re: Question

I'll be honest, protecting my kids from social media was very difficult. When my oldest was in 8th grade instagram came about. Everybody had one. It was the new thing. It seemed pretty harmless, but there were issues. Not the least of which was the DMs.

Later it became tic toc with my youngest. We forbade it, but she found a million ways around us. Take away her phone? She found one of the multitude of old devices still in the house and used the wifi. Confiscate those, the computer she was supposed to be doing school work on was being used for social media. We had a lot of trouble keeping up.

Parents are going to have to take a stand. Absolutely no smart phones for the kids. Just keep them away completely.

The terrible thing about social media is that when i was young, my parents could protect me by saying, "you aren't hanging around with..." Now, the bad influencer is inside our kid's bedrooms, talking to them over earbuds, and feeding them a curated doom scroll of destructive ideology.

Steppenwolf had a song about the pusher.

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Have to do it all the time

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We lived here from 2017 to 2020 and I despised sitting in traffic on Cobbs Ford. I would be fuming by the time I turned into my driveway. Mind you, I lived in Caledonia and Mountain Home, Idaho (population 11,000) the previous 8 years so traffic wasn't really an issue.

Then we moved to San Antonio and I had to deal with that disaster of traffic only a daily basis from 2020 to this Summer. Talk about getting irrationally angry every day. My wife would constantly say "Remember when you would complain about sitting in Cobbs Ford traffic? That's not so bad compared to this nightmare."

Well now we're back and I can confidently reply to her sarcastic statements with "Yes, Cobbs Ford traffic is just as bad as San Antonio."

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I'll be honest, protecting my kids from social media was very difficult. When my oldest was in 8th grade instagram came about. Everybody had one. It was the new thing. It seemed pretty harmless, but there were issues. Not the least of which was the DMs.

Later it became tic toc with my youngest. We forbade it, but she found a million ways around us. Take away her phone? She found one of the multitude of old devices still in the house and used the wifi. Confiscate those, the computer she was supposed to be doing school work on was being used for social media. We had a lot of trouble keeping up.

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We dealt with this a little bit, but found ways to curtail it.

We installed Verizon Smart Family on everyone's phones. It allowed us to block specific websites, apps, social media platforms, etc. It also alerted us to any attempts to access the blocked material.

For the other devices in the house I had to tap into my cybersecurity background. I configured my router to block specific domains so they weren't accessible from any device.

Were those measures extreme? I guess my kids would've said so back then.

Are my kids better off now they're adults?

Absolutely.

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As a young, curious teenager I would've loved to see those boobies.

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Well. That's what searching the grassy and wooded areas around the neighborhood were for.

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What's your channel?

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I'd tell you if I knew I could protect my identity both ways. I would trust everyone on this board enough to share it with but the lurkers are who I'd be a little concerned about.

I work in the film industry and started the channel in 2020 as a way to make some extra money after the industry was shut down. It's been a huge help, especially since we never fully recovered and I sometimes go months between jobs.

It was slow initially but really took off after a particular show I was working on wrapped. I started showing/discussing bts content I collected over the years, which gave me a lot of original material to work with and it blew up.

But I primarily focus on general advice for film students like things they don't teach you in school (despite the fact that I didn't even major in film lol).


If anyone here has ever thought about starting a channel, do it. And if you have questions, I'd be more than happy to lemd advice. The first thing I'll tell you is prioritize audio. Invest in good audio equipment and post software (I use izotope). Viewers will forgive a lot but bad audio is one of the fastest ways to instantly lose them.

The next big thing is originality. If you want to build a channel around something like Bama football, don't just make the same videos as everyone else. Find an angle, perspective or type that feels distinctly yours. Give people a reason to watch your video instead of the 50 other videos covering the exact same topic (ie our QB battle).

I was just looking for a little networking opportunity. I have a friend who published a book for whom I edited and formatted. Was just curious about finding an influencer to advertise for a fee.