do NOT head down the rabbit hole!

It all started with me jumping on Facebook last night... I was just killing time and relaxing as per usual. Adam Sandler won the People's Icon Award. I love Adam Sandler, so I google the award and yep, it's what I thought it was. They showed part of Jennifer Aniston's intro speech for him and part of his acceptance speech.

Upon reading the comments, I realized his actual speech was hilarious and much longer. For some reason, it was not allowing me to click through the Facebook post and watch it all. And here we go. Down the rabbit hole I went! On to YouTube to find that speech! 

I watched Jennifer Aniston's whole intro speech and Adam Sandler's whole acceptance speech. As I backed out of those videos, I saw that Adam Sandler also won the Mark Twain award for comedy. What is that you ask? I had to Google that, too. Then back to YouTube to see what they had to offer for entertainment. 

I watched a ton of funny comedians give speeches honoring Adam Sandler and I laughed so hard I cried. Chris Rock, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Pete Davidson. Lots of funny folks. Then as I backed out of THAT, it was showing videos for 9/11. How the heck??? Ah, Pete Davidson. There's the connection. If you don't know, just Google it.

So here I am, 8 o'clock at night claiming I am jumping in the shower and I see "Live with Regis and Kelly on 9/11". Wait. They aired that day? Oh, yeah. It was already airing while the national disaster occurred. And click. They are talking, opening the show and cut to the Twin Towers. Tower 1 is burning and they're trying to figure it out. Kelly Ripa is clearly distraught, but no one quite knows what is happening so they keep talking. Then tower 2 gets hit and you can see the pain in Kelly's eyes as she struggles with what she is viewing. And now I AM CRYING. 

I went from relaxing on Facebook to Adam Sandler winning awards to reliving 9/11 through Kelly Ripa's eyes and I am bawling. And what is the point of all this, you may ask??? Our KIDS. How many times has my kid clicked through on YouTube and it just keeps feeding her algorithm with videos it thinks she likes? What is SHE actually viewing? Man, I hope she is using discretion and common sense and good choices as SHE keeps clicking and clicking along. 

You know what else you can click through? ALL the live footage of 9/11. Crime. Violence. Scary stuff. Granted, there are awards and commercials and skits and bloopers and funny stuff out there, but for some reason, the search last night started funny and ended in tears and sorrow and sad memories. It really made me think. 

We had a solid discussion today about making good online choices. We reinforced the idea that Facebook messenger kids and YouTube truly IS good enough for now. I reminded her anything that goes online never actually disappears and she needs to make good choices, be honest and say something if she sees something wrong. Fingers crossed other kids get the same speech and understand the rules. You just never know what is out there waiting behind your next click!

we got a family safety app

We got the Life 360 app so that we could originally keep track of our teenager once he got a job. It gave us peace of mind to know he was being safe. It is a free app and easy to use. There's not much effort to it. Even someone like me can figure it out!

Once the teenager became a man and moved out, we stopped using the app. As fun as it is to track my husband, it's really not. We both work, camp, and hang out with friends. Not a ton of traveling without one another. Although it would be fun to track our dog, I don't think they offer that!

Now that we have a new teenager in the house, we are back to Life 360. This time it is to make sure she gets off the bus safely. It is to make sure the bus gets her to school safely. It is to double check she is at her sleepover/practice/fun night with friends. I feel much better with this extra piece of technology keeping our family in the know.

HOWEVER... that kid is keeping tabs on US! I love it. I will randomly get a text, "Where are you heading?" And I know she has checked the app. Somehow she is always ready and waiting for me to pick her up at the gym. Somehow she always knows when I am almost home so she can have the next round of, "I was wondering..." or "Is it okay if...". 

I am guessing someone turned on notifications or checks her phone too much. I use my app in an appropriate mama bear manner for safety and I don't get obnoxious with it. Either way, this free app works for us. Safety first and I appreciate the ease of feeling safe. Even in our cute little small town, you just never know. And if she feels like she is sneaky and one up-ing me by keeping tabs, then so be it. She likes it and she feels included. WIN!