Internet Archives - Page 10 of 14 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

10 Years of Free Resources

Posted on: 01/18/10 2:28 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I can hardly believe it, but 10 years ago today I sent out my first resource “EZINE” newsletter from my little website, back then, called JonathansResources.com

I used Alexa.com’s “Wayback” machine to look back at what our site looked like 10 years ago (pretty cool little tool). Here’s what it looked like:

Pretty cool huh?

You can actually get on that page and click around here. I love the little pics on the front page, the game page, etc. Wow… I hardly remember those.

Tomorrow I’m going to send out a “retro” EZINE to our subscribers… I’ll be sending them a copy of the first EZINE we ever sent. You can actually still see all those old EZINES on our ARTICLE ARCHIVES page from the ARTICLES & FREE TRAINING drop down menu of our current site at www.TheSource4YM.com … just get on that archives page and scroll to the bottom to our first article on January 18th 2000.

For those of you new to us, back in 2000 I worked for Youth for Christ and volunteered at my church. I started JonathansResources.com as a fun little hobby simply because I noticed that hardly anyone was providing truly free youth ministry resources on the internet for free. Some people had websites with a few freebies… but no sites dedicated to totally free youth minsitry resources. So I gave it a shot.

It grew to be such a hit, and at the same time my speaking and training was taking off, so in 2003 we started TheSource4YM.com and went full time speaking, training, and providing free resources on the net.

The rest is history!

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Media Use

Posted on: 11/12/09 2:43 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Wow… too many articles to blog about. So I’ll just highlight a bunch of interesting media research from The Nielsen Company. Hold on… this is going to be a rapid fire blog with links and stats.

TV VIEWING: The Nielsen Company came out with a recent report on TV viewing in America. Despite rumors that TV watching is going down, TV continues to rise with the 2008-09 at an all time high.

Here’s a peek at 91 til now:

And here’s the entire article.

And a quick glimpse at Monthly Time that each age group (from kindergarten through retirement) spends in front of the TV. Can you believe it… 12-17 year olds average roughly 26 hours a week. Wow.

Also see: TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High,

MOBILE PHONES: In a recent Nielsen report on Social Media I found tons of interesting facts, but this the most intriguing- the age that children own their first phone. Apparently the age just keeps getting younger. In the first quarter of 2009, the AVERAGE age was 9.7 years old!

Here’s a glimpse at mobile ownership by age:

Notice that 76% of phone users get their cell phone at 12-year-old (NOTE: This table isn’t saying that 76% of 12-year-olds have a cell phone. According to a Pew Internet report, that number is 51%). I can attest to that. My 12-year-old daughter does NOT have one and she reminds me of that every day! (“Dad, all my friends have one!” I’ll have to correct her now. “Correction, only 51% of your friends have one!) 🙂

Here’s the entire social media article.

ONLINE SEARCH: And just to show that Google still “owns”

Here’s the report.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Socially Isolated… or Are We?

Posted on: 11/4/09 12:40 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The Pew Internet & American Life Project just came out with a fascinating new report today about Social Isolation and New Technology. The gist of the report seems to contend: Yes, technology does lead some people to become more socially isolated, but not as much as some have argued.

For example:

The average size of American’s core discussion networks has declined since 1985; the mean network size has dropped by about one-third or a loss of approximately one confidant.
Users of social networking services at 26% less likely to use their neighbors as a source of companionship.
Internet Users are 40% less likely to rely on neighbors for help in caring for themselves or a family member.

And I found this little fact interesting as well…

Internet users are 38% less likely to rely exclusively on their spouses/partners as discussion confidants.

(I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.) 🙂

I was very curious about this report, because I’ve done a lot of research on the subject for two of my recent books.

1. In my book, THE NEW BREED, about recruiting and training this “new breed” of 21st Century volunteers, my dad and I shared several studies about the growing trend toward social isolation. We quoted some studies showing that people have lost at least one core confidant. Funny… this new report shares the exact same thing. Apparently some reports inflate this.

2. In my book about adults connecting with kids that comes out next month (CONNECT), I spent a little bit of time discussing how kids isolate themselves socially, hiding in front of a “screen” of some kind, instead of “face-to-face” communication. I find this Pew Internet report fascinating, because it conveys that technology isn’t isolating people as much as we might think. This made me happy with a decision I made in writing my CONNECT book… I opted to not devote a lot of time to mere “virtual” communication (some people seemed to think we should “put all our cards in this basket.” I disagreed.) I basically concluded that students were isolating themselves more and more, and that face to face communication was becoming difficult for some kids at first. So I recommended becoming familiar with technology and even using it as a stepping stone, but not as a replacement for face-to-face communication. Here’s a snippet:

This increase in social isolation is creating a relational void in the lives of students today. We have an incredible opportunity to meet this need with something real, face-to-face relationships.

Even though teens might be more comfortable with us connecting with them through cell phones and computers, I see these digital mediums only as stepping-stones for youth workers to engage in face-to-face communication. This is not just because of the obvious value of face-to-face conversations, but also because of the increasing dangers emerging with technology. Legislation is changing regarding appropriate digital communication between adult mentors and students. (I’ll touch on this in greater detail in chapter 13 when I talk about the boundaries and precautions we should consider with relational ministry.)

As we make connecting one-on-one a priority in our ministry, we may often utilize technology as a tool to transition toward more face-to-face conversations. In relational ministry, technology should be used as a tool, not a crutch.

(We are offering a great deal on the pre-sale of this book right now on our website, where you can get it from us about a month before anyone else, along with a free ppt training we’re giving away).

I encourage you to check out this Pew Internet report. I fully agree with their results.

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How Much Influence Does MTV Have?

Posted on: 09/19/09 9:33 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Two weeks ago I told you to set your TIVOs to record the MTV Video Music Awards, referring to the show as one of the top three “portholes into youth culture” you’ll see any given year. Last week I wrote my annual recap of the show, calling it the “biggest pop culture phenomenon of the year.”

Some of you might be wondering why I would cite this show and this channel (MTV) as such a vivid reflection of our culture (and potent influence to it). I mean… seriously. How many people actually watch this show?

Good question. Let’s look at the extent of this channel’s reach, and then, let’s peek at how we can respond like the Apostle Paul.

How many watched the awards on the 13th? 9 million on MTV alone. But if you look at the other channels the show was aired on, the show drew 26.9 million viewers on Sunday night on all three channels (MTV, MTV2 and VH1). But that doesn’t include the 5.5 million who watched it online the next day. These huge numbers make it the #1 viewed cable show of the entire year among people age 12-34 (You can read the whole breakdown of TV viewers here).

An MTV press release expanded on the 5.5 million people who visited MTV.com the day after the awards, ringing up 53.4 million page views and watching 17.9 million video streams.

MTV General Manager, Kristen Frank commented, “On Sunday night, MTV and MTV.com were really at the center of the pop culture zeitgeist. The Awards set high marks yet again this year both on-air and online, and we’re really seeing some unprecedented growth for our multimedia content in 2009.”

Hold on a minute… I have to go get my dictionary and look up zeitgeist. Ah, here it is: the ideas prevalent in a period and place, particularly as expressed in literature, philosophy, and religion.

Unfortunately, Kristen is correct. According to their press page, on-air, MTV is the number one rated full-day ad-supported cable network for young people ages 12-24. A few years ago Nielsen Media Research reported that MTV was the most recognized network among young adults age 12 to 34, watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls age 12 to 19. (ParentsTV.org)

What do all these numbers mean? It means that whatever MTV is slanging (look that word up here)… our kids are listening. That’s why we should probably follow Paul’s example in Acts 17 and at least become aware of the content of this award show, as well as the content of this network’s programming. Unfortunately, I think you’ll find yourself reacting the same way the Apostle Paul reacted in Acts 17 when he walked along the city of Athens and looked at all the idols the people worshipped. He was “distressed.” The New Living Translation describes his reaction as “deeply troubled.”

How do you respond when you are deeply troubled by the elements of our culture?

Hopefully, if you’re looking for how to respond, you’ll continue reading that same passage and see how Paul responded in a reasonable dialogue with the people in the culture. He “reasoned” with them, even citing inscriptions on their idols (vs. 23) and quoting their pagan poets (vs. 28).

I encourage you to do the same.

1. Be deeply troubled when you see these elements in our culture. Don’t get numb to them.

2. Don’t over-react. Instead, ask God to open doors for reasonable conversation with unbelievers. You can even use tools like our MUSIC DISCUSSIONS page or our MOVIE CLIP DISCUSSIONS to jumpstart conversations using these elements from secular culture.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Music, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Bi-curious With MTV

Posted on: 09/2/09 10:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Two bi-curious girls in bed together “exploring their sexuality?”

You might think this kind of content is reserved for late night HBO or “SkinaMax”… right?

Try MTV. And if your kids don’t have access to the MTV channel… do they have access to the internet? Because when you pull up MTV.com today, this ad pops in your face:

A few years ago Nielsen Media Research reported that MTV was the most recognized network among young adults age 12 to 34, watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls age 12 to 19. (ParentsTV.org)

MTV is still the hub of youth culture, not only on TV, but also on the web. Now if our kids miss the threesome on Real World Cancun that everyone is buzzing about, they can just watch complete episodes on the web, “unsensored,” as MTV.com puts it. Today they can watch the episdode where two bi-curious girls “explore their bi-sexuality.” (go ahead- see what our kids are watching- watch the first 60 seconds of this show – after the ad- where it says, “Previously on The Real World.”) Some of our kids will not bother with the whole episode. They’ll just click on the “unsensored clips” link from MTV’s front page and watch a little menage-a-trois.

How does MTV get away with this? Simple. No nudity and bleeping out profanity.

Harmless, right?

Hmmmmmmm.

Do you know where your kids are browsing?

I’ll give parents similar advice to what I gave in my blog, “You Mean the Lyrics Do Affect Me?”

MY ADVICE TO PARENTS:

1. Find out what your kids are watching. Do your kids watch MTV? Do they browse on MTV.com? Check their browsing history. Ask them what they are watching.

2. Don’t over-react when you find out what they’re watching. If you don’t know what to say, just say, “We’re going to talk about this sometime soon.” Spend some time praying before you react. (Remember the stupid stuff you did as a kid!)

3. Engage in a healthy dialogue with your kids about what they are watching. Note: I didn’t say, “PREACH TO THEM ABOUT THIS!” The emphasis here is more about LISTENING than talking. As a parent, I’m always looking for opportunities to dialogue with my own kids about anything. As a youth worker, I’m always looking for real issues that kids want to discuss. Music, TV and movies are something that they will often be excited to talk about. Use this an open door to discuss our character. (I have provided some good discussion questions in this previous blog about music)

4. Don’t be afraid to take the advice I always offer parents. I recommend using two buttons on your remote control often: The “pause” button, and the “off” button! The “pause” button is great to use when watching something as a family and you encounter content that opens the door to good discussion. The “off” button is a good button to use when shows cross the line. Personally, I block MTV. This channel has no salvageable content whatsoever.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Internet, Sexuality, TV, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

You’re the BLEEP Best

Posted on: 08/18/09 10:20 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Yep… that’s the chorus of the number three song on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart right now. Amazing.

The song is by Drake. It’s called, Best I Ever Had and the chorus features him simply repeating, “You’re the f**king best…” Creative, huh?

Sigh.

The music video starts with a slow motion shot of huge breasted women running onto a basketball court, with their merchandise swaying to and fro in slow motion.

I’m working on my parenting workshop this morning– I preach at a church this weekend, then I get two hours with parents from the church that afternoon. As part of my Parenting the Texting Generation workshop I always update them with the current songs and videos that their kids have access to. I can only sigh as I’m looking at the Top 10 this morning with “I Gotta Feeling” still at number one (I ranted about that to you last week) and now Drake’s Best I Ever Had as number three.

It never fails. Whenever I do this parenting workshop a large number of the top 10 songs are explicit, over-sexualized or raunchy. And the response from the parents is always the same. They are shocked and had no idea that these messages were in the top songs. Furthermore, they had no idea that iTunes and YouTube provide easy access to most of these songs and videos.

Another funny note: The CLEAN version of the song. You see… if you look up Best I Ever Had on iTunes there is the Explicit Version and the CLEAN version. Do it… I encourage you to do that search. Then click on the CLEAN version, double click the song and listen to the 30 second free preview of the “clean lyrics.” Here’s what you’ll hear:

I know you got a roommate, call me when there’s no one there
Put the key under the mat, and you know I’ll be over there
I’ll be over there, shawty, I’ll be over there
I’ll be hitting all the spots that you ain’t even know was there

If you don’t know what “hitting” means, I encourage you to look up “hit it” in our slang dictionary.

I look forward to my time with parents this weekend.

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Tweens Have a Feeling

Posted on: 08/5/09 11:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I was checking out iTunes today– I always like to see what kids are watching and listening to. I noticed that the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling” was still the #1 most downloaded song, and its video is at #5. I’ve blogged about this song and video before. The song is very catchy. And like most of their songs, it doesn’t contain explicit lyrics, so it’s deemed “clean.”

Then there’s the video.

Sigh.

This is also deemed clean. If you didn’t catch my last blog about it… you might want to take a look at it. Your kids can see this music video on YouTube, AOL, iTunes… anywhere. After all, most computers that have some sort of “Net Nanny” or “Cyber Patrol” parental controls don’t block iTunes. (I use a monitoring software on my kid’s computer, but it allows iTunes)

After looking at iTunes, I searched YouTube to see what kind of traffic the video was getting and I found this homemade video from two little girls.

I’m a little torn when I watch this. On one hand I see two cute little tween girls (they look about my youngest daughter’s age- somewhere between 10 and 12) who really seem like they are really having fun making a fun music video. It’s cute- swinging on swings, jumping on couches and doing gymnastics. But then you see them doing what the music video world has taught them well– imitating the party scene, and mouthing words like “Losing control” and “Take it off.”

I’m not freaking out… I’m not judging anyone. To me it’s just sad to see the loss of innocence. The contrast between two little girls playing on swings one moment, then holding up a Martini glass, tossing money in the air like a rapper… pretty intriguing. And if that contrast isn’t enough. Click from the innocent image of a child doing cartwheels on the grass to the original video where women in bikini tops grope and kiss each other. What are the odds that these two girls did NOT see this official Black Eyed Peas video? Would you want your 11-year-old seeing that video? Would you want her remaking that video?

Hmmmmm.

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Look Mom, no cuss words! It must be clean!

Posted on: 07/2/09 4:53 PM | by Jonathan McKee

More and more I’m finding that many parents have no clue what content their kids are watching day to day.

“But I use CYBERPATROL and block out porn sites from our home computer!”

“But I block those movie channels on our cable!”

That’s what they always say. Then I ask, “Do you have iTunes?… YouTube?… MTV?”

I admit… it’s sad when we have to set up so many safeguards to protect our children. And I’m sure some parents over-react and over-protect… while others remain too lenient. I can’t provide you with an exact recipe of where that balance lies, but I can tell you that it starts with becoming aware.

Do you know what the most popular song on iTunes is right now?

Is it explicit?

Have you seen the video?

You see, those nice little “Explicit Lyrics” labels might help us filter out some music, but what will help us discern the appropriateness of the “clean” music? (that’s what our kids call the music without the explicit lyrics labels)

Let’s use the #1 song on iTunes right now as an example. It’s “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Ask your kids, “Is this song clean?”

“Yes mom! See. No explicit lyrics!”

Are they right? Have you done your parental duty?

Jump on iTunes right now and take a listen. If you listen for a minute or so, it sounds innocent enough. Rather catchy too.

Are you done? Okay… maybe not.

Listen to the whole song, or jump to Google and type in “I Gotta Feeling lyrics.”

Oh my!

This is a little more disconcerting. Listen at almost two minutes when Fergie kicks in:

I feel stressed out
I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
and loosing all control

Fill up my cup
Mazal tov
Look at her dancing
just take it off

Wow. Maybe you didn’t catch that listening to it the first time.

But let’s be honest. Some parents might think that this is still pretty tame. Okay. Let’s do what the majority of kids do and look at the video. Jump to Google, YouTube or MTV.com. It doesn’t matter… kids use them all. Type “I Gotta Feeling Video and you’ll find it within one click. Now take a quick watch. I warn you- this video has no nudity, no sex and no cursing in it. So, it’s clean, right? Take a peek. Seriously, don’t just stop at Fergie in a thong… watch the whole thing! (Once you watch this, please don’t email me and complain that I told you to watch this. If you think this will be a temptation- do this with someone else in the room.) Remember that most your web filters won’t filter this video, because “it’s clean.”

Here’s my point: many parents I talk to have taken steps to block porn, and most good parents monitor the types of films that their kids watch… but I meet very few parents that have any idea what subtle messages are being fed to our kids through the “clean” media channels daily.

Please understand. I’m not saying that we should raise our kids in a dungeon listening to Psalty’s Christmas Special. I’m not even saying to unplug your computer from the wall or block your Disney channel. I’m just trying to advocate a little bit of education for parents about the lies our kids are hearing every day. The number one hit we just glanced at above has some pretty sensual images in the video that a teenage guy will really struggle seeing. And the song’s message of “letting it go” and “losing control” might hit home for a lot of teenagers.

Is this a good message? Is this the message you want your kids listening to?

Educate yourself. Tune into our Youth Culture Window articles. These articles reveal you the truth about subjects like the place that some teens are getting their sex advice, they give you a summary of the “junk” (literally) your kids would have seen watching the MTV Movie Awards this year, and they expose the subtle messages in today’s PG-13 films. This huge collection of articles contains a gold mine of good information for parents.

In our parent seminars, David and I try to not only expose these subtle media messages that our kids are immersing themselves with, but we also try to teach parents how to filter these influences and teach our kids discernment.

Dialogue with your kids about their media choices. You’ll find that most kids today are pretty honest.

What are your kids exposing themselves too?

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Decline in Family Time

Posted on: 06/17/09 12:21 PM | by Jonathan McKee

My dad and I are about to drive North this afternoon, preparing for a workshop we teach tomorrow. As we were updating some of our research, my dad sent me the following article about the rapid decrease in family time (one of our “Seismic Shifts” we teach from our book is the shift from “community to individualism”).

Whether it’s around the dinner table or just in front of the TV, U.S. families say they are spending less time together.

The decline in family time coincides with a rise in Internet use and the popularity of social networks, though a new study stopped just short of assigning blame.

The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California is reporting this week that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That’s nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006.

These people did not report spending less time with their friends, however.

Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said people report spending less time with family members just as social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are booming, along with the importance people place on them.

Click here for the entire article.

Interesting article. Although we’ve found more and more research that people are actually spending less “face to face” time with friends too. They’re trying to replace that void with cyber relationships… and coming up empty.

The above article goes on to talk of the rising concern about how much time kids spend online. I’ll be blogging about this a lot this year. I spend quite a bit of time talking about these shifts in my book coming out this December, CONNECT.

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92% More 12-34-year-olds Watched the MTV Movie Awards

Posted on: 06/10/09 9:54 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last week I posted my recap of this year’s raunchy MTV Movie Awards… a show that always seems to slip under the radar of most parents.

Apparently this is true. Because 92% more people in the 12-34 demographic watched the show this year. Online, the show generated a 205% increase from last year. By Midday Monday, the show had already logged 3.5 million streams. Add that to the 5.3 million viewers the night before.

That’s a lot of kids getting a glimpse of the “junk” MTV was showing (Click here for my description of what most parents had no idea that their kids were watching)

Last week I chatted about the show with a few parents I knew from church. Several of them admitted that their kids watched it… the parents had no idea what kind of content their kids were watching (along with literally millions of other kids across the country).

A lot of the show’s hype had to do with the movie Twilight and its fanatical band of followers. MTV showed an exclusive preview for it’s new movie “New Moon,” and that, combined with the many other “moons” we saw that night created quite a buzz … hence the high number of downloads the next few days.

You can see all the numbers here and here.

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