The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
99. Reflections on Technology: Addiction, Manipulation, and Societal Impact
Remember the thrill and frustration of your first prepaid cell phone? Join us as we reminisce about our early interactions with technology, from the excitement of new gadgets to the agony of broken skateboards. Michael and I share a poignant story about a phone dramatically tossed down a sewer during a heated argument, marking a significant moment in our relationship. Through these personal narratives, we reflect on how our interactions with technology have evolved and deeply influenced our lives.
Ever wondered how social media hooks you with every notification and scroll? Listen as we dissect the clever designs of these platforms that hijack our dopamine systems and attention spans. Michael dives into the addictive nature of short-form content, particularly concerning its impact on children. We also draw concerning parallels to Orwell's "1984," discussing the omnipresence of screens and its potential dystopian implications on our personal freedoms and mental well-being.
From Disney's enchanting portrayal of witchcraft to the overwhelming influence of media during the COVID-19 pandemic, we critically explore the broader societal impacts of technology. We recount our own childhood experiences with media, reflecting on how our perceptions have shifted now that we're parents. This episode wraps up with a thought-provoking discussion on the manipulation of information, the changing nature of public education, and the importance of maintaining a skeptical and discerning mindset in a digitally dominated world.
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Thank you for watching. Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission Podcast. My name is Rebecca Toomey and we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Yahweh. As you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Yahweh, we have been in a series on testimonies and I mentioned a couple episodes ago how we have had nothing but problems with this series that every single person has canceled and some rescheduled and sickness and all kinds of crazy things that have happened.
Speaker 1:events in the family it's still going, it's more it's ongoing, we, so this episode is either gonna air before or after. The last person in this series was supposed to be on it. That session did get canceled, just like all the rest of them, and so we may end up recording before you hear this episode and we may swap this to after. But if we don't get to record that episode, then this is the one that you're going to hear, because my husband so kindly, when I texted him and said guess what cancellation, one more cancel. He said I'll record with you.
Speaker 2:I figured I'd be here, so well.
Speaker 1:I'm already here you already live here, so that I'm already here.
Speaker 2:I got stuff to talk about that helps. I like sharing testimony, I like trying to share some information, and as much as I want to help other people, I think talking about stuff will help me too, so that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So that was kind of the introduction. Today's guest is my husband, Michael Toomey. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Michael Toomey. Thank you for being here. Thank you, thanks for having me. Thank you for volunteering to fill in, because you do have an important topic that you wanted to talk about today. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I want to talk about technology addiction. This is something that I'm not going to point the finger on anybody. I'm just going to point it at myself and say I use a lot of technology. I'll tell you what I'm on technology all day long, screens all day long. I wake up, look at a screen, go to work, look at a screen, go to the bathroom, look at a screen. I'm looking at screens all day. My kids are looking at screens. There's a lot of screens around here, and if anybody's read 1985, the screens are watching you 1984?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's 1984.
Speaker 1:You're right, You're right 1984, you want to give for those listeners that may not be familiar with that book. What's the synopsis?
Speaker 2:George Orwell 1984. I won't spoil the book. It's worth reading. Um, go out there and read it. But basically it's a very dystopian novel about a world where there is a screen in everyone's home, much like a television, and that television is constantly spewing propaganda at the entire world. And not only are the people watching that screen being fed total garbage, but that screen is also watching you and people are trained to tell on others. You're trained to be snitches and if people get out of line they come for you. And it's a great book, it's really worth reading.
Speaker 1:When was it written?
Speaker 2:A long time ago? I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Because it was written well before 1984.
Speaker 2:Oh, certainly yeah, probably early 19th century, early 20th century would be, early 1900s.
Speaker 1:I think Early 1900s yeah. In our century, when we were born, right when we were born, yeah.
Speaker 2:I got the tail end, tail end 90s, 90s, baby Loving the 90s.
Speaker 1:Don't tell listeners that they don't know how young you are.
Speaker 2:I'm not embarrassed. That's why I'm the generation just in the thick of technology and that's why I want to talk about it. You know it's, it's something that we're all exposed to constantly. It's something that, as parents, we are navigating how to expose our children, how to how to make sure our children are not overexposed, and there's so much science and brain chemistry and stuff that goes into it, and that's some of the stuff that I want to kind of get into today it's a different world that we're in today, our kids are in than us, I mean.
Speaker 1:so Mike mentioned he's a 90s baby, but I'm an eighties baby, so eighties baby, and so I didn't. We didn't have, you know, we didn't grow up with cell phones. Kids I babysat for were starting to get cell phones, but I didn't have a cell phone until I was probably about 16, until I was driving. And even then I mean I've told you this the phone that I had I could only use it in the county that I was in. If I went outside of the county, yeah, let's throw back to Metro PCS if anybody knows what that is.
Speaker 2:Ooh.
Speaker 1:If I left the county. It just didn't work. You just couldn't make phone calls.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Or do anything.
Speaker 2:That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:So it was pretty wild times back then.
Speaker 2:But you know, know, I was in the what's it called aim days.
Speaker 1:You know, we had aim back then. Oh yeah, we weren't texting people, you were using aim, and I mean, what was your first phone?
Speaker 2:I want to know about your first phone it was one of those nokia.
Speaker 1:Uh oh, you had the blue nokia.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about you have snake on it a snake, no did you play snake. You know that game snake I didn't have my phone to play games oh, wow, okay, well, hey, too cool for games on the phone, that's good it did have that game, but I don't think I played that game I mean that's like the classic thing on that phone yeah, I had a flip phone pink, one pink razor at some point cool, I had a razor.
Speaker 1:Yeah that, yeah, that was a cool one, it was a different time because you weren't always connected and even then okay. So I had a cell phone, but it was really used to make phone calls. You could maybe text people, but I couldn't take pictures on my first cell phone.
Speaker 2:Mine didn't have a camera either.
Speaker 1:So you weren't taking pictures, you weren't using the internet, you were just using the interplace phone calls. Now let's talk about the difference between today.
Speaker 2:Well, let me tell you my first phone. Okay, okay, before we get off that topic, my first phone I had Virgin Mobile for a long time, virgin Mobile, richard Branson, and it was a gray flip phone, black and white, and the customizations that you could do. You could make the backlight like different colors, like green, yellow, red, blue, and you could change the ringtone, but you couldn't get like songs. You remember when you could get songs on the ringtone.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 1:How old were you when you got your first cell phone?
Speaker 2:I was probably like 12. I want to say like 12. I want to say like 12 because I was. It was before high school, but right before high school.
Speaker 1:Because I was going to say I'm sure you had yours early.
Speaker 2:I had it when I was like 12. I had it probably seventh or eighth grade and you had to turn it off when you went to school and stuff, and I remember it was 10 cents a text message and Virgin Mobile was all prepaid. So I had to buy like the little cars at the gas station or at the deli or something to like top up it was called a top up card and like I didn't even have a job, like I'd have to beg my mom, like mom, I need 10 more dollars on my top up phone. So those were, those were fun times, and I also, just as a side note, um, I had so many phones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did.
Speaker 2:Because I would break constantly, constantly break my phones. I was skateboarding and I had a case. I should have figured out that it was really the case was the problem? I had this case that had a magnetic button on the front and I would always be skateboarding and fall right on the phone and the magnetic button would just break the screen every time. It was like a perfect. It would just crush the screen and I'd have to bring it back and I replaced the phone so many times that they canceled my insurance because it was free every time I got it back and they canceled it because I finally.
Speaker 1:How many phones do you think you went through? It was double digits.
Speaker 2:It was like I probably broke the phone, Like the one, all the phones that.
Speaker 1:I had probably replaced like 11 phones. I remember getting it. All of them are just that. What that particular time you're saying that particular?
Speaker 2:that particular time it was like, uh, I had, so I had all kinds of phones and let me. Let me just like preface by saying this is the technology edition episode, and just look at how excited I am to be talking about technology Like this started early.
Speaker 1:Special request All about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I'm ready to talk about this, you just got to lay it all out. So I had a flip phone. It was a Virgin Mobile flip phone and it wasn't flip, it was a slide phone. You ever see one of those slide phone?
Speaker 1:where you slide it up. Well, I've seen yours, because I feel like you had the button. That was a different slide phone, that was that was like many slide phones later.
Speaker 2:That was I met you after virgin mobile. Well, no, no, no I.
Speaker 1:I feel like we found it in your room when your mom was like cleaning out your room. Maybe we did when you were around, maybe we did.
Speaker 2:What we found was no, no, all right. Maybe we did when you were around. Maybe we did. And you were like, look at this. What we found was no, no, all right, we found the best phone of all. There's never been a better phone. Iphone doesn't even come close to the Sidekick.
Speaker 1:That was it, sidekick the.
Speaker 2:Sidekick, the best of the best, and you mentioned AIM. That's what the Sidekick was for. You could be on aim so you could leave your computer. You're still on aim. It had a hard keyboard, it was a. It was a q w e r t y keyboard where it had the full thing like a computer and man, my thumbs be worn out on that phone. Loved, loved the sidekick. That was the best and it flipped.
Speaker 2:It flipped around like this no, never, yeah, right, I didn't talk to girls till I met you okay okay, um, I never had aim on my phone.
Speaker 1:That was not a.
Speaker 2:Thing that's good.
Speaker 1:That's why I married you well, I just didn't have it on my phone because I I'm older than you and by the time that would have been on a phone, I was already text messaging, I think. But that's very funny about all your phones when we met, you probably went through six phones.
Speaker 2:I went through multiple phones just when we met tell them the story about the one time maybe you should tell them that story, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Uh, maybe I should tell it. Let me tell it so I could just filter out all the details and people can ask about it and write in if they want to. So this one phone I don't even remember what kind of phone it was, it might have been one of those slide phones, but whatever it might have been, I had a phone and in case anybody doesn't know rebecca that well or doesn't know much of our history, rebecca really missed her calling to be an fbi agent. She is all about. I mean, she can find anything. She knows things that I didn't even know about myself and the people around me and everyone in Staten Island.
Speaker 2:So she really was a detective and back in those days and she, we were in the city somewhere, forget what we were doing. But she confronted me about something that was on my phone and I said you know what I am done with this phone and I chucked it into a sewer and I destroyed the evidence and then I went from Android to iPhone. So it was like completely gone. The cloud was gone, it was just all gone. I left it, left it in the dust, and that phone was history, along with all the dirty laundry and skeletons that were on it. I just destroyed it and and moved on and that's why we're together today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the rest of the evidence was destroyed everything was destroyed I had already seen what there was to see oh yeah, I'm sure I know you found it.
Speaker 2:That's why I had to get rid of it. So yeah, I just and that, and I think that was an important turning point. It was one of our turning points, it was one of the leaves that I turned over in our relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was very healthy for us and we were able to move on from there and never look back.
Speaker 1:It's funny, because you were very anti-iPhone and then, after that you got an iPhone, you changed your phone number too.
Speaker 2:I did. Oh yeah, I had to change the phone number. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You had to get rid of the rest of the skeleton connections, yeah, and we both got new phones and we both got new phone numbers at the same time. I don't know if I got a new phone. I know I got a new phone number.
Speaker 2:This. Well, we're mixing up timelines a little bit. Actually, you're right, we got new phones together I gave you my old iPhone, and that was your first iPhone. That old iPhone and that was your first iPhone. That was my first iPhone and let's be honest for everybody who doesn't have an iPhone, you like to make fun of the iPhone, and it's only because you don't have one and then, once you have one, you make fun of all the people that don't have it Exactly Because you can't be in like an iMessage and rename it.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:Well, this is what it all boils down to the green bubble the green bubble yeah the green bubble, that's, that's really yeah. If you're a green bubble, it's like how much can you really get along? It's hard, it's very hard. You can't even name a group text. If there's yeah, if there's android people, oh it's bad yeah, get with the times.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding. I loved android and there's a people oh no, it's bad. Yeah, get with the times. I'm just kidding. I love Android and there's a lot of people out there that do like Android and they're going to say, well, it's more customizable and you can do more things with it and those things may be true. And you know, what is cool is the ones with the little stylus that come on it. I think that's great, but really nothing touches iPhones the best.
Speaker 1:The truth is, it doesn't matter what kind of phone people have. We're all addicted to our phones, which is what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2:A little bit today Exactly. I'm glad you're reeling us in on the topic.
Speaker 1:Because this has been something like you said in the beginning, most people, if you're working especially, you wake up, first thing you do is you look at your phone. The second thing you do is you get on your computer, then you're on it all day long Both things. You're on your computer, you're switching between your computer and your phone all day, and then you finish with work, and what do you do? You? Then you're on between your computer and your phone all day and then you finish with work, and what do you do? You then you're on your phone again and then you're on your phone. You like eat dinner, then you're on your phone and then you're you're getting ready for bed and then you're laying in bed and you're on your phone or, if you prefer, people that watch TV.
Speaker 1:we don't have time to watch TV no then you watch TV and then you're on your phone and then you go to bed. It's bad. It is bad.
Speaker 1:I recently have seen some videos by this doctor. He's like a neuro doctor. His name is Dr Jack Krause and he has some interesting videos. You have to look him up on YouTube. Has some interesting videos. You have to look them up on YouTube. His content isn't that easy to find because he's not crazy about technology and social media. But one of the things that he talks about is the blue light from our devices are designed that way for a reason, because they keep us addicted and they also pass messages to us like subliminally through the light. And I'm not an expert in frequencies or light waves or frequencies or whatever you would want to call that, so I can't really speak intelligently to that. But he said like there's a reason that it's not red light or another type of light. It's that way for a reason and if we think about these blue light glasses, the blue light blocking glasses that they sell now that you and I both have those, there's a reason why because the blue light isn't good for us.
Speaker 1:they talk about how it messes with our melatonin and our circadian rhythm and things like that, but he's taking it a step further to say that not only does it mess that up about ourselves, but you're also involved in something deeper, basically. So perhaps that's part of why we are so addicted, but I know you've been following somebody who talks about dopamine and devices.
Speaker 2:Yes, dr Andrew Huberman has done a lot of really good work and he's got a ton of YouTube stuff out there about how the dopamine system is impacted by our devices and things that we do and also how dopamine is really our motivational system. So there's a lot of stuff out there about dopamine detox like, oh, dopamine is the enemy and it's really not. So to talk a little bit about dopamine. So, to talk a little bit about dopamine, what is very interesting, coming from him and relating it to somebody like David Goggins, is what he says about dopamine is that dopamine is your motivation hormone. It is a chemical that's released when you are doing something and it's giving you a reward.
Speaker 2:It's like a mental reward, and the problem with the dopamine system is when you're getting that reward from something negative. So you're getting a dopamine kick and you're feeling excited and it's something that you want to come back to and it's something negative. So the most extreme case would be somebody who's using drugs going to use drugs. They get a dopamine kick and then it's over and over and you over work your dopamine system. It gets drawn out. It's like squeezing a sponge and then you're depleted totally and the only thing you're getting this dopamine from? Is that huge surge? That's unnatural.
Speaker 1:Now some people have compared the dopamine from phones, the addiction to phones, to being the same as drug addiction. Yes, I think it was somebody, some people that used to work at Google name as drug addiction.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it was somebody, some people that used to work at Google, I think the big tech companies in general have. Whether, whether it started knowingly or not, things have been designed to trigger the dopamine system and keep you coming back for more, because it's all about having your attention for extended periods of time. As long as they can keep you on the app, the better, and the algorithms have only gotten stronger and stronger, especially with the advent of the short form video. So it used to be. If we think about back to the MySpace, back to the Facebook days, which the facebook days, which you know, are people even using that anymore? I don't know, I got off of all the all the social medias, not true, but what the he's on youtube? Youtube is not a social media.
Speaker 2:come on guys, somebody tell her that it's not a social media, it's youtube, it's consumption media 100 social media fine, but it's not social for me because I'm not talking to people, not meeting people.
Speaker 2:But besides, the point where I'm going with that is the dopamine system started with the notification bell and you get the little red dot and it's a trigger. And then it's even been designed like a slot machine, where a slot machine is designed just to keep you going and going and hoping that you're going to get something more. And even the design of you drag the page down and then that's how it refreshes. You're waiting for something new and then you continue to scroll because you're searching. You're searching for something new, and so all of that has been designed with your brain chemistry and your psychology in mind to keep your attention for as long as possible. And so that's really. We're a product of that design where now people have real attention problems. And I've noticed this even in myself, where if I'm picking up my phone too much and like just looking at stuff when I still had social media that's, I was in a an automatic cycle of like, take my phone out of my pocket, go to Facebook, refresh and then scroll, and it was like an automatic pilot thing.
Speaker 1:It was bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you just I deleted the app and I would still find myself pick up my phone and go to look for it and then it was gone and it would be like break the cycle, like just because it wasn't there, and then I realized it was such an autopilot habitual thing. And that is really tying in where that dopamine system comes in, because your brain is trained to go for that thing and just go boom and try to get that hit.
Speaker 1:Let's be real, though For a period of time, you did get off of Facebook, but then you replaced it with LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:I did, I did.
Speaker 1:So lame. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:Who scrolls LinkedIn like that? I've never seen someone scroll LinkedIn. That was the scroll I've ever seen. I've never scrolls linkedin like that never seen someone scroll linkedin. That was the scroll. That was what I had to scroll.
Speaker 1:I was just looking for a scroll you go on linkedin if you're looking for something like, if you're like, oh, I gotta go find this business yeah, looking for a job person or get a job or something or update my profile because I'm trying to get a job. And then here's mike.
Speaker 2:Like, here's mike scrolling, scrolling. What a nerd.
Speaker 1:That was the social media that I like replaced all this stuff with and then you kind of stopped doing that and then you just started playing car racing game and you replaced it with that, and then, after car, I played that for a long time was youtube, and now youtube is your, your vice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, youtube is definitely my thing now, but at least, at least, I am trying to educate myself on youtube you.
Speaker 1:You are trying to. Yes, exactly, I'm trying to use it. You're watching longer content longer form videos too, which I think is good, because when you get stuck in shorts or reels, you can get stuck in that hole forever. Oh you could be there forever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know this, but now they're making videos. They're making like shows that are real length episodes of shows. So you're literally getting like one minute of a show, wow, and then it's the next episode is the next show. Think about how we've been watching TV for our lives at. A show is like 30 minutes an hour.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Yep, and now shows are one minute long. It's scary, it's scary and it's damaging, and it keeps you sucked in because you're just like oh, it's just a minute, you just keep watching, you keep watching, you keep watching.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You're ready for more. And I think where that's the most dangerous and where I'm the most worried and why I really wanted to talk about this and get this message out is I'm worried about our children because I have seen it in myself that if I'm scrolling shorts and then I go to do something, my attention span is like a net it's gone. Do something and then just be like a fly and start to do something else and realize like whoa, I didn't devote any time to what I was just trying to do, or I gave like five seconds to my child playing this game and then I was on to the next thing. And it's just very unhealthy. And you're training yourself to be that quick. Yeah, and that's that's the problem with, like the cocomelon type videos and stuff like that for kids.
Speaker 1:No, but they they have.
Speaker 2:And what do they do? They don't? They certainly have honey. What are you talking about? I'm not saying that they do, but they have. And what happens when we see them watch those videos tranced, all three of them tranced when that kind of stuff is on.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that's why they don't watch that specifically.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Now I will say as much as I like Danny Go. Danny Go is like a trance too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. And so that stuff is really like what I want to get some caution out there, and I think everyone kind of knows it, everyone's kind of heard it. But I'm taking it from a perspective of, like I've really experienced this myself and I want to like be honest about it and I hope that other people could be honest about it too and be really conscious about it.
Speaker 1:Well, I would love to take this to a deeper biblical level too.
Speaker 2:Me too Okay.
Speaker 1:So Dr Laura Sanger she I mentioned her before, uh, cause she does some she's done tons of research on frequencies and one of the things that's pretty interesting that she's talked about recently I think it was on the confessionals podcast or I'm trying to remember what podcast it was on. It may, I don't think it was on blurry creatures, but she's appeared on blurry creatures a bunch of times. She actually talks about the Nephilim agenda and that technology is a big part in that agenda Because, if you think about it, the enemy, of course, is going to use technology to warp humanity and humans. And now technology we've talked about before on this podcast you can use it for good or you can use it for bad. You could use it for good in that right now, you know, we're trying to do an episode on technology awareness, the awareness of the dangers of technology, but at the same time, there are people suffering from technology addiction and kids that are just sucked into these holes and then watching content that they shouldn't be watching at very young ages, and I think that some of that falls into this Nephilim agenda.
Speaker 1:Now listen, disney. Let's talk about Disney for a second. I have watched Disney with my kids, as have you Everything that our kids have watched on Disney. We have watched and it is full of witchcraft, sorcery. There was, remember, that video that came up. It was a Disney channel music video from a show that our daughter does not watch, but it came up and it was like it's good to be bad.
Speaker 2:Remember that yeah, it's good to be bad. It's good to I steal things. It's good to be bad.
Speaker 1:Remember that. Yeah, I do remember that. It's good to be bad. It's good to I steal things. It's good to be bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was wild. I don't even know what that was from. I couldn't believe it. I was pretty much in shock when that came on.
Speaker 1:This stuff is out there and, of course, the easiest thing to say is just like, don't let your kids watch Disney, but a lot of people if you're listening and your kids love Beauty and the Beast or something that may not be doable for you. But what I would urge you to do is watch these shows with your kids and talk to them about this stuff, Because talking to them about it it's going to point these things out. I grew up in the 90s where you were and shows like aladdin, movies like aladdin and beauty and the beast and other things came out when I was a kid and all those movies had witches and like it's the same stuff 100. The difference is, and maybe my mom did talk to me about this stuff when I was a little kid. I mean, obviously I'm not going to remember every little thing from when I was a kid, but now, as an adult watching these movies and seeing these things as a parent myself, it's my responsibility to say, oh, witches are bad and we do not celebrate or practice witchcraft.
Speaker 1:And it's funny how Brooke has picked up on that, because she has a lot of discernment already that when she sees certain things, she knows to watch out for evil and she'll say this is bad. This is bad, Mommy, this is bad. And she'll tell me we also don't celebrate Halloween, which most people on this podcast probably know because we've talked about before. So if anything Halloween content ever comes up, even if it's like an episode of Blippi, for example, that episode is on for one second and they show a pumpkin Brooke will go.
Speaker 2:It's Halloween mommy, you got to change it. It's Halloween or bats, or bats, yeah, or?
Speaker 1:bats or bats, yeah, and so it's just good to have these conversations with your kids, because if you don't, what's the alternative? Right, they just get absorbed into this propaganda and it gets normalized, and they get to be a teenager and they start to look into well, you know, maybe there's something to this Wiccan stuff or whatever and start reading those books. I mean no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to continue to tie in technology and how it could be used for evil and how the enemy is likely using it to infiltrate our world. The book of Revelation tells us that only those who take the mark will be able to buy and sell, and so I've heard some very intelligent arguments that only technology really will enable the world economy to be so controlled where only certain people will be able to participate. And with the advent of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies and things like that, it's really we're ushering in an age where money is so controlled and everyone's own accounts are so controlled and centralized that that's really the only way technology will be able to do that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we all were panicking around 2020 time about cashless society because a lot of people were sensing and fearing that coming soon. It is still coming soon getting closer and closer, and I think that's why we are feeling that we want to bring so much awareness to some of this stuff, because you and I are seeing how things are just accelerating with the world right now.
Speaker 1:Certainly, and they're getting worse and worse, faster and faster. I mean, think about it. There were cell phones when I was a baby, but it wasn't like today, where every single person walking down the streets holding one right. So in just my lifespan, which is not that long, technology has gone from zero to a million.
Speaker 2:And these plans are being executed on the scale of eternity. The scale of eternity, you know, this is prophecy that's been handed to us thousands of years ago, God's plan revealed in Revelation, and that is the timeline that this is being rolled out on. We are just a speck of time in the grand scheme of things, you know, our lifespan being a hundred years maximum, and what are the true quality years of that? You know we're thinking back to 2020 is four years ago and our attention span is so short and these devices are. We're talking about how these devices have made our attention span even shorter. So for us to think back a couple of years and say, oh, this was on the radar.
Speaker 2:Then that's kind of how these things work, is that we hear about them. Then they start to happen. Maybe it doesn't get so big, Then everybody forgets and moves on and then, when no one's thinking about it, you know it's going to hit. It could be in a few years, but these things are happening on a scale of eternity. You know these are not plans that are rolled out in a year or two. They're huge, monumental.
Speaker 1:You mentioned 2020 being just four years ago, which it seems like a lifetime ago in some senses, but it was also like yesterday, which it seems like a lifetime ago in some senses, but it was also like yesterday, and I really think that technology itself and our addiction to it has grown even more since then, certainly. Because everybody was forced to be home, yes, and fed propaganda from their phones. It was a very 1984 time.
Speaker 2:Who used Zoom before the event? Not really.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I did. I worked remotely before COVID, but everyone did after that Everybody used it.
Speaker 2:After that it changed the world. Everyone was locked inside and we needed technology to communicate. And if you look at how that impacted the stock market, we had a big dive in that march and then things have skyrocketed ever since. The big tech companies have never been bigger.
Speaker 1:Yep they are enormous. Yes, they've never been doing better yes it improved things for tech companies and the big box.
Speaker 2:All the big companies and everybody small was closed down, snuffed out. Yes, snuffed out, it was a transfer of wealth.
Speaker 1:You know, I mentioned this in an Instagram story, so it lived for one whole day. I love to mention it here so it can live in history forever, because this was the point that was made that history is change. The history that people read about in textbooks it's what's been selected to be taught, right. Not every perspective or every story is going to be heard, and this is all throughout history and there's, you know, even we hear a lot about propaganda and British history and things like that. So what I really want to mark down in time is there was this picture that was like you know, of a guy walking through the aisles of a grocery store, like kind of smiling or whatever, and it was like that feeling that you had walking through a grocery store without a mask on during COVID times and being enemy number one, and I shared that and said, okay, that no one is ever going to remember that because it's not going to be something that is written down anywhere.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be talked about.
Speaker 1:I remember how that felt to be that person who didn't wear a mask in a store and feel like I was an enemy. We now, four years later, we had they have come out. Anthony Fauci himself has come out and said masks do nothing, it was just made up. And even doctors and nurses have come out and said yeah, we all know that they're not going to stop you from contracting an illness or giving an illness. It was for show, it was part of the agenda, and I guess what I want to mark in time here is to remember that that happened and that I remember walking through the store no mask on, feeling very out of place and that's it.
Speaker 1:Just, it's not going to be something that is talked about in 20 years. Nobody's going to give a crap. They're going to talk about how COVID happened and people fought over the mask and there were whack jobs that didn't wear it and blah, blah, blah. I actually remember wearing a mask on purpose once, because I didn't wear one, because I wanted to see what it would feel like to wear one, and it was interesting because I remember. I don't remember exactly what I said to you, but it was like I felt like I could just disappear into the sea of nothing.
Speaker 2:I think that's why people like it.
Speaker 1:It was a weird feeling and it was covered up almost in a way kind of nice, because you just you're erased, you're not even human anymore yeah but I was very passionately against mass. It was very dehumanizing wearing. Yeah, of course, and also for children development purposes.
Speaker 2:Because so much of our communication is nonverbal Absolutely, and that was completely taken away.
Speaker 1:So much of what was done during that time was to divide and conquer and separate and isolate humans, and that was certainly part of it and then get them addicted to those devices, get them on those phones and get them fighting and arguing with each other about these protocols.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what was funny about that whole situation of being the odd one out? I can remember very early on I was a very early adopter of the masks and I found an N95 that we had and this was before anyone was doing anything.
Speaker 1:This was before the shutdowns Back with the Chinese propaganda videos.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, we saw some of the early propaganda. What I know now was propaganda and probably like AI generated and fake, just fake videos which were very frightening. They were on YouTube with like weird characters in the text and it was video of people just passing out in the street and dying in China and all kinds of crazy stuff that I was like, wow, this is what's coming, like this is really going to be the end of the world. And so I was going to the grocery store fully masked up hoodie, gloves, like you know, end of the world, walking dead, kind of stuff when the people at the store had nothing and I remember them looking at me like this guy's a whack job and feeling like a whack job, but being like I'm ahead of the curve here and then on the tail end, you know, a few weeks later really not not much later being like this is not needed, this is not necessary anymore. Yeah, so that was just a totally, totally wild time.
Speaker 1:It was. I think something that helped is you came across a bunch of stuff by Catherine Austin Fitz. She had some great stuff. Definitely look into her because she's brilliant. But also, my family is in the property damage restoration business and one of my brothers was like, and I worked in that industry for a bit too, and I worked in that industry for a bit too, so I'm familiar with biohazard protocols and the masks and ventilation that you would wear for a biohazard job. Which biohazard you're going to wear for things like someone has died, but also if there is a virus or deadly viruses. And one of the things that was really pointed out was like none of these masks that you're going to wear are going to prevent you from receiving this virus that you are trying to protect yourself from. If you have to wear this special equipment and it's not just an N95. It's like N95 plus this mask that goes on top of it, plus you're covered. Your whole body is covered because it's not going to touch your skin anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and having a beard just totally neutralizes the whole deal.
Speaker 1:It just. But the thing is, when you are constantly told something on the news and by people repeatedly, over and over and over, you begin to believe it. So this isn't to criticize anyone who felt like that was helping them or made them feel safe. That's the thing is that we do crave safety and we want to stay safe and be healthy from things you know healthy, stay healthy and not contract potentially deadly viruses. So we're going to do these things to prevent it. Unfortunately, wearing a fabric mask is not going to prevent something like that, and that's what's was interesting, and I know we're getting a little derailed from technology, but they go hand in hand. It's all about.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say to kind of wrap all that up. There was a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there, and nothing that we have to say is medical advice, and it's really just we've learned things through experience and we've we've seen the story change over time. That's what's really important to note there. Yeah, technology was used to feed everyone's brains and brainwash everyone for so long, and it was really amazing to see the concerted effort worldwide to send this narrative to everyone and get everybody on board and that, I think, really, to come full circle, was a great example of how technology is used for control.
Speaker 1:Yep, Definitely. I just want to speak to you using the words misinformation, disinformation because I shuttered a little bit because that those words are used to control people too.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 1:Even today. There are literal. I will see a reel of something that someone actually said and it will be flagged and say this contains misinformation. And then it'll be like thick chick who are doing the fact checks. That's the question.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what's very interesting, that's the question to ask is who is paying? Who is getting paid to do these fact checks? Because it's literally just a mind tweak to get someone to go. Oh well, maybe this is fake, or maybe this isn't true, and sometimes it's not, but a lot of times it's just a way to manipulate people from believing actual things that are accurate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, To dig into that a little bit, because I do think that that's very on topic the fact-checking and the misinformation flag that you see on social media. Misinformation is someone who is misinformed and is apparently giving information that is incorrect. Disinformation is far more nefarious and I would actually consider much of the fact-checking to be disinformation.
Speaker 2:It in and of itself is disinformation, disinformation is a tactic of diversion, subversion of information and deliberately misleading an audience. And what's very interesting about some of the fact checks that we've seen are that they will fact check something and then admit the truth in the fact check, which is just ridiculous. With just pure common sense and logic, you could read some of these fact checks and they will be admitting truth to what they're trying to disinform people about, which is just crazy.
Speaker 1:I think that their hope is that people don't actually read it. They don't actually read the whole fact check. They just read the little thing that's like this contains misinformation, and then the person goes.
Speaker 2:Oh, let me discard this. This person, this person's posting garbage or this is not accurate or whatever the case might be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there's a ton of. I've used the word propaganda a lot today, but there's a lot of propaganda. I've used the word propaganda a lot today, but there's a lot of propaganda, and I think that it's important for us to use discernment when it comes to what we see and believe. Now, you will criticize me for this you do, anyway quite often that I don't believe anything and I think that everything is fake and a scam. I think that everything is fake and a scam.
Speaker 1:So I'm kind of on that extreme where when I hear something, my first instinct is to be like wait, hold up, let me question this, and that does bother a lot of people. I don't think it bothers you entirely, but a little bit here's the thing that does bother a lot of people.
Speaker 2:I don't think it bothers you entirely, but a little bit. Healthy skepticism is valuable and necessary, but I feel that you've thrown the baby out with the bathwater on some topics.
Speaker 1:Well, we won't get into those.
Speaker 2:We certainly will not, we don't have enough time for that. That's a whole nother topic.
Speaker 1:but I'd love to, yeah, I'd love to dig into that, maybe another time yeah, and it it comes from the fact that much of what people are taught in public school and I can, I can only speak to public school. I can't really speak to private schools. I don't, I don't know what they teach much of the same in public school, but much of what is taught in school is not truth. It's not truthful, and that is where my skepticism comes from, because I was raised to say these facts are what are taught in school, but they're not true. So you need to be cautious about what you believe.
Speaker 2:And it's taken me to a like.
Speaker 1:I don't even know what I believe on these things, and it doesn't matter, because I just believe in God and that's the most important thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's important to know the specifics there around Darwinism in particular the specifics there around Darwinism in particular, yeah, and the theory of evolution, which again we don't have time to really dig into. That. That is its own topic that really can be unpacked. But there are many biologists now that are even questioning the theory and realizing that it doesn't totally make sense statistically. Realizing that it doesn't totally make sense statistically. How random processes of evolution could possibly create the complexity of life that we see today, even if you accept the world being much older than the Bible tells us.
Speaker 1:To be clear, I'm a creationist and that's what Mike is referring to. And now this comes from. This doesn't come from nowhere and you know this about me, but it came from the fact that evolution was ushered into school curriculum right around the early 1970s and my parents had a child in that was school age, and so they were seeing this happen. They were experiencing it firsthand and going what is this? Why is this being pushed into the school curriculum? People couldn't agree on how old the earth was. It was like, oh, maybe it was 3 million years old, or maybe it was this, or maybe it was that, and it was constantly being questioned, constantly being questioned, and simultaneously they were pulling God out. So while they're pulling God out of education and encouraging children and the next generation to read their Bibles, they were pushing in evolution. And so that's kind of where that stems for me and how I was raised to say, oh, let's, let's look at this and let's not take this for pure fact and there's some resources. Again, we can talk about this at a later time, but it kind of planted the seeds.
Speaker 1:Now I will say I didn't spend my whole life questioning everything. I went along with the world for a long time, meaning you know I watched regular TV. Now of course we talked about during your testimony, I didn't watch everything. There was a lot of things like I didn't watch anything scary, nothing like horror or anything with nudity and stuff like that, but like I've watched reality TV and get wrapped up in that and that was a distraction from me finding the truth about the Bible and the Lord, because I was kind of busy living my life doing what I was doing racing motorcycles and watching regular TV, getting involved in people, listening to people argue about politics and stuff like that. It wasn't until recently. You know, the last five plus years that it's been.
Speaker 1:Well, wait a second, this, this is a lie. What else is a lie? Everything, everything and all of it is a distraction to point us away from the one true God and focusing our attention on Christ on the cross, sharing that story of his gift to us, to other people. Because if we're busy in the rat race or we're I'm just going to use an example. I'm not a sports person, but a lot of people are and get just as addicted to being involved in sports or watching it as addicted to their phone. It's the same cycle, right? Like you're just so focused on that let's say, football or basketball or golf or whatever that you don't have the time left to read your Bible. You don't have the time left to watch theology videos or have conversations about God, because you're too busy doing other stuff.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And all of this stuff is distractions, and I think that's kind of the moral of this conversation here is be aware that our phones are distractions. Technology is a distraction, so are all these other things. And listen, I don't think you and I have the answer to this either. We're still works in progress, trying to figure out how to not be distracted by our technology. We both work full time in jobs that require us to be glued to our screens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't have all the answers, but I think the first step is being conscious of it and realizing it, recognizing it. And I want to pose a question that really struck me to the core when I heard it, when our pastor said this in church a while ago now, but I never forgot it, and he asked how much time do you spend looking at your phone, how much time are you scrolling on your phone, fooling around on your phone, looking at your computer, watching TV? And how much time do you spend in prayer, how much time do you spend in the word? And I think we could all probably get some better balance between those things.
Speaker 1:For sure, yeah, and I'll give you guys some tips from experts that are not me because I'm not an expert, but I know them. They all say the same thing that you shouldn't look at your phone the first thing when you first wake up in the morning, which I don't know how to not do that because I have to check the time and check in.
Speaker 2:Look at the stock market and see what happened overnight.
Speaker 1:I don't do that, you do check in and look at the stock market and see what happened overnight. I don't do that, you do. But yeah, they say the best thing to do is to wake up and go outside and look at the sun.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And let natural sunlight start your day. Eat a good meal, have you know, nice moments with your family. Ground, you know. Go barefoot outside. And then you know nice moments with your family. Ground, you know. Go barefoot outside and then oh wait, read your Bible. Pray and then read your Bible and pray. This was a good one. I forget who said this. There was a pastor that said the best thing that you can do before you read your Bible, the best thing that you can do before you read your Bible, is pray that the Lord reveals to you what he wants, revealed in the scripture you're about to read. Then read your scripture, do your study. You know like the phone is supposed to be way further down. The line is the point? Now, again, I'm just I'm. I'm speaking what the experts are saying, not what I personally do, cause I need a lot of work in this area.
Speaker 2:It's not easy.
Speaker 1:And then the same thing at night. We're not supposed to be looking at our phones in bed right before we go to sleep. It's why we can't go to sleep. We all have sleep problems. Nobody, nobody can go to sleep and it's because we're looking at these blue light phones too close, even TV, they say. You're not, you shouldn't watch TV or your phone. What an hour before you're supposed to go to bed. Something like that, Something like that. So maybe those tips will help you.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to work on when I get home from work or when I finish up work for the day, to be more interested in my kids than I am on my phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Put my phone down, put it away, don't have it in my pocket, don't have it near me, and be more interested in my kids than I am in looking at my phone, because they're little, they're only going to be young once and I want to take an interest in them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll tell you they don't care about those phones and I want to take an interest in them. Yeah, I'll tell you they don't care about those phones and all they want is for us to play with them, to go outside. Daddy watch me Watch, watch what I can do.
Speaker 2:Yep, and you know what's crazy is, when you're distracted by your phone, your attitude is way worse towards your kids. Oh yeah, and I'm not saying you, you, you, I'm saying me, me, me. I've recognized this in myself where if I'm distracted and trying to look at something on my phone, watch a video, read a text message, whatever it may be, and Brooke's over there yanking on my coattails, there's a much higher chance that I'm going to have a little bit nastier attitude towards her or shoo her away, or you know, give me a minute. And that's just not how I want to be, that's not who I want to be and that's why I wanted to talk about this today.
Speaker 1:Or pin a crime on the wrong kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even that, even that.
Speaker 1:Which can happen if you're not paying attention and all you catch is the back end of the children's stories. Yeah it's true, but yeah, this is an important topic. I hope that this has been helpful for those listening and encourages you to be more present. Anything else you wanted to mention in this episode?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll say I don't attribute technology completely to the devil and say it's evil and bad, because, like we've talked about, technology can be used for good. It can empower us as much as it can disempower us and destroy us. So I don't think that it's all bad, but it certainly can be used for evil and is used for evil, and there is darkness on the internet. There is this draw on our attention and we all need to be very mindful of the amount of time and resources and brainpower that we devote to our technology and our phones. Devote to our technology and our phones because every minute in that screen time that we're using unless we're in the bible app we're probably not making the optimal use of every single second.
Speaker 1:That adds up to so much hours and hours a day yeah, definitely good advice, and I think you're going to close this in a Bible verse today. But before Mike closes us, I just want to thank you guys for listening today, as always, you can follow us outside of this podcast on social media. You can go scroll those reels on Instagram, facebook or YouTube at the Radiant Mission and go ahead and close us today. What do you got?
Speaker 2:All right. So I chose this Bible verse because of our topic and because of what I just said, that although all technology may not be bad, it certainly can be used for evil. So this is 1 Peter, 5, 5, verses 8 through 11. In your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. We're wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye everyone.
