Technology is an ever-present entity in our lives and sometimes we can become scared of it, but there are also several wonderful things made possible by it. This new series tackles various aspects of technology and how it navigate through it with your family.

Show Highlights

Scott Pleasants is currently the Strategic Innovations Advisor for Innovate Lynchburg where he is responsible for helping businesses with technology and helping tech-based entrepreneurs with their go-to-market strategies.

Before being named SAI, Scott was the CIO for TRBC World-wide and the Director of Engineering Technology and Operations for the Liberty University School of Engineering and Computational Sciences.

Even if Scott is a tech guy and his family is inevitably hooked on their own gadgets, they still make it a point to put their technology down and spend time together, take a hike, or enjoy sometime unplugged – "and not make it the center of our lives," says Scott.

That said, Scott says, technology in itself is not bad – there are just people who do bad things with it. In fact, we can do major good with the technology we have.

Technology and platforms should be tools for you to use. You should not be a slave to it. Empower your kids to use these platforms for good using these tools.

Scott suggests not allowing kids to have technology in their own rooms. Make sure that the technology is in a common area and there are no secrets.

Encourage a healthy use of technology. Let your kids know that they are not being given restrictions because you are treating them like children. They should understand that these precautions are meant to protect them and it is for the whole family's safety.

Technology can be dangerous, so as parents, really sit down with your family and have a serious conversation about how you are going to use technology. Ask you kids, how can you do good with the technology that you have?

[bctt tweet="technology in itself is not bad – there are just people who do bad things with it." username="jaydholland"]

Resources Mentioned

• Sponsor affiliate: Hopegivers
• Service: Apple Family Sharing
• DNS Filtering - blocks malicious or forbidden websites
• App: Bark - parental control tool
• App: Circle - parental control tool
• Sophos - cybersecurity
• Life 360 - family safety service

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