stuff.
And so she kind of raised thekids, the boys, like that's some
of their worth was based ontheir productivity.
Mm-hmm.
And so it, I'm glad and I dotell him I'm thankful that
we're, we've broken that.
Yeah.
That's great.
You know, that, that part oflife.
(33:06):
So'cause yeah, that like.
It just made me think of what abig generational difference that
in itself is.
Like your generation, like workwas worth for a lot of people.
I feel like, especially in theSouth, that hard work ethic was
like, yes, you didn't have that.
You're nothing.
Right.
And I feel like my generationhas shifted worth away from
that, which I think is great.
(33:27):
Yes.
I love it.
Yes, I love that.
I love that.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
So one topic that I wanted totouch, since we're talking about
technology and we've said overand over this episode, one of
the great benefits is that wehave access to all of this
information, but within thatthere's kind of a generational
blind spot and things aregetting scary nowadays with AI
(33:48):
because I think it was Googlethat just launched this new
generative AI that can literallyproduce a news video.
Fake people and it looks likeit's a news clip you would see
on tv.
It's, it's scary.
And I think with all thistechnology and with all this
information that's out there, Ithink an important point that
deserves to see at the table ismedia literacy and
(34:11):
misinformation.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Because that is rampant tonowadays and it's really causing
harm.
So let's just talk about thatand maybe like different
generations view it differentways, but I do think it's
important regardless.
Yes.
I agree.
So in terms of the researchstudies show that older
generations are more likely toshare misinformation online,
which absolutely makes sensebecause my generation is a lot
(34:33):
more versed in technology andall the nuances that go in
between, you know, all that.
And also in college, like I hada lot of discussions with
professors and stuff like thison what, like what I can trust
online and how to fact checkstuff and, and things like that.
Uhhuh, but like your generationgoing through college decades
before.
Didn't have those conversations.
Mm-hmm.
And that's, it's not your fault,but it's still important.
(34:55):
It's something we have to dealwith today if we are gonna be
active users in technology.
Right, right.
And I think one of the biggestpitfalls just overall is folks
that did not grow up in thisera, is the fear that people
have of using the technology isbecause there's lack of
(35:17):
knowledge.
Yeah.
So when we fear things insteadof running away from'em, I feel
like this is something that youcould really, you don't have to
have the smartphone and all thedifferent things, but if you
have access, then the fear andthe, control or the lack of
control can be, educated throughand you can find things that
(35:41):
are.
Acceptable that have work, whichis kind of the whole premise of
our podcast.
Yeah.
Is like being okay with the factthat you didn't grow it with it,
but how can I learn bettertoday?
Help me.
Mm-hmm.
And just learning from eachother.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I think that's great point.
One thing that is part of thisconversation and this
(36:03):
generational conversation isconfirmation bias because like
you just said in your spielabout the analog era, like.
It was very face to face likeyour friends and your family are
who you trust, your neighborsand all that.
So confirmation bias comes intothis.
And if you dunno what that is,it's just a tendency to search
for, interpret favor and recallinformation in a way that
(36:24):
supports your prior beliefs orvalues.
And the studies I found on thisis that confirmation bias is
more pronounced in oldergenerations because you guys
tend to rely on familiar sourcesfor information.
Once again that makes sensebased on how you guys grew up.
Like yeah, you're probably gonnalook to the familiar people and
the people that you trust inyour circle for information.
(36:45):
Yep.
Versus I think in my generation,I think we kind of went away
from that.
Like I remember being in collegeand seeing like family members
CCRA posts, like crazy stuff onFacebook, and I was like, okay,
I'm just gonna like stick to my.
Uh, textbooks over here,whatever.
Yes.
Like I don't trust you at all.
Yes, yes.
So that's definitely like agenerational difference.
(37:06):
Mm-hmm.
And something that we canacknowledge to be better and.
As we kind of close out thissegment of the conversation, I
wanted to get out my soapbox'cause I'm really passionate
about all of this.
No matter what generation youcome from, you have a civic
responsibility to pursue truthand navigate an increasingly
digital world with discernmentand caution.
Mm-hmm.
No matter if you don'tunderstand it, no matter if
(37:27):
you're scared of it, like wewere just talking about, like I
think it's a personalresponsibility that you have to
take upon yourself because.
I don't think technology's goinganywhere.
Right.
That is getting more complex,more scary, like I just said.
So it's upon us to learn how tonavigate that in a way that
we're not falling to any of the,the harms and the pitfalls of
(37:47):
technology.
'cause it does have real worldeffects that are dangerous.
Yes.
That, that whole thing, youknow, you can really, if you
have a stance.
It won't take you long to findsources and people who support
that stance.
Yeah.
So it's like, are you seeking itfor information or validation?
(38:08):
Mm.
That's aism right there becauseI do feel like, and we've talked
about it'cause we are verydifferent politically.
Mm-hmm.
And, but I pray.
That if I've done anything, itwould be to be open to other, to
your views, to Dawson andGarrett's to Weston's.
(38:30):
You know, just not alwayslooking.
I just wanna learn more.
Yeah.
I wanna be a student of mypeople.
I want to be a student.
I applaud you for that.
And you are, you're very open.
And even though we don't discusspolitics in the family, I know
that like, if we could, itwouldn't be like a blow up
conversation.
No, not at all.
(38:51):
Because I, again, you have tothink, am I searching for this
because I want to know more arebecause I want to find people
that agree with me.
Yeah.
And those are, and so many ofthe times we're not even like
asking ourselves that question.
No.
But if we started, like Irealize started with that.
Yeah, in the past I realizedthat I was consuming a lot of
(39:11):
media that agreed with me, andnow I like purposely go out of
my way to see like, what is thispolitical party saying?
What is this political partysaying?
Yes.
What are people saying aboutthis?
For people saying about this,because it is so dangerous when
you're not asking yourself thatquestion because then you find
yourself five years down theroad and someone disagrees with
you and you like freak out andhave a crisis or whatever.
(39:34):
You're get angry like it's just.
It's very ugly.
Right?
Right.
We have to be open-minded toeach other.
We can't fall trapped to themindset of like us versus them.
Yes.
Like it's all of us in thistogether.
Exactly.
We have to work together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean, I don't wanna wakeup in five years and say, man,
that was a farce.
(39:54):
I have literally lived a farcefor the last five years because
instead of finding outinformation, I've just wanted
click, you know, validation.
Somebody to agree with.
You can find somebody to agreewith you all the time.
I'm crazy.
No matter how crazy your beliefsare, no matter how crazy you
are, there's group people on theinternet that will make you feel
(40:15):
better by yourself.
Absolutely.
There's always somebody and notbe good.
Yep.
Oh man.
Well, props to you for remainingopen-minded and seeing the value
in that.
'cause I don't think a lot ofpeople from your generation have
adopted that mindset, but goodjob.
Right?
No.
Well.
You know, the last thing I wannado is offend somebody.
(40:36):
And you know, just learn more ifyou, yeah, if you feel like
you're in a gap and you arehaving issues communicating,
just ask questions.
People love to talk aboutthemselves.
I am my favorite subject.
Before you go into reaction modeand wanna blow up this person
before their crazy stance.
Yes.
Find out more.
Yes.
Before you then respond Exactly.
(40:58):
Respond, not react.
That's that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Well, let's talk about before weclose, kind of bridging the gap.
And I feel like we've alreadylearned a lot from each other,
but let's kind of review it andsee if there's anything else to
add.
Yeah.
So you wanna start with thefirst point?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, analog skills there,there's value in skills,
prevalent in older generations.
(41:20):
Uh, patience, deep listening,face-to-face communication,
grounded, inner worth, thosekind of things that you can
learn from older generations.
Mm-hmm.
and just, just really searchingthe, and researching and looking
for that face-to-face, lookingfor the medium where you could
(41:43):
have an open conversation withpeople mm-hmm.
And not have it go.
South so fast.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Respectfully disagree.
Which I think that is somethingthat none of us know really how
to do.
Anymore.
Well, especially today, I dofeel like people Yes.
Find it so easy to comment onthings.
(42:04):
Yes.
A lot of times before they evenread or watch the whole video,
and it's just so hateful.
It's combative.
Mm-hmm.
All of that stuff.
Yeah.
And I guarantee you, uh, like99% of these trolls wouldn't say
that to your face.
So what are you doing?
Do you not ever commentsomething?
You can't say it to someone'sface.
Exactly.
God, it's so easy.
Amen, sister.
(42:24):
Woo, man.
Well, yeah, I, I definitelyagree on a lot of those points
and that's something that we canfocus towards as we.
Handle social media with cautionand technology with caution.
And on the flip side of that,let's talk about the digital
savvy and what we can take fromthat.
So yes, while we justacknowledge all the serious
drawbacks of technology, thereis a lot of benefits in digital
(42:45):
proficiency.
So accessing information likenever before for, but using it
for learning and growth andexpanding your worldview,
expanding your values, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Like all of that stuff I thinkis fantastic.
Also connecting globally, likeothers before, just trying to
understand the rest of theworld.
And I just think that there'salways gonna be benefits with
(43:07):
that.
Yes.
And also increased productivity.
And as someone that is scared ofai, I also use it a lot to be
more productive and it has savedme hours and hours of time.
Like I use it to come up withepisode titles for this podcast,
like I use it to generatecontent ideas that I can make.
Mm-hmm.
I use it to help me find TikToktrends that are popping and how
I can use that For this podcast.
Yes.
Like I used to help generateyour research and talking points
(43:29):
for the outlines, and it hassaved me hours and hours of time
that I can then spend doingthings I love.
Hanging out with my dog, hangingout with my husband.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So utilizing that, but makingsure you're not reliant on it.
'cause I think it's dangerouswhen people use it to, let's say
you're an author and you'reusing it to write a book.
Right?
Like literally write the bookfor you.
Right.
There's something my brothersaid who's been a guest on here
(43:50):
before and he's just amazingthat.
Yeah.
Everything worth doing is gonnabe hard.
And if you're using things likecheat codes and video games, we
we're talking about that becausewe play a lot of video games
together, or using AI to writeyour book for you.
At the end of the day when youget to the finish line, what are
you gonna feel?
Right?
Are you gonna feel like youaccomplished something through
(44:10):
blood, sweat, and tears?
Or are you gonna feel like youjust cheated and that you took a
shortcut and that you're notactually enough to do these
things on your own?
Mm.
So, yeah.
Profound, profound.
You can start something for onereason and continue it for a
completely other reason.
Mm-hmm.
As far as, checking into thewhole AI thing, and I, I want us
to talk more about that inFuture Pro.
(44:32):
Mm-hmm.
I wanna, I want to hear frompeople that are using it in a
way that's not replacingthemselves, but it's enhancing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's the idea, theirexperience.
Yes.
That should be the idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, before we get to ourclosing, I just want to make a
final suggestion on having amore balanced approach to
technology, which is basically,I think the gist of this whole
(44:55):
episode that we agreed on and.
Uh, just this balanced approachwhere, what if we combine the
strengths of both?
Mm-hmm.
So if we set boundaries withtechnology and social media, we
could utilize these amazingbenefits that I just talked
about while avoiding the digitalburnout, the identity crisis,
and all those things that wedon't want to get into.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So let's just think abouteverything in moderation.
(45:15):
Everything in balance.
'cause that's how things are, Ithink, designed to work.
Yes.
You wanna tell us what she said?
So in our closing, this week's,what she said is.
We don't even know who it is,but they tried to find out
something.
I dunno, they said somethingreally profound.
So we are not held back by theold ways, but neither are we
(45:37):
fully free in the new.
And I love that.
And I, I guess that part, likereally seeking to understand the
people that are older than youmm-hmm.
Is a big gap.
I don't think, you know.
I'm just gonna tell you, I, Idon't feel respect at all from
most mm-hmm.
People that are younger than me.
(45:58):
Like, it, it doesn't mean that,like I'm just saying, like
opening a door mm-hmm.
Allowing a woman to go throughand some of that, you know, is
Southern Yeah.
Type stuff, but just the, I justfeel like, here's the general,
general disrespect that I feel.
Mm-hmm.
I feel like that the youngergeneration is not interested.
(46:20):
In what we know.
Mm.
They're they don't, yeah.
I feel like there is adisinterest in that.
I agree.
I think my generation andyounger are so, quick to condemn
you guys.
Mm-hmm.
But like in all thesegenerational conversations,
like, I'm thinking of everythingI have now that you didn't have.
And we keep saying again like,when you know better, you do
(46:42):
better.
And like.
You did the best you could withwhat you have.
Yeah.
And like we just talked about,there's so much value in like
what you guys learned and yourexperiences.
So yeah, we do need to be morerespectful unless we're given a
valid reason not to.
Like, that should just be thenorm.
Right, right.
And I, I do feel like thatthat's a, a big gap.
(47:02):
That, but I think what you'resaying and just considering what
we had or didn't have, thattakes compassion.
Not a lot of people have thatsadly.
Nope, Nope.
Just crazy.
But we're so excited aboutwhat's going on with us, and
feedback that we're getting onjust like highlighting different
generational stuff.
(47:23):
Mm-hmm.
Um, so we want you also, there'sa challenge.
Alright, Cana, give thechallenge.
We want to invite you this week,just a little mini challenge,
reflect on your uses oftechnology in the digital age.
Do you have boundaries?
Are they working?
Mm-hmm.
Do you need more?
Do you need less?
Mm-hmm.
How can you ensure that you'renot consuming propaganda and
misinformation?
(47:44):
You know, like how hastechnology affected your life,
whether you grew up with it orwhether you didn't.
Right.
And what's it like now?
Right.
What do you want it to look likein the future?
We just invite you to.
Reflect on that for a little bitbecause a lot of these things we
just talked about are veryimportant, and I think we're
living in a digital era now,whether you like it or not.
So we might as well try andnavigate it in the best way we
can.
So we're all gonna figure thisnew era out together, it's
(48:07):
changed how we live, love,learn, communicate.
So let's just keep in mind thatthe key to navigating this is
awareness boundaries.
Humor and empathy.
Yes.
Compassion across generations.
Yes.
I'm sure you guys that have,smartphones, there is actually
weekly from my iPhone, I get areport.
(48:29):
Of screen time.
Mm-hmm.
And, that's very interestingbecause you can go through that
and I never really looked atlike the specifics, but it'll
break it down for you.
Like what type, yes.
You have this much screen time,how much of it is, you know, on
social media.
Yeah.
How much of it is.
(48:50):
Something else, but, that, thatwas, that will open your eyes,
so.
Mm-hmm.
That's a good way to kind ofjust measure yourself.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, if you thought ourgenerational conversation today
was very interesting.
You liked it, you learned a lot,made you think a lot.
Share it with a friend.
'cause word of mouth is huge forus.
Yes.
And before you go, we would loveit.
(49:10):
Love it, love it, love it.
If you would leave us a review'cause we love your feedback and
we also love.
Building our show.
Yes.
That's the goal here.
Yes.
'cause we wanna be able to havethese generational conversations
and.
Not only just our voicesspeaking, but all of you guys
chiming in as well.
'cause hopefully you guys arealso from different generations.
Yes.
And different backgrounds andstuff like that.
So that is the generational tea.
(49:35):
Big time.
Well, and that, that's the tea.
Tea.
You having a hot flash overthere?
Yes.
Oh, and here we go again.
It's actually not that hot here.
I was like reading outside thismorning and I had a blanket and
a long sleeve shirt.
Really?
Yeah.
It's nice.
It's supposed to be really nice.
It's probably the last coolweather I'll enjoy before I'm
just melting.
(00:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Melting.
Help me.
I'm melting.
Help me, please.
Welcome to generational tea.
Yes.
I'm Kaa.
And I'm Ronnie.
We're so to up.
You came.
We're trying.
Yes, yes.
Wake up.
Wake up.
Oh, even this is too early.
No, I'm just kidding.
(00:52):
This is actually.
Like, not really at all becauseI've started waking up at 6:00
AM every day.
'cause I'm now a coffee barista.
Oh, that's right.
Mm-hmm.
I love that for me.
Never can sleep in again.
But anyways, well, I'm lookingforward to seeing you next time
because Yeah, it can get me somegood coffee going.
(01:13):
Oh, the coffee is so good there,This coffee that I'm drinking
right now tastes like.
Bunky hole.
Yeah.
Straight up dirt.
Straight up dirt.
This is actually the better cupbecause the first cup had the
mushroom coffee in it, and thatwas particularly bad.
Exactly.
It is.
I started putting like ateaspoon of coconut oil in my
(01:35):
mm-hmm.
First cup where I've got the,mushroom coffee in there.
Mm-hmm.
And it actually tastes better.
Okay.
It just takes that bitternessout of it.
Yeah, it's pretty, it's prettybitter.
Yeah.
But then when you're drinkingit, it's, you've got this oil
and so I'll be drinking it andthen all of a sudden my lips
just feels so good.
I'm like, did I just put lipgloss on coconut oil, lip gloss
(01:59):
coffee?
Let's start marketing it now.
Yes, exactly.
Two in one.
Oh my God.
Who wants to be our investorsplease?
Somebody.
The two for one coffee lippossible.
Yes, exactly.
Multi-functioning coffee.
Oh my God.
Oh my gosh.
Well, well today we're gonnatalk about how Ronnie still
(02:23):
writes checks and I have likefive plus social media apps on
my phone.
Just the rise of technology andhow it's transformed, what it
means to be human, and howdifferent generations are
working through that, and allthe little nuances in between.
It's gonna be a goodconversation, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm excited about it.
(02:44):
Well, we're gonna start way backwhen in the analog era.
So Ronnie, can you help us painta picture of what pre-internet
life.
F really looked like for thoseof my generation and younger
that grew up in a totallydifferent way.
Right, right.
Well, several things.
You had to go to the library ifyou wanted to do research, if
(03:06):
you needed to do any kind ofresearch.
Most, uh, family homes had onbeautiful display the whole
world at Encyclopedia Additions.
You know, they used to have atraveling guy.
There was a traveling salesmanthat would come around to
people's houses and sell them.
Yeah.
Encyclopedias.
(03:26):
And you, oh my gosh, you, youwere living large if you had a
full set.
We never had a full set, but I'dgo to my friend's houses in
these big fancy houses and theywould like the full set, the
bulletins, can I come, can comeover and look at your
encyclopedias?
Oh.
So that was, uh, definitely,different also.
(03:49):
I would say the biggest thingand the biggest thing that I
love first of all about cellphones was all of a sudden every
call could be identified.
Mm.
Yeah.
Because you had to pay extra, Ithink, to get that.
There was a, a way that youcould do a star something and
(04:10):
you could block.
That you were calling thatperson.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
You know, um, but other thanthat, you know, it was like, I
surely I missed a call from thatguy.
You know?
Surely.
So, so it was just really funny.
I was listening to a Sam Huntsong this morning, where he
talks about, you know, Sittingby the phone, you know, waiting
(04:34):
for that call to come.
And that's what you had to do.
You had an answer machine.
We, in our house never had morethan two phones, one of them was
cordless so you could gosomewhere else and talk.
But yeah, so, and then if youneeded somebody else's number,
you called 4 1 1 and you mightbe able to get it that way.
(04:55):
So they had called our id.
Oh, as it got a little bitlater.
And so then you could go throughlike your little answer machine
and see who called and hope thatyou know their nu number.
So it was a whole thing.
Um, I feel like romance was likepeak at that point.
'cause that's the thing.
Like especially now with socialmedia, like it's always like
(05:15):
comparison and looking forwhat's next and what's better.
And then like back when you weregrowing up and like probably
like high school age, you'regetting out of high school.
Yeah.
It was still like the waiting bythe phone, the Yes.
Handwritten notes, like all thatjust feels so much more rtic
than what we're dealing withnow.
Yes, for sure.
And loved, you know, likegetting postcards, that was a
(05:38):
big thing when, when yourfriends would go on vacation or
you would write home at camp,there was no way you were
getting in touch with yourparents at camp unless you were
believing, thank God.
That sounds nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you couldn't call anybody,so you would write note.
Um, yeah, romance was, waspretty cool because it just felt
(06:00):
more intentional.
Yeah.
You know, like your boyfriendcomes over to see you and they
bring you some balloons andstuff like that.
Whereas now I feel like a lot ofit is like a balloon emoji or a
flower emoji, and somehow that'ssupposed to, you know, yeah.
Fill in that gap.
Also, send you a gif, gif.
Gift with a card.
(06:21):
Yes.
Yes.
And that'll be like, yes.
A gift.
Yes, exactly.
But it's not, you're like,you're welcome.
Um, so yeah.
Uh, try harder, sir.
Right?
Oh, and we did not have, I'lltell you the other thing that
they had call waiting.
That I think was what, what wasthat?
Okay, so call waiting was, youcould be on the landline and
(06:43):
someone else could be trying tocall in.
Mm-hmm.
And if you had call waiting, youcould put the other person on
hold.
So if you had that feature, youdidn't have to lose a call if
you were on the phone, but justimagine like.
Calling people and getting abusy, oh, I know that.
(07:05):
That sound, you know that sound.
And then you just keep callingback, calling back, calling
back, and you're like, they'retalking to someone.
I just don't know who that is.
Oh, was it ever a situation oflike, you're trying to call your
boyfriend, but it's just.
Constant busy line.
You're like, is he talking toanother girl?
Absolutely, absolutely.
(07:25):
Or have they taken it off thehook and they just don't want to
talk to me because people, you,you could just take your phone
off the hook for a while andnobody could get in touch with
you.
Okay.
So still some of these sameissues, they just manifested in
very different ways.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, and then there was like star69 that you could do.
(07:47):
To where your phone numberdidn't show up.
Okay.
When you called.
So that was our like, you know,um, sneaky part of us.
That's, that's all we had.
That's all we had.
I remember being like.
Middle school or younger and wewould do prank calls, but I
don't remember.
It was like star or something.
I don't know if it was the samething, but we just prank try and
(08:09):
prank call like our familymembers.
So they didn't know who wascalling.
Honey.
We would prank call the school.
We would prank call the schoolour neighbors and say, is your
fridge running?
Better go get it.
I was just thinking that.
I was like, what's the one prankcall where your refrigerator's
(08:29):
running away?
That is a classic.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Classic.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
And, and the other thing was ifyou at school, like when you put
down your information, you putdown your home number, if you
didn't include like a worknumber.
For your parents, you couldinterrupt, you could interrupt
(08:54):
communication between yourschool and your parents.
Oh God.
And I definitely, oh, definitelyAce that one.
Oh a plus.
A plus plus.
So yeah, like the informationwas scarce.
Obviously there was not reallyany real time information other
than mm-hmm.
What was on the news, like rightthen.
(09:15):
Or whatever was going on.
So, um, you would always havemore of like a face-to-face,
which we definitely miss that inmy generation.
Yes.
And I think that's why we're themost social, but lonely.
Like we're, it's almost like,like with food where we say
(09:37):
you're overfed andundernourished.
Mm-hmm.
We're like, yeah, we'reoverstimulate over
communicating, but still verylonely.
Like, feeling lonely.
Lonely.
It's not fulfilling in a room.
It is not fulfilling.
It is not fulfilling at all.
I think it's so cool.
Um, and if I, you know, were ayounger.
Person.
(09:57):
I would definitely, if,especially if I was like looking
for somebody or knew somebodythat you really love, like go
back and take some of that thatwe had and just kind of weave it
in.
It doesn't have to be a all ornothing kind of thing.
I still love getting like abirthday card in the mail and
stuff like that.
Yeah.
Um, that didn't happen a wholelot, but I still like my mom and
(10:19):
yeah.
My grandparents, grandparentsstill do that for the most part.
Yeah.
Which, it's a nice touch.
It's very, it is nice.
Something to look forward to forsure.
Yes, yes.
Well, yeah, I definitely agree.
There's a lot of upsides to thatthat we're missing today.
Like you said, like the deeperin person connections where
we're more connected than ever,but are we really?
No, we're not.
Yeah, we're lonelier than ever.
(10:40):
Yeah.
Also like fewer distractions,because that's a big thing
today.
I feel like my generation isgetting a DHD just because of.
Like the instant gratificationof using social media and how
addictive it is.
I feel like we're all just onlike a very short time span and
yeah.
That's something that yourgeneration didn't struggle with
and get on you'cause it sucks.
(11:00):
Right, right, right.
Also the slower informationslowered, the pressure.
Yeah.
Some of the upsides though, likewe had said, deeper in-person
connections.
The one that I found once mykids started getting into social
media mm-hmm.
Was like, in our day, if you,you didn't get invited to the
party, you didn't even knowthere was a party until Monday.
(11:24):
Oh, that's nice.
That was huge.
Huge, huge, huge.
That's the thing that I saw thatreally like steered wrongly when
all the communication.
Um, options came up because nowall of a sudden you're seeing
pictures and videos in real timeand you see all these people
(11:45):
that are at this party andyou're not invited.
So now you've spent, you know,all weekend putting yourself
down or trying to figure out whoyou offended or why that didn't
happen and you know, you're awreck.
Whereas with us, it was like,oh, did you go to that party the
other night?
Well, no.
I guess I wasn't invited.
Well, it's three days passed, soeverybody's over that anyways.
(12:08):
Yeah.
Oh gosh.
I definitely felt that.
Yes, yes.
Just like constantly seeing howother people as, as a teenager,
that was deeply insecure andsocially anxious.
Mm-hmm.
Seeing like all these kids thatare in my age, my grade, doing
all this fun stuff and I'm like,what's wrong with me?
Why didn't I get invited?
Exactly.
Why am I not not cool enough tohang out with them?
Exactly.
And it absolutely destroyed me.
Yeah.
(12:28):
So yeah, that part.
That part for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think that that probably isone of the biggest, other than,
you know, just comparing, butthey go together.
Mm-hmm.
Like comparing yourself toeveryone else and yeah, we've
all heard it so many times, butit is true.
People are only highlighting thepeaks of their day and their
(12:51):
life.
And like I know people who will,down to the minute.
Try to figure out when they wantto post something.
Mm-hmm.
Based on how many people log inat that time.
At what time?
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Like you wanted to post it likearound five or five 30.
So when people got off work andthey checked their internet.
(13:12):
Or they check the social media,you're, you're gonna definitely
get more hits that way.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, I can't bebothered by that.
That is just exhausting Forsure.
Well, some of the downsides,'cause there are some of those
because whether technology hasharmed or helped us and Yeah.
The long run it has helped us ina lot of ways.
(13:33):
So, yes.
You know, the downsides wereobviously the less access to
information, so.
Yes.
That I think is something that'sgreat nowadays.
Dangerous, but great.
Yeah.
Fewer global perspectives, likeI said, like I think the, like
we are more connected than everand whether those connections
are unfulfilling or not, like wedo have access to people from
all over the world so that wehave a greater understanding of.
(13:55):
Of, I think humanity as a whole,and that is empowering and
that's an empowering connectionin itself.
Yes.
I feel like there was also ahigher stigma on things like
mental health and self, selfexpression, because when you
were living in this tiny town,your whole life, communicating
with the same exact people andmaybe you weren't pursuing like
more information.
I feel like a lot of thosethings like mental health and
(14:16):
self-expression and just beingopen-minded was more stigmatized
back then.
Just because, I mean, you didn'thave access to.
To information to change yourworldview.
That's just how it was.
Right, right.
As far as the like worldview nothaving that, that's how people
were, able to just.
Almost isolate.
(14:36):
Mm-hmm.
And not go outside.
So if you go to the same church,the same school, the same
meetings, then you kind of justidentify with the people that
are in that room.
You don't have, mm-hmm.
You didn't have the access toknow, hey, there are lots of
people who think differentlythan I do, or mm-hmm.
Think differently than what I'm.
(14:57):
What I'm living in.
Yeah.
Like maybe there's, this is nota hundred percent Okay.
Yeah.
You know, that kind of thing.
So Yeah.
I I definitely, that's a hugebenefit.
Right.
And like you were saying aboutthe mental health and
self-expression, I, I feel likethere was, um, there wasn't a
medium, I hope I'm saying thatright.
(15:18):
Mm-hmm.
To, to do that.
It just wasn't accessible foryou.
Yeah.
To express your feelings.
Um, and I think that socialmedia definitely, and just all
that helps us because if we'refollowing the right people and
we know who the person isunderneath mm-hmm.
(15:38):
I feel like there's so much thatcan happen just by connecting
with someone else and realizingI'm not the only one that's
dealing with this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's a great point Forour next one, like.
Less medium, but once again,yes, yes.
There was less medium forexpressing feelings because
that's what I, I do love aboutsocial media, particularly
(15:59):
TikTok and my generation islike, it's a freeing space for
people to just express how theythink and for other people to
like cons consume it.
And just like learn by notnecessarily like you're learning
from this random influencer andbeing like, oh, she believes
that I believe that, or she'sfeeling this, I'm not feeling
that.
Whatever, like.
I think it's just verybeneficial for us to have a way
(16:22):
to express feelings and learnacross many different
generations, all over thecountry.
All over the world.
Like what people are feeling,what their opinions are and
things, what their experiencesare.
'cause I think when you have abetter understanding of
humanity, you're better able tohelp it.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Right, right.
And dysfunction has a hard time,repeating itself once you
(16:44):
realize.
That there's other options.
Mm, yeah, that's, that's forsure.
And you know, just the wholething about if you didn't talk
about it doesn't exist, that canreally quickly back you into a
corner and you can feel soisolated.
So while extra social media canbe isolating, not having that I
(17:06):
feel like is more isolating.
It can allow generation aftergeneration of just dysfunction
because it's all you knew.
It was all the people that youknew around you and you didn't
really have, uh, options to,like, I would've loved to have
had somebody that could talk tome about Hindu or Buddhism or,
(17:30):
you know, like different ways oflife or mm-hmm.
You know, I maybe knew twofriends that's parents were
divorced.
That was it.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's totally different thanYes.
And I think some of that, yeah.
And I think some of that waspeople stayed in it because they
didn't know there was anotheroption.
Mm.
Yeah.
Or, or better yet, stay in it,but utilize the tools that you
(17:55):
have.
And then if it doesn't work, youknow, like.
Nowadays, I feel like you've gotall these options and you can
make a more educated decision.
You can also, learn how tobetter communicate.
I think about guys just ingeneral.
Mm-hmm.
Males and how freeing it must befor them to be able to
(18:17):
communicate, especially justsouthern.
You know, like the men wasalways strong, and we already
talked about that in a previousepisode.
Mm-hmm.
But it, it definitely, squasheda lot.
And so men were just, theyshouldn't express their
feelings.
That was frowned upon.
Talk to be.
Yeah, to be emotional was, wasfrowned upon.
(18:39):
Golly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well I think that's a greatpoint.
Just about dysfunction ingeneral.
Yeah.
And growing up thinking thateverything is normal when really
it's very dysfunctional.
And that's definitely somethingtechnology and social media has
brought is like.
Maybe you had dealt with abusein your family growing up.
Yeah.
And no one ever talked about it,but you find these people on
social media that experiencedthe same thing and then you have
(19:02):
watched or listened to theirjourney coming out of that and
changing that and like breakingthat generational curse or just
like giving you a space to feellike, right, okay, this was not
okay.
This is what it did to me.
Mm-hmm.
But like I acknowledge that andhere's how I start to heal.
Yep.
Like just that in itself.
And also what you brought upabout women like historically.
Women, especially like women infaith of the South, feel like
(19:22):
divorce is wrong.
Yeah.
And so, like, you made a greatpoint.
Like they didn't think they hadany other option.
No.
But now that we have access topeople all over the world, all
over the country, like we knowthat that's not the case.
Right.
Right.
I mean, even if you, you know,I'm all about like, try to make
it work in any way possible.
Yeah, absolutely.
(19:42):
And I feel like obviously wehave all that at our fingertips.
And, I think honestly I wouldlove to know, and maybe we
should look this up one day, thedivorce rate and how it might be
changing a little bit becausepeople now have access.
Their toolbox is bigger, youknow, and it's got more, more
(20:04):
things.
So I would hope, I'm not sure.
It's vastly different.
Yeah.
Especially in certain parts ofthe country.
Exactly.
Tell me about growing up aonline.
This is very interesting'causeI've not had this kind of
conversation with my children.
Yeah.
Oh boy.
So this is good.
Well, to preface my experiencegrowing up online, I will say
(20:25):
like I didn't even have a phoneuntil ninth grade, and it was
like a flip phone where I didn'thave access to the internet or
whatever, but like probably bysophomore year in high school, I
had social media, I had asmartphone, I had all of that.
But I feel like that was kind ofdelayed for me when it's,
especially now like.
The generation coming up behindme, like they have phones from
when they're like single digits,which is crazy to me.
(20:48):
But anyways, yes.
I'll just speak to myexperience.
Yes.
And you know, I think my parentssaw the harms in social media
and like that's why they delayedme getting access to that for so
long.
But I also don't feel like theyfully acknowledged, like when I
did have it, the harm it coulddo to me and safeguarding
against that, or at least havingconversations with me about
(21:09):
that.
And I'm not railing on myparents.
I think they did the best theydid with what they knew Uhhuh,
which wasn't very much becausethey're from an older
generation.
Yeah.
But I do think a digitalchildhood equals an identity
crisis in hd, literally.
Mm-hmm.
Like it was bad.
My self worth was tied to.
Engagement and how manyfollowers I had, and I was
(21:30):
constantly trying to be like thepeople I considered were cooler
than me on social media, whichis very dangerous.
And I think it was particularlybad for me because I don't feel
like my self sense of self-worthor self-esteem was cultivated to
that point to where I couldhandle that.
I was very so socially anxious.
I was very insecure and socialmedia just made all of these
(21:52):
issues, like tenfold worse.
It was bad.
how did that manifest itself ina day-to-day situation?
Well, I think obsessing oversocial media for one.
Okay.
Like always looking at like whatI posted, how many likes I had,
like constantly scrolling myfeed.
I think like very distortedthoughts on like my body and
like my self-worth that likethat was very distorted in my
(22:15):
brain and I was constantlytrying to figure out how to get
to this very unrealistic point,hoping that people would like
me, like right.
Looking back on it, it, my, mythinking was so distorted about
myself and about others aroundme, and it's sad, it sucked.
And I also had mental healthissues, so like all of this was
just coming together to createthe storm where.
(22:36):
I was gonna be a very deeplyinsecure person and like just a
shell of the person I am nowfor, right.
Years and years and years.
So I think it's very, verydangerous.
Like we just said, I acknowledgeall the benefits of it, but I
think it's important for parentscoming up now to have boundaries
and ways to safeguard theirchildren.
And I also think that theyshould be having open
(22:58):
conversations like this and likewhen I.
Have kids, I'm gonna plan ontelling them everything that I'm
talking about now and how itaffected me and how I don't want
that to happen to them.
So I, I do think it's veryuseful, but like, you have to be
very careful and you have tohave boundaries because all of
those constant exposure to thesecurated online lives, these
highlight reels are going toaffect self-esteem and create
(23:20):
unrealistic standards, I thinkno matter how grounded you are
at a young age.
So, okay.
Handled care.
I, I have another question.
Mm-hmm.
So you were socially awkward, soit was difficult.
I mean you you said that Iwasn't home skill.
That's why help.
She's so smart.
No, I was just wondering, youhad this tool to maybe
(23:45):
communicate with more people,but then the backside of that
was the further decline of yourself worth.
In your mind, did it cause youto be less social?
Did it isolate you, I guess iswhat I'm thinking asking?
I would say yes.
That's one of the many factorsin which I was like self
(24:05):
isolating.
Okay.
But it made it, I feel like initself it's an escape from
reality.
And so when I was feeling verysocially anxious or depressed or
just feeling like I wasn't goodenough for the world, or I
didn't fit in like I justresorted to social media because
yes, it was addictive and likealso.
Funny videos.
Yes, yes, yes.
Like it's just a lot.
(24:27):
And looking back at it, I'mlike, wow.
I wasn't,, I mean, I guess I wasa teenager, but I'm like, dang,
girl.
Didn't you see what washappening?
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like with you and mykids' ages, we dodged a bullet.
I mean, we were right on thecusp.
On the pre the precipice.
Yeah.
Yes.
(24:47):
I feel like Garrett didn'treally, there was no really
Facebook until almost he was incollege.
Mm-hmm.
And then Weston was, you know,older, which he's never really
been.
The man doesn't care aboutsocial media, but he loves a
good education reel.
He loves him a hunting reel.
(25:08):
He loves some YouTube reels,whatever.
Yes.
Loves honey.
Yes.
But yeah, I, so I definitely, Iwould love to hear from maybe
somebody that's.
S early in college and see howdifferent it was for you home.
Yeah.
So I'm, I feel like I'm 25.
Okay.
And I'm in Gen Z.
So if any of our listeners,you're younger than that, and
(25:29):
you maybe had a differentexperience where you literally
grew up online versus where minewas kind of delayed.
Let us know what you think we'recurious to hear.
'cause Yeah, for sure.
I can't imagine it would bebetter than the experience I
had, but also, I don't know, Ithink parents nowadays are more
highly sensitive to.
What's happening in the resresult of all these things,
which is great, and there is alot of research coming out now
(25:51):
to support it.
For example, there is a lot ofstudies that highly link anxiety
and depression to trying tomaintain an online persona in
whatever form or whatever.
Site or app.
So yeah, there you go.
Wanna just handle with care.
Handle with care.
Yeah.
Let's talk about some of thepros before we get back into
(26:12):
more of the cons.
'cause there's a lot of cons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like the pros though, andwe've kind of already kind of
talked about'em just based offof what we see that your
generation didn't have.
And that is like communityaccess learning tools.
Yes.
Yeah.
I feel like now that Iunderstand the harms of social
media and I can.
Create boundaries and safeguardmyself from them.
(26:33):
I love having access to all thistechnology because I want to
pursue truth and I'm a learnerat heart and having all this
information is just like, Idon't know.
It's, I love it.
It's like food for my brain.
It's great.
And then also global awareness.
I think it's great.
I'm a person that's veryinterested in politics, like in
our country and also globally,so.
(26:53):
Being able to see what'shappening in real time, even
though it's really depressing,is something that I think is a
great benefit.
Yeah.
As long as you're not likeconstantly consuming, depressing
news, because that's alsodangerous.
Yes.
And I've struggled with that, soYeah.
Yeah.
Let's get into the cons.
It's time.
Like I said earlier, we're allgetting a DHD, chronic
overstimulation short ofattention spans, like.
(27:16):
It's crazy to think about, and Idon't feel like we have a ton of
long term studies quite yet,just because of how new a lot of
this technology is.
But like, I'm, I'm just worriedwhat it's doing to our brains in
the long term because I consumemore information in a day than
someone else That was.
Way in the past, probablyconsumed in a whole year.
(27:39):
Yeah.
You know, it's true.
Like sometimes it's that realand I'm like, I don't feel like
I'm meant to be doing this as ahuman, but like it's here and I
can see the benefit.
So I just gotta be careful anduse it.
But yeah, that's the reality.
And you know, like we weretalking about superficial
connections and also thepressure to like brand yourself
or like fit into social groupsbased off social media.
(27:59):
Yeah.
And all this like performativeliving we see.
That's really dangerous too,especially when you're a young
woman that's struggling withidentity or a young man
struggling with identity, so,mm-hmm.
Yikes.
Yeah, it is a trap for sure.
I'm looking at this pressure tobrand yourself as young as 12
are probably even younger now.
(28:20):
I get sick, when I come acrosspeople on TikTok that are very
young and they're making likethese very detailed videos and
like.
I feel like I can see the innerchild in them and what they're
trying to get out of socialmedia and it just like, I makes
me feel so sad because I'm like,oh my gosh, you're a kid.
Go enjoy your life.
Yeah.
They ride your bike.
(28:41):
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
It makes me sad, but.
Yeah.
Whole world we live in now.
But anyways, yeah.
So research study that cameacross indicates that intense
use of social media, which Ifeel like is a lot of my
generation and younger, lead tochanges in brain structures
associated with attention andsocial behavior.
So that reinforces what I'vebeen saying, that we're all
getting DH, adhd and we're allbecoming increasingly more
(29:04):
isolated.
Yikes.
Well, we're just do, we'redopamine junkies.
Mm-hmm.
With everything.
With every like, with every, Apositive thing that happens.
It's a shot at dopamine.
It's like getting high, gettinghigh, getting high.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and then also like the,random scrolling, you know, it's
(29:27):
just people get online and, theyjust scroll through and until
they're tired and then they goto bed and.
You know, they've just not dealtwith life.
It's, yeah.
It can be an escape.
Mm.
That is, and you wanna make sureyou're using it in a healthy
way, right?
Right.
In moderation that you're notYeah, I mean, just go to dinner.
(29:48):
I would challenge anybody to goto dinner and just sit around
and watch.
Yeah.
And see how many people are ontheir phones, who's actually
having a conversation.
And you, it will shock youbecause it is so sad.
And these aren't just youngpeople.
(30:08):
These are people my age, maybe alittle bit older.
Yeah.
It's sickening once you start tosee it everywhere.
Yes.
Yes.
How reliant we are on it.
Yeah.
I do feel like my generation andyounger has lost the ability to
just like, sit in happy silencewith themselves.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Which is golden if you, if youcan sit in silence in a room
(30:32):
full of people and not feel likeyou've got to fill in every gap
with something.
Yeah.
That, to me is one of the truestmarks of maturity.
Yeah, period.
And just like peace withyourself.
Yes, too.
Yes.
Like I find it so hard to dothis.
Like I've, I've gotten better atit, but like I probably couldn't
(30:54):
sit down for two hours by myselfand just be chilling.
You'd be in a book and I thinkit comes from a lot of different
things like hustle, culture, myown experience of perfectionism
and also imposter syndrome makesme feel like I can't just sit
and enjoy time.
Without feeling like, you know,I have to be doing something to
whatever.
Right.
And also like social media andstuff, like all this exposure to
(31:18):
comparison culture and fear ofmissing out and performative
living, and this like idea thatyou always have to be pursuing
this.
Better version of yourself oryou're lazy, like that's so
dangerous.
But it definitely affects theway I view like self-care time.
And so I'm trying to rewire mybrain out of that.
Yeah.
And like I don't have to feelall this tremendous pressure all
the time to be doing X, Y, andZ, or I am X, Y, and Z, you
(31:39):
know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That being able to also to likejust relax.
Mm-hmm.
Many of you know, That Jim, myhusband, lost his job in
September of last year, and wejust weren't really sure what
was gonna happen with that.
And after multiple attempts tofind a different job, given his
(32:00):
background and his work history,just nothing panned out and I
really didn't know how that wasgonna look, but I tell him often
and I really mean it.
The fact that he's okay to justrelax, to take an afternoon nap,
that his self-worth is notdirectly tied with his
(32:22):
productivity, which that is abig gap too.
Yeah, that's great.
That's a big gap.
Well, because our parents, andespecially his mom, you know,
grew up on a farm.
Mm-hmm.
You, you worked from the.
Morning up till sundown and wentto school and did all this
(32:45):
stuff.
And so she kind of raised thekids, the boys, like that's some
of their worth was based ontheir productivity.
Mm-hmm.
And so it, I'm glad and I dotell him I'm thankful that
we're, we've broken that.
Yeah.
That's great.
You know, that, that part oflife.
(33:06):
So'cause yeah, that like.
It just made me think of what abig generational difference that
in itself is.
Like your generation, like workwas worth for a lot of people.
I feel like, especially in theSouth, that hard work ethic was
like, yes, you didn't have that.
You're nothing.
Right.
And I feel like my generationhas shifted worth away from
that, which I think is great.
(33:27):
Yes.
I love it.
Yes, I love that.
I love that.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
So one topic that I wanted totouch, since we're talking about
technology and we've said overand over this episode, one of
the great benefits is that wehave access to all of this
information, but within thatthere's kind of a generational
blind spot and things aregetting scary nowadays with AI
(33:48):
because I think it was Googlethat just launched this new
generative AI that can literallyproduce a news video.
Fake people and it looks likeit's a news clip you would see
on tv.
It's, it's scary.
And I think with all thistechnology and with all this
information that's out there, Ithink an important point that
deserves to see at the table ismedia literacy and
(34:11):
misinformation.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Because that is rampant tonowadays and it's really causing
harm.
So let's just talk about thatand maybe like different
generations view it differentways, but I do think it's
important regardless.
Yes.
I agree.
So in terms of the researchstudies show that older
generations are more likely toshare misinformation online,
which absolutely makes sensebecause my generation is a lot
(34:33):
more versed in technology andall the nuances that go in
between, you know, all that.
And also in college, like I hada lot of discussions with
professors and stuff like thison what, like what I can trust
online and how to fact checkstuff and, and things like that.
Uhhuh, but like your generationgoing through college decades
before.
Didn't have those conversations.
Mm-hmm.
And that's, it's not your fault,but it's still important.
(34:55):
It's something we have to dealwith today if we are gonna be
active users in technology.
Right, right.
And I think one of the biggestpitfalls just overall is folks
that did not grow up in thisera, is the fear that people
have of using the technology isbecause there's lack of
(35:17):
knowledge.
Yeah.
So when we fear things insteadof running away from'em, I feel
like this is something that youcould really, you don't have to
have the smartphone and all thedifferent things, but if you
have access, then the fear andthe, control or the lack of
control can be, educated throughand you can find things that
(35:41):
are.
Acceptable that have work, whichis kind of the whole premise of
our podcast.
Yeah.
Is like being okay with the factthat you didn't grow it with it,
but how can I learn bettertoday?
Help me.
Mm-hmm.
And just learning from eachother.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I think that's great point.
One thing that is part of thisconversation and this
(36:03):
generational conversation isconfirmation bias because like
you just said in your spielabout the analog era, like.
It was very face to face likeyour friends and your family are
who you trust, your neighborsand all that.
So confirmation bias comes intothis.
And if you dunno what that is,it's just a tendency to search
for, interpret favor and recallinformation in a way that
(36:24):
supports your prior beliefs orvalues.
And the studies I found on thisis that confirmation bias is
more pronounced in oldergenerations because you guys
tend to rely on familiar sourcesfor information.
Once again that makes sensebased on how you guys grew up.
Like yeah, you're probably gonnalook to the familiar people and
the people that you trust inyour circle for information.
(36:45):
Yep.
Versus I think in my generation,I think we kind of went away
from that.
Like I remember being in collegeand seeing like family members
CCRA posts, like crazy stuff onFacebook, and I was like, okay,
I'm just gonna like stick to my.
Uh, textbooks over here,whatever.
Yes.
Like I don't trust you at all.
Yes, yes.
So that's definitely like agenerational difference.
(37:06):
Mm-hmm.
And something that we canacknowledge to be better and.
As we kind of close out thissegment of the conversation, I
wanted to get out my soapbox'cause I'm really passionate
about all of this.
No matter what generation youcome from, you have a civic
responsibility to pursue truthand navigate an increasingly
digital world with discernmentand caution.
Mm-hmm.
No matter if you don'tunderstand it, no matter if
(37:27):
you're scared of it, like wewere just talking about, like I
think it's a personalresponsibility that you have to
take upon yourself because.
I don't think technology's goinganywhere.
Right.
That is getting more complex,more scary, like I just said.
So it's upon us to learn how tonavigate that in a way that
we're not falling to any of the,the harms and the pitfalls of
(37:47):
technology.
'cause it does have real worldeffects that are dangerous.
Yes.
That, that whole thing, youknow, you can really, if you
have a stance.
It won't take you long to findsources and people who support
that stance.
Yeah.
So it's like, are you seeking itfor information or validation?
(38:08):
Mm.
That's aism right there becauseI do feel like, and we've talked
about it'cause we are verydifferent politically.
Mm-hmm.
And, but I pray.
That if I've done anything, itwould be to be open to other, to
your views, to Dawson andGarrett's to Weston's.
(38:30):
You know, just not alwayslooking.
I just wanna learn more.
Yeah.
I wanna be a student of mypeople.
I want to be a student.
I applaud you for that.
And you are, you're very open.
And even though we don't discusspolitics in the family, I know
that like, if we could, itwouldn't be like a blow up
conversation.
No, not at all.
(38:51):
Because I, again, you have tothink, am I searching for this
because I want to know more arebecause I want to find people
that agree with me.
Yeah.
And those are, and so many ofthe times we're not even like
asking ourselves that question.
No.
But if we started, like Irealize started with that.
Yeah, in the past I realizedthat I was consuming a lot of
(39:11):
media that agreed with me, andnow I like purposely go out of
my way to see like, what is thispolitical party saying?
What is this political partysaying?
Yes.
What are people saying aboutthis?
For people saying about this,because it is so dangerous when
you're not asking yourself thatquestion because then you find
yourself five years down theroad and someone disagrees with
you and you like freak out andhave a crisis or whatever.
(39:34):
You're get angry like it's just.
It's very ugly.
Right?
Right.
We have to be open-minded toeach other.
We can't fall trapped to themindset of like us versus them.
Yes.
Like it's all of us in thistogether.
Exactly.
We have to work together.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean, I don't wanna wakeup in five years and say, man,
that was a farce.
(39:54):
I have literally lived a farcefor the last five years because
instead of finding outinformation, I've just wanted
click, you know, validation.
Somebody to agree with.
You can find somebody to agreewith you all the time.
I'm crazy.
No matter how crazy your beliefsare, no matter how crazy you
are, there's group people on theinternet that will make you feel
(40:15):
better by yourself.
Absolutely.
There's always somebody and notbe good.
Yep.
Oh man.
Well, props to you for remainingopen-minded and seeing the value
in that.
'cause I don't think a lot ofpeople from your generation have
adopted that mindset, but goodjob.
Right?
No.
Well.
You know, the last thing I wannado is offend somebody.
(40:36):
And you know, just learn more ifyou, yeah, if you feel like
you're in a gap and you arehaving issues communicating,
just ask questions.
People love to talk aboutthemselves.
I am my favorite subject.
Before you go into reaction modeand wanna blow up this person
before their crazy stance.
Yes.
Find out more.
Yes.
Before you then respond Exactly.
(40:58):
Respond, not react.
That's that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Well, let's talk about before weclose, kind of bridging the gap.
And I feel like we've alreadylearned a lot from each other,
but let's kind of review it andsee if there's anything else to
add.
Yeah.
So you wanna start with thefirst point?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, analog skills there,there's value in skills,
prevalent in older generations.
(41:20):
Uh, patience, deep listening,face-to-face communication,
grounded, inner worth, thosekind of things that you can
learn from older generations.
Mm-hmm.
and just, just really searchingthe, and researching and looking
for that face-to-face, lookingfor the medium where you could
(41:43):
have an open conversation withpeople mm-hmm.
And not have it go.
South so fast.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Respectfully disagree.
Which I think that is somethingthat none of us know really how
to do.
Anymore.
Well, especially today, I dofeel like people Yes.
Find it so easy to comment onthings.
(42:04):
Yes.
A lot of times before they evenread or watch the whole video,
and it's just so hateful.
It's combative.
Mm-hmm.
All of that stuff.
Yeah.
And I guarantee you, uh, like99% of these trolls wouldn't say
that to your face.
So what are you doing?
Do you not ever commentsomething?
You can't say it to someone'sface.
Exactly.
God, it's so easy.
Amen, sister.
(42:24):
Woo, man.
Well, yeah, I, I definitelyagree on a lot of those points
and that's something that we canfocus towards as we.
Handle social media with cautionand technology with caution.
And on the flip side of that,let's talk about the digital
savvy and what we can take fromthat.
So yes, while we justacknowledge all the serious
drawbacks of technology, thereis a lot of benefits in digital
(42:45):
proficiency.
So accessing information likenever before for, but using it
for learning and growth andexpanding your worldview,
expanding your values, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Like all of that stuff I thinkis fantastic.
Also connecting globally, likeothers before, just trying to
understand the rest of theworld.
And I just think that there'salways gonna be benefits with
(43:07):
that.
Yes.
And also increased productivity.
And as someone that is scared ofai, I also use it a lot to be
more productive and it has savedme hours and hours of time.
Like I use it to come up withepisode titles for this podcast,
like I use it to generatecontent ideas that I can make.
Mm-hmm.
I use it to help me find TikToktrends that are popping and how
I can use that For this podcast.
Yes.
Like I used to help generateyour research and talking points
(43:29):
for the outlines, and it hassaved me hours and hours of time
that I can then spend doingthings I love.
Hanging out with my dog, hangingout with my husband.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So utilizing that, but makingsure you're not reliant on it.
'cause I think it's dangerouswhen people use it to, let's say
you're an author and you'reusing it to write a book.
Right?
Like literally write the bookfor you.
Right.
There's something my brothersaid who's been a guest on here
(43:50):
before and he's just amazingthat.
Yeah.
Everything worth doing is gonnabe hard.
And if you're using things likecheat codes and video games, we
we're talking about that becausewe play a lot of video games
together, or using AI to writeyour book for you.
At the end of the day when youget to the finish line, what are
you gonna feel?
Right?
Are you gonna feel like youaccomplished something through
(44:10):
blood, sweat, and tears?
Or are you gonna feel like youjust cheated and that you took a
shortcut and that you're notactually enough to do these
things on your own?
Mm.
So, yeah.
Profound, profound.
You can start something for onereason and continue it for a
completely other reason.
Mm-hmm.
As far as, checking into thewhole AI thing, and I, I want us
to talk more about that inFuture Pro.
(44:32):
Mm-hmm.
I wanna, I want to hear frompeople that are using it in a
way that's not replacingthemselves, but it's enhancing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's the idea, theirexperience.
Yes.
That should be the idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, before we get to ourclosing, I just want to make a
final suggestion on having amore balanced approach to
technology, which is basically,I think the gist of this whole
(44:55):
episode that we agreed on and.
Uh, just this balanced approachwhere, what if we combine the
strengths of both?
Mm-hmm.
So if we set boundaries withtechnology and social media, we
could utilize these amazingbenefits that I just talked
about while avoiding the digitalburnout, the identity crisis,
and all those things that wedon't want to get into.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So let's just think abouteverything in moderation.
(45:15):
Everything in balance.
'cause that's how things are, Ithink, designed to work.
Yes.
You wanna tell us what she said?
So in our closing, this week's,what she said is.
We don't even know who it is,but they tried to find out
something.
I dunno, they said somethingreally profound.
So we are not held back by theold ways, but neither are we
(45:37):
fully free in the new.
And I love that.
And I, I guess that part, likereally seeking to understand the
people that are older than youmm-hmm.
Is a big gap.
I don't think, you know.
I'm just gonna tell you, I, Idon't feel respect at all from
most mm-hmm.
People that are younger than me.
(45:58):
Like, it, it doesn't mean that,like I'm just saying, like
opening a door mm-hmm.
Allowing a woman to go throughand some of that, you know, is
Southern Yeah.
Type stuff, but just the, I justfeel like, here's the general,
general disrespect that I feel.
Mm-hmm.
I feel like that the youngergeneration is not interested.
(46:20):
In what we know.
Mm.
They're they don't, yeah.
I feel like there is adisinterest in that.
I agree.
I think my generation andyounger are so, quick to condemn
you guys.
Mm-hmm.
But like in all thesegenerational conversations,
like, I'm thinking of everythingI have now that you didn't have.
And we keep saying again like,when you know better, you do
(46:42):
better.
And like.
You did the best you could withwhat you have.
Yeah.
And like we just talked about,there's so much value in like
what you guys learned and yourexperiences.
So yeah, we do need to be morerespectful unless we're given a
valid reason not to.
Like, that should just be thenorm.
Right, right.
And I, I do feel like thatthat's a, a big gap.
(47:02):
That, but I think what you'resaying and just considering what
we had or didn't have, thattakes compassion.
Not a lot of people have thatsadly.
Nope, Nope.
Just crazy.
But we're so excited aboutwhat's going on with us, and
feedback that we're getting onjust like highlighting different
generational stuff.
(47:23):
Mm-hmm.
Um, so we want you also, there'sa challenge.
Alright, Cana, give thechallenge.
We want to invite you this week,just a little mini challenge,
reflect on your uses oftechnology in the digital age.
Do you have boundaries?
Are they working?
Mm-hmm.
Do you need more?
Do you need less?
Mm-hmm.
How can you ensure that you'renot consuming propaganda and
misinformation?
(47:44):
You know, like how hastechnology affected your life,
whether you grew up with it orwhether you didn't.
Right.
And what's it like now?
Right.
What do you want it to look likein the future?
We just invite you to.
Reflect on that for a little bitbecause a lot of these things we
just talked about are veryimportant, and I think we're
living in a digital era now,whether you like it or not.
So we might as well try andnavigate it in the best way we
can.
So we're all gonna figure thisnew era out together, it's
(48:07):
changed how we live, love,learn, communicate.
So let's just keep in mind thatthe key to navigating this is
awareness boundaries.
Humor and empathy.
Yes.
Compassion across generations.
Yes.
I'm sure you guys that have,smartphones, there is actually
weekly from my iPhone, I get areport.
(48:29):
Of screen time.
Mm-hmm.
And, that's very interestingbecause you can go through that
and I never really looked atlike the specifics, but it'll
break it down for you.
Like what type, yes.
You have this much screen time,how much of it is, you know, on
social media.
Yeah.
How much of it is.
(48:50):
Something else, but, that, thatwas, that will open your eyes,
so.
Mm-hmm.
That's a good way to kind ofjust measure yourself.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, if you thought ourgenerational conversation today
was very interesting.
You liked it, you learned a lot,made you think a lot.
Share it with a friend.
'cause word of mouth is huge forus.
Yes.
And before you go, we would loveit.
(49:10):
Love it, love it, love it.
If you would leave us a review'cause we love your feedback and
we also love.
Building our show.
Yes.
That's the goal here.
Yes.
'cause we wanna be able to havethese generational conversations
and.
Not only just our voicesspeaking, but all of you guys
chiming in as well.
'cause hopefully you guys arealso from different generations.
Yes.
And different backgrounds andstuff like that.
So that is the generational tea.
(49:35):
Big time.
Well, and that, that's the tea.
Tea.
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