Technology and Children. A bittersweet duo. Although there are positive benefits to their use of technology, there are also disadvantages, all of which Erik will discuss. For me, it’s always been VERY tempting to use technology, from TV to iPad games and everything in between, as an electronic babysitter. Still I was successful in dismissing the urge…most of the time.
But first, check out the Erik orb that Leah Hull captured when she was having a rough time and asked him for a sign. It’s toward the end.
Next, I’m very pleased to announce Raylene Nuañes’s new question and answer video. If you have a question to ask Erik (or anyone, really,) the visit her at angelmedium7.com. Even if you didn’t submit a question this last time, the answers might help you anyway!
Another thing: I’m thinking of hosting a multi-day Erik-Palooza event in the Fall. In this event, we’ll have a variety of healers and spiritual practitioners: mediums, energy healers, past life reqressionists, between lives regressionists, and more! You’ll be able to sign up in advance for appointments with whomever you want, and they will offer discounts for their services. There will be a general admission charge but only to cover catering and the venue. The problem is coming up with a city that will make all of you happy. Can you take this poll?
[socialpoll id=”2546327″]Now enjoy the video! Check out Jennifer HERE.
Elisa: Hello, Jennifer, how are you doing?
Jennifer: I’m good, how are you?
Elisa: Doing well, hi Erik, I love you boy!
Erik: Hello, I love you too!
Elisa: So, you guys in case some of you guys don’t go to the end, I’m going to go ahead and give you Jennifer’s information right now, psychicmediumjenniferdoran.com, but I’ll also put a little splash title page at the end. So, oh yeah, I forgot about something, Jennifer do you want to say anything about you and your site and what you have to offer?
Jennifer: I am a psychic medium so I do connect to the other side, I can connect to loved one, spirit guides, higher self, I can also get information about the future, what’s going on here and now and that sort of stuff.
Elisa: Not everybody does that.
Jennifer: That’s correct, nope not everybody does.
Elisa: Okay, so look there are two things that we can talk about, I’ll just let Erik choose. Technology and our children or Expectations. I’m going to open up the door though, because Bella is trying to get out.
Erik: They’re both really great topics and we might discuss both of them.
Elisa: Oh good!
Erik: But we can start with kids and technology.
Elisa: Okay. Let’s go for that and then what I’ll do is I’ll stop it when we’re finished and we’ll restart another so it can be two separate videos.
Jennifer: Sure.
Erik: With the technology it’s a double-edged sword because it’s a necessity at this point in history and in time, that the kids are exposed to technology. Unless you are totally living off the grid, you know if you are Amish or living a lifestyle like that, but if you have children in public school, even doing private school, it’s an absolute necessity, they need it. They need exposure to the technology but there is a fine line between what is acceptable and what is too much.
Elisa: All right, well let’s talk about the good things that technology does for our kids as they grow up to become adults in the adult world.
Erik: Learning the skills, the computer skills, it is really good for hand-eye coordination, even some of the games they play are very good for that kind of thing. There is a social aspect to being good with the technology and kind of knowing the technology for kids, so there is a lot of good to it. They can’t through public school without knowing how to use a computer and knowing how to type.
Elisa: What do you mean as far as the social benefits are concerned?
Erik: For the kids who play some of the games, if a group of kids are talking about it and some kid has no idea what they are talking about, it does kind of isolate them a little bit. It can be good for their social growth as well.
Elisa: Is there any good, I know there’s bad aspects, but are there any good aspects for the technology for social media for them? Like Facebook, Snap Chat, Instagram, that kind of thing?
Erik: That’s definitely different, I was more talking about computers, games, even the hand-held game sets but the social media, that’s different. The social media, there’s really no benefit to it, at a young age, until you talking about 18, 19, 20, there’s really no benefit that comes from it.
Elisa: Yeah.
Erik: For them.
Elisa: Of course, probably be too young before you’re 18, unless they use to call to action for a cause or things like that.
Erik: Yeah, but that’s not what most kids would be doing? It really just sets them up to be harassed, bullied or to harass or to bully others, so no there’s not any real benefit, like oh they should be on Facebook because, they should be on Instagram because, no.
Elisa: When I was growing up, Vogue magazine and things like that, they would tell me that Oh my God, I am not skinny enough, I’m not pretty enough etc. But social media takes to a whole other level. Telling out kids what to look like, what to eat, what YouTube videos to watch, just everything. An external beacon for them.
Erik: It’s too impressionable, especially that teenage time, it’s like the kids are too but they’re also not telling their parents everything. You know even kids that are close to their parents and have an open communication, they don’t tell them everything because they are starting to keep some stuff, especially if they are being picked on and bullied and stuff like that, so it is no benefit of social media.
Elisa: I know, this has nothing to do with technology but kids at that age are like that. I remember I found out Michelle, my second eldest, in second grade was being totally bullied by this one kid, and she wanted Michelle to be her best friend and Michelle said “well you know I want more than just one friend” and so then the war was on. Anytime Michelle would sit down at a table with her, she would command all the people her minions to get up and move, or when Michelle was walking down the hall, she would whisper nasty things and so eventually Michelle ate lunch in the nurse’s office everyday, but yet she didn’t tell me and for some reason the nurse didn’t tell me either.
Erik: Yeah, well you know it’s like kids that age is kind of like sociopaths (laughs), not really but kind of because they don’t realize the damage that they are doing to the depth. They are trying to be mean to each other, they’re thing to hurt each other but they don’t have the mental capacity at that age to understand the length of damage that they’re going to cause.
Elisa: Yeah, I mean their brains are not fully developed until they are 25, and yet we are suggesting that 16-year old should have the right to vote, even before they take government in their senior year, so that’s kind of weird.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Elisa: All right, so I remember when iPads or whatever, mp3 players first came out, and everybody’s walking around with headphones on, it’s like, I felt like everybody was cocooned and there was no interaction with one another and of course I see that too, you guys know, you see a family at a restaurant and everybody’s on some smart device, not uttering a word to each other and you know it’s kind of sad because it takes away from the fact that we are all connected and we’re all part of the collective and we all are one.
Erik: It’s created an addiction that didn’t exist 50 years ago, especially the phones, that’s an addiction, a much bigger percentage of people are susceptible to this type addiction than necessarily substance abuse issue (audio cut out 8:16), even if they try drugs or (audio cut out 8:22) this the technology, the phones and stuff creates a much wider addiction issue, than really anything else.
Elisa: What’s the root of the addiction? What are they truly addicted to?
Erik: There’s many things that can, it’s like reassurance, some people can’t sit still and be in the moment so this is away to make you feel like are in the moment when you are not really in the moment, especially for the younger generations that validation. It’s like there’s this validation, we all want validation, it’s part of human nature, but this give you instant validation, oh did they like my picture, did my Snapchat get, you know this kind of thing, so that is what really feeds a lot of the younger generations.
Elisa: Oh, it’s bad.
Erik: Instant gratification, that validation, and of course it’s not legitimate validation.
Elisa: No. Sometimes it’s the opposite.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Elisa: Okay, so what, we needed validation before technology what forms of validation?
Erik : A lot of times people just walked around kind of feeling not validated, you have to live in that, I have to seek it from myself, I have to get it from myself, or you know just whatever you just suffered quietly with it a lot of times or you did get the validation from the people, legitimate validation is only going to come from a handful of people in your life compared to the number of people that you’ll come across and that’s really the legitimate validation from your parents, your family, you loved ones, your friends, that’s the validation that’s really important not your 15, 000 followers.
Elisa: I know. I think the really legitimate validation comes from within.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Elisa: In parenting books it talks about how humans are pack animals, sorry if I repeated this but some of you guys might not have seen this in other videos, they need to belong to a pack and they can do it in one of two ways, they can conform to the pack and do as the pack commands and that’s what this technology is having them do and their peers etc. and that means every choice they make has to be crafted such that it seeks the packs approval. So, their choices are based on what everybody else wants but if you are self-directed that means you earn approval from the pack by contributing something unique and meaningful like maybe you’re the negotiator, maybe you’re the one that helps to heal, maybe you’re the one that makes people happy, I don’t know, but then you get validation from within.
Jennifer: Yes.
Erik: Even if you grow up with parents who are not validating to you, you learn from that too, so yes you might learn that okay, I need to give validation to myself or I need to find validation some place else because I’m not getting from my parents. Even if you don’t get it from your loved ones it’s still a lesson in validation.
Elisa: Yeah, or you may see parents of your friends that are validating and you think Wow, it’s not because of me it’s like they’re crappy parents in that regard.
Erik: Yes. So that’s a bit one, the validation is a big one why people are addicted to it.
Elisa: Is this whole obsession with technology is that part of the mass spiritual contracts?
Erik: Yeah it is, it’s not going any where.
Elisa: But, why?
Erik: Well because the sheer nature of technology.
Elisa: Okay. Now, why do we have a contract? Sorry, not why is it going to be there forever, it’s going to get more and more but why did we construct this spiritual contract?
Erik: You need to be able to get information so quickly around the world, it needs to be because this for example without technology what we are trying to do here would not happen as quickly so you need the technology for it to happen faster.
Elisa: Oh, okay.
Erik: So, there is benefit to technology, that’s one of the things, is information is accessible anytime, almost any where.
Elisa: God, I remember getting out, and lugging out the old encyclopedia Britannica, or the ones I started with was the Book of Knowledge, it’s sad, when you look up the moon it shows a whole bunch of airplanes just flying to the moon, just prop airplanes, yeah right. So.
Jennifer: It’s funny what he’s saying.
Erik: That’s like on a grand scale a big scale as far as trying to get information, thinning the veil this is a bigger scale. There’s also on smaller scales, on people’s day to day lives there’s stuff (audio cuts out 14:07) you can’t really get away affairs anymore, it’s just there’s like smaller things that the technology helps bring to light that make people in the own individual life have to deal with. Losing their job because of something stupid they posted, that sort of stuff.
Elisa: So little miniature individual contracts can exist with the technology. So, how will they affected, how do they and will they affect a child who is raised with that kind of technology, head in the phone, in games etc. What’s different about they way they will grow up?
Erik: It will just be less social than some upbringings where you had to go out and play and the neighborhoods kids had to all get together because there is less of that now, where you’re just going out and wandering the streets until the street lights came on and came home, so it is definitely a different upbringing, it does not necessarily mean that people as adults will be better or worse than they used to be, it’s just a different upbringing. It’s not everybody not all kids are allowed to do this, but the ones that do, it would be dependent on each individual child, for some kids this is not healthy and does have the potential to.
Elisa: We’re so scared to let our kids play outside, I mean I used to play outside with my sisters just like you said until the street lights came on and I think that is so important because that’s how kids learn to compromise, to negotiate they learn how to deal with frustration, they learn how to be a leader, a follower, etc., all these super important social skills you don’t get if you’re in front of an iPad, you just don’t get it.
Erik: No, no you don’t.
Elisa: So, what kind of adults do they become as a general rule? (over talking)
Erik: A bit more anti-social, you know harder to negotiate, harder to compromise, yeah there’s definitely going to be that kind.
Elisa: They’re snowflakes! Because they haven’t learned to accept disappointment and frustration, etc., because they have not been in the foxholes.
Erik: Yes, absolutely. For the most part those are people who will have to adjust and learn that as adults when maybe generations before have kind of gotten a dose of that in their childhood, teenage years. There is a risk of having more difficulty in keeping jobs for people.
Elisa: Because of their anti-social?
Erik: Yeah. These are kind of the more extreme cases, not all the time, not everything that can be being done is going to cause this type of issue.
Elisa: Okay. Well, aren’t there some forms of social media technology that does help connect us?
Erik: Yeah, absolutely.
Elisa: Swipe left, swipe right.
Erik: There is a lot of benefit, how you’re using social media, if you’re using social media to stay connected to people, maybe if you live far away from your extended family, it can be very, very helpful, you know even as a teenager, if you’re a military family, and you’re away from a big extended family, (audio cuts out 18:18), this can be very helpful because maybe there is people that you can’t see and talk to all the time, that you can connect to on social media and help you with stuff. It really depends on the individual person and what they’re doing and what they’re expecting from their social media stuff. Now, even some of the games that the kids play that are kind of more military based but you know they’re also forming strategies and they’re talking with other people and that’s not always a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing when it becomes and obsession and an addiction.
Elisa: And then (inaudible 18:58) on the person too and their personality.
Erik: Yes!
Elisa: If you’ve got a little serial killer to be playing these games, he could become a school shooter or she whatever. So, do you think these games have contributed to violence and mass shootings and things like that?
Erik: This is very delicate, but no because those people would have found something else that would have triggered them.
Elisa: Ah.
Erik: Okay, so the ideas of what they do and where they pulled their information from might be video game stuff, had it not been video games it would have been something else.
Elisa: A book.
Erik: Yes.
Elisa: A murder mystery or something like that.
Erik: Yes.
Elisa: Okay, now how will this technology now, how will it, it has of course, how will it affect our society 100 years from now or in the distant future? In good ways and bad ways.
Erik: It will be in good and in bad ways. Some of the bad stuff is the anti-social behavior, but identity theft, there will be a lot more of that, a lot more of the hacking and information getting out there that can be harmful.
Jennifer: Sorry, sometimes he gives me stuff and I’m like ugh I don’t want to say that right on camera.
Erik: Military stuff they have to stay a step ahead of everything else as far as that stuff goes, so those are some of the bad aspects of it. Again, the good aspects are going to be medical revelations.
Elisa: Oh, yeah what about medical technology, you’re right!
Erik: Yeah, saving lives or making people who are sick with serious illness lives better towards the end stages and stuff like that. You really can’t have one without the other, it does not matter technology is moving forward there is no derailing it now. That’s it you are on that path, it is set.
Elisa: Okay. You know automation is going to get bigger and bigger and that’s going to wipe out a whole bunch of entry level jobs for our older teens and young adults.
Erik: Yes. What happens with that is that it does take away some jobs but it does add others.
Elisa: Somebody’s got to build the robots!
Erik: Somebody’s got to build the robots, somebody’s got to maintain the robots, so there is other stuff that’s going to come along even though some other stuff kind of got wiped out.
Elisa: It’s really interesting, I’ve been reading about disruptive technologies, you know if you look at this one picture of the Macy’s day parade, where there’s one car and the rest are horse and buggies, 10-11 years later, there’s one horse and buggy and the rest cars, so of course the taxi drivers, the horse and buddy, they were not happy but look at the technology that automobiles have brought, now you have the drilling industry, oil and sorry guys fossil fuels but whatever, more solar, electrical, and somebody has to make the wheel, somebody has to get the rubber for the wheels, you know, mechanics and car washes, etc., so you’re right and if you can figure out what the next disruptive technology is going to be, you invest in that and you can make a killing. Look at Ford, (inaudible)
Erik: More technology comes along, the people who are doing this technology, they don’t even realize the other type of things that is going to be involved with it, the other jobs it’s going to create and the other necessities that are going to come about because of it.
Elisa: Yeah. Some of the companies that are disrupted they took advantage of it and go with the flow and are (inaudible) that stream but other don’t, look at Kodak, you know, when digital; cameras came out, or look at carbon paper, they didn’t adapt to the disruptive technology. What’s the next disruptive technology going to be, Erik?
Erik: There’s going to be a lot of stuff with medical, the disrupted, it’s going to be a lot of medical.
Elisa: A cure for cancer! That would be a very cool (inaudible)
Erik: Yeah, yeah like where they’re so close and then they get derailed and 5 years later what they were trying to do here is going to all of a sudden be huge, you’re going to see a lot of disrupted technologies with the medical stuff. A lot of equipment, like robot type stuff, this type of thing, not necessarily with medications.
Elisa: Oh yeah, right, but a cure for diabetes, could you imagine, no more insulin pumps, insulin, needles and all that kind of stuff so, and if there was a cure for cancer that would put the wig business out of business. Okay, well one last question, and we’ll quit and we’ll go to our next topic. Advice for parents?
Erik: Limit, limit the time, limit the exposure and parents you need to know what it is that your kids are doing, you need to watch them play the games that they’re playing so you can see what’s in them. A lot of parents have no idea what their kids are actually doing.
Elisa: Can’t they kind of look online before?
Erik: Yeah, they can.
Elisa: To be informed before they buy it?
Erik: Of course, they can, but do they, a lot of them don’t.
Elisa: When should kids be allowed to have a computer, and then also have a phone?
Erik: Even the tablets at a small age, a young age, they can be beneficial, they can be learning devices.
Elisa: Oh yeah, that’s true, I got Easton one when he was 2, almost 3, and it had all sorts of learning things.
Erik: That’s really fine, and usually in that time your sitting watching very well aware, but as far as the phone goes, 5th, 6th grade is okay but you know if you have a latch key type of situation then that child needs a phone.
Elisa: Well I didn’t have it, I was a latch key kid.
Erik: It’s different now.
Elisa: Why? More dangerous?
Erik: Yeah. More dangerous. If the technology had been available when you were a latch key you would have had a phone.
Elisa: Yeah if you live in the projects then you probably need to have a phone when you come home from school.
Jennifer: Yeah.
Elisa: All right so how many hours should kids spend on any form of technology? Like per day or per week.
Erik: Case by case basis and an age by age basis, older kids are going to need to be in front of screens longer because they’ve got work to do on the computers.
Elisa: Okay, aside from school work.
Erik: Okay, a couple of hours max.
Jennifer: And Erik’s kind of showing me an older kid for that, your 2-year-old maybe shouldn’t have the iPad for 2, 3,4 hours a day.
Elisa: I know could that be bad for them medically, physically, energetically?
Erik: Oh yeah absolutely! It desensitizes, especially at such a young age. If you’re letting your real young kids be on the tablets and stuff a lot, you’re going to have a lot more kids saying “I’m bored, I’m bored”, because they can’t entertain themselves.
Elisa: And that’s the problem, you’re right, that’s another thing in engenders is this discomfort with being idle.
Erik: Quiet time.
Elisa: Just sit a be and be in the now, so maybe we should do something like, okay you can start whatever if (over talk)
Erik: That’s a big problem that it causes.
Elisa: Yeah, okay we’re going to go through some meditation before you get on that screen.
Erik: Yoga, meditation, something that is just as much down time as that would be up time.
Elisa: I used to say “hey, I’m not your social director, figure it, but you’re not getting on the T.V”.
Erik: Exactly.
Elisa: Go play outside, I mean don’t you think kids should, depending on the environment, play out side more?
Erik: Yes.
Elisa: Have organized playdates, you know basically all they do is they go to school, to soccer, which they don’t really have any interaction with each other really, not in the way that kids who play outside would.
Jennifer: That’s true.
Elisa: There needs to be some, don’t you agree that there should be play.
Jennifer: Using their imagination, kids now don’t use their imagination now as it used to be.
Elisa: I know. Have they lost the ability to imagine?
Erik: No, as time goes by yes, that individual child that’s on the technology, yes, they lose the ability to have the imagination be as active, but they don’t come in that way.
Elisa: All right so, are there any screens that protect them from the blue light, I can’t remember.
Jennifer: Yeah, I know that there’s filters and stuff you can put on the screens.
Erik: Parent’s need to be aware, a lot more kids complain of headaches now than they used to, a lot more kids have trouble with headaches than they used to.
Elisa: What else does the blue light do that’s bad?
Erik: That’s what’s causing the problems with the eyes, so if you’re having a kid that’s struggling with headaches get the covers for your screen, you can Google it and find.
Elisa: Oh yeah.
Jennifer: I think there’s the yellow ones too, glasses but you can put something right on most of the screens that will filter the light.
Elisa: What other harmful things can the blue light do? Does it cause brain tumors or anything?
Erik: People who might be a little more sensitive to seizures.
Elisa: Oh okay.
Erik: It can interrupt brain waves.
Jennifer: I guess because what it does to the eyes and losing the focus on the eyes, I don’t know but he says it can cause issues there.
Elisa: Okay, is there anything that a parent can buy or use to help monitor the screen time? Like an app, I know my iPhone says screen time on it, and I say on my God, you’ve been on this phone for how long?
Erik: Yeah, you don’t really need to, you just got to be more aware, set the timer on the microwave, set the egg timer, set your Alexa timer.
Jennifer: He kind of smiles because it’s like a technology thing but set your Alexa timer.
Elias: Yeah, really. It’s so crazy because, we’re so busy in this world as parents and so it’s so easy to use that electronic babysitter, here play on the iPad I need some time alone.
Erik: Absolutely! That’s absolutely it.
Elisa: All right anything else you want to say about, so basically let them play outside more, if it’s safe, if it’s not safe, arrange playdates where they actually really, really play.
Erik: Boardgames, card games, find another interest.
Elisa: Yeah, and meditate or do yoga before you can get on the screen, practice being mindful before you get on the screen, protect them from blue light and monitor their screen time. Anything else?
Erik: No, no` just have to be diligent. It’s tough.
Elisa: It’s so hard.
Erik: it is very tough.
Elisa: All right, well thank you Jennifer, thank you Erik, I love you both.
Jennifer: Love you!
Elisa: You guys check her out psychicmediumjenniferdoran.com. Bye-Bye
Jennifer: Bye, thank you.
Featured image courtesy of Government Technology
