A recent feature on Jersey 105.5 reminds parents that youth today experience stress with social media influences that can inspire great anxiety – especially around the holidays. There is more time to hang out on-line and young folks feel a pressure to take pictures to present themselves and their lives as only wonderful. So they are not living in the moment; they are living the moment to produce something that others will envy or “like” on-line. And there is a tendency to be constantly distracted to compare and despair because people typically post what they think will reflect their BEST lives. It is easy to feel like you are falling short of some standard of perfection.
Undivided attention is priceless
The best Christmas present parents can offer their tech-savvy children is their actual personal presence. No agenda. Just be present. In a cyber-powered world, undivided attention is the scarcity. And yet, our lifestyles today are over-scheduled and social media amplifies the stress of seeking favor with the crowd. So how can we get a handle on the impact that social media is having on all of us, young and old alike?
Related feature:
Nutrition tips to help youth deal with the emotional impact of social media
Special event: This January 16, 2020, 6:30PM, RealConversations and Newport Academy will be hosting a screening of the documentary LIKE about the impact that social media is having on our lives, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with mental health experts, at the Studio Movie Grill in Rocklin, CA
LIKE is an IndieFlix Original Documentary that explores the impact of social media on our lives and the effects of technology on the brain. The goal of the film is to inspire and help equip us to self-regulate. Social media is a tool and social platforms are a place to connect, share, and care… but is that what’s really happening? Here is the trailer: TheLikeMovie.com
Join the conversation!
Mental Health Professionals, Teachers, and Families welcome!
Seating is limited, reserve your seat
Learn more and claim your tickets here.
For questions, contact Shelby Swartz sswartz@newportacademy.com or Jennifer Oliver jennifer@beingreal.me.
***
Core Connectivity Mission
Restore Parental Confidence, Inspire Resilience, and
Empower Families to Strengthen their Bond
PERSONAL APPEAL
In the media-centered network culture it is easy to believe things that are not true, and focus on things that do not really matter. This can curtail parental confidence and increase childhood anxiety and trauma. Help me get some basic tools and insights into the hands of parents so they can more effectively help their children establish their own internal guidance systems to be safe and secure and counter the cyber-powered stressors of growing up with mobile connectivity.
You can help this cause by:
- Making a donation to Banana Moments Foundation (non-profit parent of Core Connectivity)
- Sharing these links to the tips for setting personal boundaries and establishing cyber rites of passage.
Share Tips to regulate the use of technology as a family (PDF Handout)
***
WHERE I AM SPEAKING
- Date: January 16, 2020
- Event: Insights about love in response to anxiety and addiction as a family affair
- Sponsor: Sierra Vista Hospital
- Speaker: Joanna Jullien
- Venue: Sacramento campus, community room
- Registration details: forthcoming
***
WHERE YOU WILL FIND ME
- Date: December 11, 2019, 9AM
- Event: Holiday gathering
- Groups: Women’s Association for Addiction Treatment (WAAT) and Men’s Association for Addiction Treatment (MATT)
- Venue: Mimi’s Café, Arden Way, Sacramento, CA
- Date: December 20, 2019, 12:00 – 3:30PM
- Event: Annual Holiday Extravaganza/Gift Exchange
- Sponsor: On Site Strategies
- Location: 10399 Old Placerville Rd, Sacramento, CA 95827
- To learn more go to On Site Strategies/CEU Trainings.
- Registration is required. Go to OnSiteStrategies
Date: January 16, 2020, 6:30PM
Special event: RealConversations and Newport Academy will be hosting a screening of the documentary LIKE about the impact that social media is having on our lives, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with mental health experts, at the Studio Movie Grill in Rocklin, CA
Learn more and claim your tickets here.
***
OTHER FEATURES
- Crucial conversations about the hidden agenda behind vaping and other things trending in your child’s life
- Nutrition tips to help youth deal with the emotional impact of social media
- Five habits of anxiety-proof families in a cyber-powered world
- If food and body image are issues for your child, it is time to get educated
- Parent screentime
- Why your tween/teen needs you to be confident about their use of smartphones: What does that look like?
- How to countering the addiction epidemic: Responding to opioids and other risky drug trends with hope
- Crucial conversations about social media use: Brave versus risky
- Signs your child’s picky eating may become an eating disorder and what to do about it
- A mother’s lesson about exercising caution
- Why devices are not to blame for the lack of connection with your child
- Conquer the fear of losing your child to screentime
- The purpose of stress in your child’s life and their happiness
***
Crucial Conversation Concepts
Guidance for conversations with youth in a cyber-powered world, wherein it is easy to believe things that are not true and focus on things that do not really mater.
Power versus Abuse
True power involves self-restraint and self-discipline to not abuse it. People who abuse others are feeling powerless, and seek to feel like they are in control by dominating others. Children who understand the difference between power and abuse will be better equipped intellectually and emotionally to deal with bullies on and off-line. Online conduct rules can put you and your child in the driver’s seat of cyber-powered living. Cyber-safe house rules offer a great way to bond with your teen about being in control of your own life.
Consider this thought: you and your child already have power over your own thoughts and actions in every circumstance. The challenge is to learn how not to give up your power to the bully, the drug or the device.
****
LET’S WORK TOGETHER
Events for Your Parent Community
Equipping parents to deal with the extreme influence of social media on young hearts and minds
Core Connectivity offers Fresh Start Family Culture training to help parents exercise control over the home, regulate use of technology and empower family members. To book an event at your office, school or church, contact Joanna (be sure to include your return email address) or 916-521-7203
***
Private Parenting and Family Life Coaching
Fresh Start Family – Two 90-minutes sessions with Joanna. Learn about the tools to give you control over the things you can control.
- Want to argue less and experience more peace in your family relationships?
- Wondering if your child is ready for his or her first smartphone?
- Is cyberbullying terrorizing your child/tween/teen?
- You suspect or have caught your teen using drugs and/or alcohol. Now what?
- Get your family to put down the devices and have face-to-face conversations
- Has internet porn invaded your home?
To learn more, contact Joanna (be sure to include your return email address) or 916-521-7203
Worried about how social media influences your child? Then focus on the things you can control
***
Professional Training
Book an event for your educators, counseling practice or agency providing resources to youth and families. Topics include:
- How the sciences of addiction, recovery and faith inform effective prevention strategy
- A parent’s guide for dealing with mental and behavioral health issues
- Embracing “the addict” as an agent for positive change in the family
- Keeping tabs on your family’s social media hangouts
- Cyberbullying & radicalization of youth into violent ideologies
- Talking about drugs and drug abuse in social media
- Family-safe conversations about internet porn and sexting
***
Reminder
Discipline, not perfection: On being an imperfect parent with imperfect kids
When cyber connectivity hypes everything and inspires anxiety, what will you focus on?
***
Books
The Role of a Parent in Healing a Suffering Child:
Insights on the Power of Love and Suffering in the Family
This book offers specific, practical insights to build their own inner resilience for parents dealing with mental and behavioral health issues of tech-savvy youth.
Get your copy!
Fresh Start Family Culture Builder for Household Executives
- Seven lessons on the impact of the network culture on youth, parenting and family life
- Four exercises to develop a renewed perspective on the challenges of modern life
- Three final products to regulate the use of technology and foster human connection at home: Family creed, family motto and a short set of house rules
Helpful tools:
- Keep medications out of the hands of youth: Check out: SaferLock
- iOS 12 parental controls – review by Common Sense Media
(BMB-0481)
About: We are a non-profit education center founded in Roseville, CA to strengthen the parent-child bond in a hyper-connected world. Our mission is to restore families with the mustard seed of faith that declares liberty already belongs to the soul because one God, the Creator of all humanity, grants every human being intelligence and free will to choose what to believe, and that is power that can never be taken, but is easily surrendered to the bully, the drug or the device.
Peace on earth begins with peace at home.
Core Connectivity – A Foundation to Empower Families
YOUR DONATION HELPS THIS CAUSE
Core Connectivity is an initiative of Banana Moments Foundation. When you shop at Amazon via AmazonSmile, Amazon will make a donation to Banana Moments Foundation.
Joanna Jullien is an author, educator and consultant on strengthening the parent-child relationship in a cyber-powered world. She is a former technology executive trained in behavioral science at U.C. Berkeley, a mother of two grown sons, and an author of books for practical guidance on parenting, growing up and family life in the network culture. As a family and technology culture advisor, Joanna has appeared on 103.9FM The Fish, 710AM Keeping Faith in America, 1380AM The Answer, and Examiner.com.