FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Josh Woods talk about festival at the Grounds - Katie Britt youth with social media - Mobile Mornings - Friday 6-21-24
News Sports. Weather from Dr. Bill Williams. Traffic info from Kane. And one of the Gulf Coast's most familiar voices. It's Mobile Mornings with Dan Brennan and Dalton R. Wig. What if you've been in Dalton? A couple of updates. The Cochrane Causeway Rec. Great coverage of that with Leanna on our Facebook page. You can see everything that's going on there. But it's a real mess. It's a real bad rec on the Causeway in between the Africa Town Bridge and the-- And the Bankhead. And the Bankhead, right? Yeah, and hopefully, I mean, obviously, prayers that there aren't any fatalities. They're already saying injuries are involved and prayers that those injuries aren't too severe. Either. And on the text line, Ben was texting earlier. He said if they can spend billions on a new Mobile River Bridge in New Bayway, maybe they can add a million or two and put a center turn lane from the Bankhead to the Cochrane Bridge. And I'm not sure exactly how this accident happened this morning, whether someone was pulling out and got hit or what, but it does look to be a very serious accident. Also, we've got Josh Woods, who not only is a Mobile City Councilman, he's also the Executive Director at the Grounds. We wanted to talk to him, but you're going to be there the next couple of nights. What an event going on. I don't remember the Morgan Wallen thing. That was kind of a one-off, I thought. A big concert out of the grounds for Morgan Wallen maybe three years ago. But this country event at the Grounds is going to be one of the biggest things I've ever seen come through Mobile. Yeah, and I'd like to see a total, I don't know what the estimate of how many people will be out there. I haven't seen that to this point, but it's going to be, I mean, a heck of a lineup they have there. Some of my favorites from the past, of course, with Big and Rich and Gretchen Wilson will be up there tonight, Uncle Cracker, Kid Rock. They've got some newer guys out there, too. Gavin Adcock will be out there later today, and then tomorrow. Tomorrow's lineup, I think, is even stronger. Yeah, you have a couple other new artists that'll get it started, and then you go from Randy Houser, who is awesome, to Brantley Gilbert, to Jason Altin. So, yeah, quite a lineup. We'll talk with Josh about that, and kind of the layout of the grounds and how everyone will get there and all that tonight. I guess you don't know. I sweat terribly, and at those events, we would go to the war, you know? It was kind of like duty, and you're out there. It's not like you're doing a lot of physical stuff, but last time I saw Brantley Gilbert, we got, you know, he came and was going to get some pictures, and he said, "Good God, are you okay?" Oh, no. Yeah. He was like, "I've never seen anybody sweat like this, bro. Welcome to my world." Yeah, maybe he remembers you. I know. Maybe he wrote a song. Gross guy from the country station that, yeah, maybe he wrote a song. Whether you like Brantley Gilbert's music or not, there's no doubt that he and so many of these other country artists have helped veterans just time and time again. The money and the time they put into that is just amazing, and Brantley's one of the best at that. I agree with that. Also, Brantley is from a town in Georgia. It's to where, when I was a young feller in Athens Sunday, there were no beer sales Sunday in Athens, and I'd make the 20-minute drive or so to his hometown, where there was mysteriously a home you could drive, like a drive-through. You could get a 24-pack or whatever. We wanted to go to the swimming hole, and his little town he grew up in was called Arcade. Like an arcade, but that was the name of the town, and we were having some laughs about that too, but he and Aldene, that's going to be big. It'll be rocking for sure. You were mentioning this, and Katie Britt's been in the news quite a bit. We've got a couple of Katie Britt stories we want to talk about, but one, and we'll get started on this before we talk with Councilman Woods, and then get back to it, but the Alabama ministers. This is terrible. We're stuck in Nicaragua. She's calling on Biden to exert diplomatic pressure to get these ministers free. They're in Nicaragua, and she says any options in our toolbox should be used. In December, the administration of Nicaragua and President Daniel Ortega ordered the closure of Mountain Gateways 10 churches and arrested 11 of their pastors, accusing them of money laundering, according to the publication Christianity Today. Four months later, the pastors were found guilty, and now they've received sentences ranging between 12 and 15 years, and it combined fine and more than a billion dollars. Leaders of the ministry denied the charges, and earlier this year said they hadn't even seen charging documents. Instead, critics of the regime said it was part of an ongoing campaign against Christian ministries and reflects the government's uneasiness with mass religious gatherings and organizations. Mountain Gateway was founded by an Alabamaan, Britt Hancock, and is based in Texas, but an Alabamaan started all that. It's sad. I mean, you have these people that are down there, and I would suppose for the best of reasons, and to be jailed, and to have this jail time staring you staring, they're in jail now. I mean, the sentencing already happened. And it's been over half a year. They've been stuck. It happened in December, and then more recently, the trials, whatever you would have called it, have happened, and now they're in jail. Yeah, wow, that's insane. It is insane. I wonder, you know, we saw a kind of a similar thing, but not really with the Americans that had been arrested traveling to Turks and Caicos, where if they had any ammunition at all, even without a firearm, just the ammo luggage, and they'd put them away. And it's almost, it's not almost. You could tell that this is about bribery, I think. I don't know specifically about the Nicaraguan case, but I think in Turks and Caicos, they're seeing how much money they can milk out of the American government. Maybe the same thing going on here with Nicaragua, and we take a look at America's presence on the international stage and how, you know, lacking it's been, whether you're talking about what's going on in Israel or hands-on, hands-off in Ukraine. I think this is just another, another, you know, point that's being made that we've really lost, and we've been losing it for some time, but lost a lot of influence in Central and South America, and those two stories alone. I mean, and this involving Alabama preachers, you can see why Britain, Tuberville are all over this. Yeah, they are, and we'll see if there's any action. Josh Woods, well, was there another time to talk about council matters with him, but we will talk about this big country festival this weekend had at the place that he's the executive director of the grounds. Well, I don't want to be negative about this, but speaking of traffic, we're going to talk with Josh Woods, the executive director of the grounds on West Mobile, formerly known as the fairgrounds. I mean, there's no way of getting around. It's going to be a big crowd tonight and tomorrow, and I guess the traffic will begin to build sometime this afternoon. Yeah, and I'll be out there. Hopefully, I'll see Josh. I'm not sure, but I know MPD has a plan. They said they actually have a couple plans for getting traffic in and out tonight, and Josh, that'll play a big part in the enjoyment of everyone getting out there for the show. Yeah, that for sure, you know, you can't enjoy the show unless you get out there. So, you know, we've 46 entertainer, 46 entertainments been working with mobile police department. All of our wonderful city officers out there doing traffic and providing security. So definitely going to be a great weekend and they always did a great job of getting folks in and out. First things first, the event is called what this weekend? The event is called Rock the Country. It's a country series that's traveling all across the south, really all across the country, hence the name. And really, they're kind of their target audiences, small towns of the United States. I'm not interested. We're glad that they chose to come and hang out here with us for a weekend. Yeah, and some really big names, too. And I think back over the years, and I'm sure so many of our listeners of some great shows we've seen at the grounds during the fair. You know, I think back to Brad Paisley and Diamond Rio back in the day, and then I was on stage with them. And I didn't even know you there. But we also have referenced this Morgan Wallen show from just a few years ago where tens of thousands of people were out there. And this seems to be, while it's a multi-day event, like we're going to see a ton of people out there this weekend. Yeah, I believe so. So on that Morgan Wallen concert that we hosted a couple years ago, this is some of the same folks that are kind of producing the concert. 46 entertainment has been an awesome partner to work with. And we're really glad that they chose to come set up a mobile and also chose us. But it looks like probably, I mean, they've already set campers up. They've got people camping. People have swimming pools out. The stage is set. So they're really just waiting for doors to open the day. Wow. Is that kind of a first for the grounds? You know, of course you have all the big trucks that come by and park when they bring the fair equipment out. But to have like RV parking for the entire weekend, I can't think of a time that's happened out there. Yeah, we have a couple of events that we play hosting. So we play hosts over 175 event here. So there are some events that hang out with us. But as far as the size and the vastness of camping going on right now, we've never hosted an event like this weekend. We're looking forward to it. So Josh, the event company, they take care of all the staging, the sound equipment and all that kind of stuff. That's them, right? They show up on site with all that stuff. That they do. That is, that's the guy's 46 entertainment. 46 entertainment. You know, I want to say this is their fifth shade for rock the country across there for this tour. And like I said, they've just been awesome to work with. Super professional. And when I tell you, Dan and Dalton on Monday, we were still cutting grass, looking at a blank fair ground for the most part. And then, and then last night, whenever I left, I'll tell you, it's a little city, just kind of like a fair, but it's a little city going on out at the ground. That's, that's awesome. And it sounds like, you know, hosting that Morgan Wallen concert and how well that went, that that was probably a big reason why they called you up to bring this show back out to the grounds. I think so. I believe so, you know, just the success that they had from that concert here in Mobile. And then also to, you know, we pride ourselves out of the grounds to try to be the most easiest to work with, whatever, whatever your event looks like. So definitely hope that we showed them and hopefully we won this thing, won their trust and we won their concert and their series just because of how great our city is and also how good of the staff I have. But, you know, just to kind of note too, the economic impact on this is going to be amazing. I mean, people are, people are drawing the mobile, like I said, we got campers, but also there's hotels that are, that are booking up. And there's a economic impact along of just this week, it's going to be tremendous for our city. Yeah, you expect about 15,000 or so each day. Is that fair enough estimate? I believe so, you know, I think that, I think they'll probably be seeing, seeing that, you know, the weekend. I think that's kind of, kind of the plan, but obviously tickets are still on sale, you know, parking still on sale. So there's numerous opportunities that if you, if you forgot about it or if you ignored it or if you drove by the grounds and you're like, hey, what's going on? Yeah, there's still ways for you to get taken. Yeah, so the parking, you can, they open that up at noon today and tomorrow gates open at three. I believe both days the festival music begins sometime around four o'clock. So I think that'll help also with people coming in as it'll kind of be, you know, throughout the day, waves of people driving into park and go in. But then the exit, that's when an MPD will have to be on, on top of their game tonight. Yeah, everybody's even at the same time. Getting everyone out at the same time, exactly. But this is going to be a heck of an event, Josh. We really appreciate you coming on and kind of laying this out for us. Any other bits of information you feel like people should know before they head out there today or tomorrow? Yeah, I'm just obviously, there's going to be numerous amounts of people out of the grounds and off the traffic. It's going to traffic might back up at times. So really, just make sure you pack your patients and also pack your patients with the 40s entertainment folks and our officers and our fire medics and everybody out there. So I know it'll be a great week and I know Mobile's going to show out, but I'm also a member to drink water and stay hydrated as well. Somebody might want to drink something other than water too, Josh. So, are there, will there be bending opportunities afforded for all the patrons today and tomorrow? Oh, of course, of course. But I'm also telling you, I would remind everybody if you're going to partake in those beverages, make sure that you got a designated drive for oil and oil. Yeah, no doubt about that. Well, Josh, we really appreciate you coming on. Congratulations, I'll say it before this big event. But really, congratulations. You mentioned how many events you host there every year. And we always talk about the big ones, but you got something going on all the time. What we do, we do, you can always find more information at thegroundsmobile.com. And again, I do want to give a plug to 46 entertainment. They've, their whole crews worked their tail off and they're about to put on an amazing event this weekend. Cool. I'm glad it's in Mobile. Thanks, Josh. We'll talk soon. Okay. Yes, sir. Thank God. We'll talk to you soon. Yeah, man. All right. There you go. Councilman Woods with the grounds. And of course, we always talk with them leading into the fair every year and then other big events they have. But this is going to be a good one. And I can tell a ton of you on the text line will also be out there. So doesn't that meta says I need to wear a 106 five shirt so I can be found? I'm not sure if I want to be found. I'm just joking. It doesn't have meta is one of your biggest fans, by the way. So I'm one of his biggest fans. Well, he's a really great guy. So I've met him at a couple of times and he's kind of like, where's Dalton? Hang on. I'm here. But he's always looking for you. So hopefully you guys can get together over the next couple of days. Yeah. And I'll be seeing Buddy up there. And so many of you that have also texted this morning in the last few days. Textor here says, thanks for the heads up about the Cochrane Causeway. I travel it every day. Hopped off, got on I-110 before it got backed up. I'll now get to work on time. There's a lot of people that will not be getting to work on time. Yeah, they're already in the midst of it. They're stuck there. There's no where they can go. Yeah. And we, you know, we don't see this that often an accident this big right there. But as many of you have pointed out, let me find this one text. Yeah, backstrap stacker said, that's a bad section of road talking about the causeway between the bankhead and the Africa town bridge. It's a bad section of road people doing 65 and 70 in both directions with just two solid yellow lines. And that's why Ben earlier texted, hey, while if, I guess we should say if, we're going to spend billions of dollars on a new mobile river bridge in Bayway, he said maybe they can add a million or two and put a center turn lane there on the Cochrane Causeway. I never thought about that. But he's right. That is just two lanes one way and the other way. And people really driving like it's an interstate and it's not. And so then you have all these plants that are on the water that, you know, people are coming to go into work and I guess it was something like that that happened. Somebody pulling in or pulling out and next thing we know we have a terrible, terrible wreck on the, on the causeway. Yeah, again, praying for the best case scenario out of that. It sure looks bad. Pat texted. He said, I saw Brantley Gilbert at a bar a few miles away from where my mom lived before he got on the radio. He took me and my at the time girlfriend to where he hit that tree and almost died. See another thing you and Brantley have in common. There's trees trying to kill you. Yeah. He said it was right down the road from the bar, gave us the whole backstory. He signed my tailgate and it's still there to this day. Huge Brantley Gilbert fan. He's a good guy. And then he really, when you say rock the country, that's what he's going to do. And his music is a little rock, a little country. Well, you get it with all three tomorrow night. He gets the same with Aldin for sure. And Randy Houser, who a lot of people may have forgotten about, but he has a crazy powerful voice. And you too, Brant, a Randy Houser song with a little kid is playing guitar on the fly swatter. I just watched that again. Yes. And that's one of the best. Yeah, it's fantastic. And so it's going to be a great event this weekend back to some of this Katie Britt news. And she's been in the news quite a bit this week. We have this one absolutely insane story about 11 pastors from Evangelical from Alabama who have been arrested in Nicaragua. And they've been in custody, I believe, for over half a year. And then after the Nicaraguan trial, we're found guilty for what they said was money laundering. And can face combined fines of more than a billion dollars. And Katie Britt is saying, "Hey, we have to do something about this." And she's not alone. She has Senator Tuberville and, of course, the entire Alabama congressional delegation that are supporting her in this messaging towards the Biden administration. She said, "In Nicaragua, the organization has advanced God's kingdom through discipleship, through feeding and clothing those in need, through providing assistance during natural disasters and sharing the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These individuals doing this work should be celebrated, not persecuted." She said, "Mountain Gateway recruits, trains, commissions, and sends out ordained Christian ministers to spread the gospel." Again, I can't see this being anything except bribery, trying to find a way to milk the American government for as much money or maybe leniency on trade, or I don't know. We had to pull some levers. Francis Martel described talking to Jeff yesterday, talked about there are levers that the United States has. A lot of countries don't have that can be pulled and put pressure on countries, administration. Well, I feel like, and not in every case, we used to take things away from countries who treated Americans like this. Now, it's like the countries have us where they want us. We give them things in order to get our people back. Katie Britt, also talking about social media. I want to discuss that when we get back from the break. 834 FM Talk 1065 and Mobile Mornings on a Friday. Right now it's time to head to McConnell Automotive and talk with Louis Arrata. Hey, Louis. Hey, good morning guys. How are you? We are a great big weekend on deck for a bunch of people around here and a big weekend on deck at McConnell Automotive as you guys will have a lot of folks out looking at what you have on the lot. That's right. That's right. I hope to have a lot of folks out here. It's going to be a great weekend. Got some great deals. GM certifies. We've got some new cars out there, new trucks, new Yukons, couple AT4s. They even got a little green Hummer sitting over there. So we've got all the cars looking great, looking at out front. You can check everything out online at mcconnellotomotive.com. I guess that is going to be a great weekend. Come on by to you. Yeah, it's that easy. Whether you're going out to buy a vehicle, trade one in, sell one, or just get your ride fixed up. McConnell Automotive makes it easy on you. We appreciate it, Louis. Hey, thank y'all. Have a great weekend. That's Louis Arrata. Go see him at McConnell Automotive, Dolphin Street, just east of I-65, and that website, mcconnellotomotive.com. Dan and Dalton, FM Talk 1-0-6-5-835. Louis is going to join you out there too, huh? Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully I get to see him out there at some point this weekend. There's no challenge how many people you're going to see out there. We're about 15,000 according to you and Josh. Wear the FM Talk 1-0-6-5 shirt if you can. So you can be identified and you'll enjoy all the love of the fans. Yeah, I'll wear something where folks will know who I am. I've been debating whether to wear my Tennessee hat or not. You can do that. That's also an indicator that it's Dalton. It is. And they have a big series this weekend as they play for the college baseball championship against Texas A&M. That's right. I saw a great meme regarding that where it was a map of the United States. It said who each state wants to win the College World Series. And in Texas, it said Texas A&M. And in Tennessee, it said Tennessee, and then all the other states, it said Apocalypse. Because no one wants to see either team wins. So it's notable there. Well, Tennessee's the one. Have they won it before? No. They've been really good for three or four years now with Vitalo, Tony Vitalo. And they've kind of just fallen short year after year. So we'll see how that goes. And speaking of baseball, I don't think anyone could have planned out a better night for Alabama native Brendan Donovan last night as. And South Alabama Jag. Yeah. And we've talked about this game. Of course, it's been a big deal celebrating the Negro leagues at Rickwood Field up in Birmingham. But it was a South Alabama Jag. Brendan Donovan, who was born in Enterprise, went to Enterprise High School. Then came down here to play at South before the Cardinals drafted him a few years back. Last night, a two-run homer. He also had a double and then a RBI single. And his team ends up beating San Francisco six to five. So he was the star of last night. That's just what are the odds? What are the odds? Fantastic that it worked out that way. And there were a lot of, of course, you know, politicians there last night. Alabama politicians who wanted to make themselves known. Hey, this is Rickwood in Birmingham. I'm a representative here. And Senator Katie Britt was one of those. And she went on Fox and Friends yesterday morning with Will Kane. And while they were kind of walking the outfield track, they were discussing some of the things that Katie, Senator Britt, is paying attention to up there in D.C. And one of these is a discussion we've had tons of times. And that is social media and children. And, you know, as TikTok, as they try to figure out whether or not TikTok should be allowed in the United States or not, this conversation just keeps growing and growing about what age children should be allowed to have phones and be on social media. And Britt has been kind of sounding the alarm on this for some time and spoke about the massive increase in depression that coincided with the rise of social media. Here's part of that conversation Senator Britt was having with Will Kane yesterday morning. And the wait until eighth, wait until the eighth grade. Everyone who has children this age is worried about the role of social media in their lives. And we're learning more about it, right? So if you look back at the data from 2011 to 2019, the rate of depression among our young people more than doubled, that perfectly coincides with the rise of social media. There was so much we didn't know about it then that we do know about it now. And that's why this movement that we're seeing, the wait till eighth and other things are so important. I want to encourage parents to get engaged. I wanted to take a look at what the Surgeon General has said. I mean, these warnings are now out there. We've got to empower parents with the tools and the information they need to make good choices for their kids. And it's hard. I mean, I don't know why we arrived on this, but my wife and I did say, let's wait until eight. Not that we'd heard of this movement. You're ahead of the curve. Well, something about eighth grade seems to make some bit of sense. I don't know what it is, but even then you don't know if you're making the right decision. Yeah, and see, this is a bit of a selfish discussion for me to bring up because those are problems that I'm -- You're going to face them quickly. Right. And this is the first time I've heard that kind of phrase, wait until eighth, but would love to hear from you on the text line or the phone line, 2513430106. It's tough to get -- like if you say, what's your advice? What have you done? Well, everything has changed so quickly. It's like, well, maybe -- you know what I mean? The technology itself keeps on changing where yesterday's way of dealing with it is already coming gone. Young people today don't really -- the TV was big, my age, my era. The TV was -- you go home, you watch the TV, maybe you became kind of a lump on the couch because it's too much TV viewing. Now -- And I'm sure politicians and parents were worried about that back then. Sure. And now you have kids who could care less about their TV? Yeah. Seriously. No doubt. It's like that's your form of entertainment. I've got what I need right here in my hand. Right. And so at what age should a child subject themselves to all that's on, especially in social media, that's where they are, TikTok and all -- so it's like, you know, I could -- I know it's real. I know that these kids are being affected adversely by not just the device itself, but what's on the device. Yeah. And it's kind of funny. I guess it makes me an old fuddy-duddy that there's only so much video I can watch on my phone, right? Yeah. Before I'm like, I need a bigger screen. I need a look up. Yeah. And instead of watching, like, an entire game on -- I mean, if necessity calls for it and there's a game I really want to watch you, I'll pull it up on the phone. Oh, kids today! They'll do that. They have no problem with it. And as far as wait until 8th, I guess I've already kind of failed at that because, well, we've got tablets. And they're not allowed to have the tablets all the time. And they're these little Amazon kids tablets, so it's not like they can pull up, you know, curb your enthusiasm on HBO or some vulgar comedy or violent movie. I mean, they have what's on the tablet that's allowed for kids. But even with that, we have found that if we give them -- give my two girls certain time to watch videos on YouTube, like kids' videos on YouTube. Yeah. I don't know what makes it so different from video to video, but there are certain ones that are, like, cracked to them. Like, if -- and if you take that away, you could tell they act differently than if you ask them to turn off TV. Like, it's like you're taking away their drug, which I guess that's the case. Yeah. And there've been -- well, not all kids' YouTube videos. There's some where we're like, you act differently when you watch these videos. Yeah. And you don't -- the kids that are in the video don't seem to be wild. It's so weird and it's beyond me how it can have this effect on the kids that it does, but that's just like stage one. If you think about the kids who are on social media and TikTok, or I don't know if any of you are still on Snapchat or whatever it may be, you take that YouTube video that's already making my five-year-old act differently than she normally acts. And you amplify that by 10, 20, 100. I mean, you're talking about social pressures on them that they're just not ready for. No, and that's a great point. It's like, okay, we're talking about the social pressures, the anxiety that a now 12-year-old is feeling because they've been exposed to these certain things that bring on this anxiety and all that. Well, how about it be like snowfall? If a child experiences their first six-in snowfall when they're 12, that's one thing. If they experience it when they're five, it's too much, too soon for a little child. Yeah, they just turn around and go back in. Well, they might, but what I'm saying is the effect you're having on a child at different stages of their development are going to be different. You can understand certain things. At five years old, for Izzy to be exposed to things that you're like, "Oh, let me take that away." And if there are algorithms in some of these shows that they know almost like a nicotine are dealing with these kids at five years old, and they're drawn to it so intimately, that's can't be good. And Britt, along with other senators, she said she's been working across the aisle to try to put some legislation in place in order to protect minors from algorithms. Like you mentioned there, used by social media companies. And I've seen liberals do the same thing. I think Kathy Hochl, governor of New York, just had legislation that was passed, and I think she signed into law. Focusing on the same thing, algorithms used in social media. And when I go to the apps that I use, which mostly is Twitter, and well, mostly Twitter, I'll go to Instagram every now and then, those algorithms are so dialed in, and I got to tell you, I love it, because they're showing me what I like. Yeah, and I don't have to search it out as often. And so, will this have effect? Your menu is there. You might like this, yeah. So, I don't know where we go from all this, because, you know, how many rights are they trampling on to ensure that children are protected? And this is a difficult conversation for the country to have, because you have entire generations who know nothing about this. This is nothing but very little. I think it's all being overblown. Yeah. You have the young generation who only knows about this. It's crazy. And if you wait until eighth grade to give them that smartphone, they might be better off mentally. They might have also been hurt because they're not able to communicate outside of school hours with their friends. Socially hurt. Yeah, they're kind of boxed out. But also, are you putting them on the wrong path for future employment? Because it's so crucial now to have at least some ability when you hop on the computer. I mean, the things that kids can do nowadays with video editing, shooting video, it's incredible. It's beyond what anyone has ever been able to do with that young of an age because of the tools that are at their disposal. And they're so good at it. They are. But then you have that risk of how much is too much. And are they watching videos that I don't want them to be seeing at this young of an age? To see if they've done in L.A. with the school district there in L.A. the Unified School District. Are they making put their phones up for the L.A. Unified School District Board passed a resolution this week banning cell phones from district classrooms as the second largest school district in the U.S. The vote makes it to the largest school district in the U.S. to approve such a ban. Not all parents are for the banning of cell phones in school. But they're rolling it on through there regardless of what some of the parents complaints are. Well, and you also as a parent, you know, you show favoritism and you want to say, well, that might be the case for some of these other kids. They're not paying attention in class and they're using their cell phones. My kids got all age. It's not bothering them. Yeah, my kid, they're using it for the right reasons. It's for emergencies only this or that. So I can see where some parents would push back. Yeah, and they do. But then some parents, they know that there's about to be trouble because the schools are taking away their kids pacified. Which is the phone. I think I was selfishly think I was in the perfect age route for technology and where I was in Grove Hill with kind of the lack of cell signal and stuff like that. Because I got my first phone. It was a flip phone. College, the old LG with the mirror on the front. It looked like a camera, but it was just a mirror. Yeah, I think I got that when I was 13 or 14. Okay. But all you had on there was phone. Text costs 25 cents a piece. And just like Snake or Solitaire or whatever those basic games were. So I wasn't really using it, you know, except to. You were not addicted to it in any way. Right, and contacting the people I needed to contact. But I was also young enough that I learned how to use computers. And I'm pretty dang good in parts of it. Not like these kids are these days. You're my IT director in my personal life. Yeah, it worked out for me here for sure. Yeah, for me. So I think maybe my generation is kind of the last that we're in that sweet spot of good technology, but not overwhelming yet at too young of an age. And you're making me wonder now. Like how often do I use my phone? And for what reasons or what apps? It's not much, right? You probably just noticed being around me. You know, I'm texting somebody trying to get an answer to a question. Occasionally I'm going, I go to the internet and, you know, start out there and just kind of scroll, see stories that interest me. Other than that, I don't think that I'm. But I wanted that much. No. And I saw a great, actually a great part of a conversation between Steve Cook and he was talking to some journalist about iPhone. And iPhone will tell you what your screen time is and what you're spending that screen time on. Okay. And this journalist, I don't know if it was 60 minutes or what, but asked him, okay, have you looked at your stats? How much you're looking at your iPhone? And he said, yeah, he has a weekly kind of roundup of how often he looks at his phone. And when he first started looking at it, he said it was disconcerting. He said, phones were made to be used as a tool. And his basic rule, I mean, the CEO of Apple, he said his basic rule is if he's spending more time looking at his phone than looking people in the eye throughout the day that he knows it's become a problem. Well, are we not even seeing that? I mean, are we not hearing complaints that younger generations are kind of awkward face-to-face and don't really have the same level of skill talking with somebody, engaging with somebody? I don't know if it's hearsay or it's just whatever, but I can tell you, growing up when I did, dealing with people face-to-face is all we did. And if it made you feel uncomfortable or if you had to talk an adult and maybe you'd broken a window or done something wrong, you know, that was you had to do that. And I think that in that environment, in a way, regardless of what my grade said at school, I was growing up. Maybe I wasn't growing up great because my school work wasn't great, but my ability to communicate and be around people of all ages, I probably was advanced as far as today's kids go. Yeah, that is going to be a major, major issue going forward because I know a lot of people talk about how bad bullying is and I agree, but think everyone living in the metaverse these days has definitely contributed to extremist political views on both sides because you're living in that echo chamber like so many people have said. But also social views, if you're jumping online and people are telling you it's cool to act like it's cool to carjack cars, it's cool to do this or that. Well, if you were spending that time with your friends, yeah, you might be with the wrong crowd who decide they want to go commit a crime. Or, you know, if you dress, if you're just acting completely different than everyone else, it's not always good to bully. But there are friends who said, "Hey, man, you're acting really weird right now." Like, and that's happened to me. I think that's happened to everyone as they were growing up and that kind of helps you to develop into someone who other people want to be around. Yeah. You're missing a lot of that with the people who kind of go into their own Internet silos for the rest of the day once they leave school or maybe they're in it while they're at school. You know, I wrestle with that myself right now, really. It's like I'm alone too much. You've got to get out. You have to go see people. You have to engage with people. You have to feel that interaction because it's more than just a conversation. It's a nourishment beyond just having a conversation, right? Yeah. You're starting to feel engaged and I think I need to do more of that myself. It's life, man. That's the way you're supposed to live is... Amen, man. Be around other people. Out there. Out there. Exactly. We've got a lot of text on this. We'll try to get to them before the end of the show here. What grade did you give your child their phone for the first time or what grade should it be? Let us know on the text line. Dan and Dalton, if I'm talking 106-5, I know you want to get to some of these text real quick and let everybody know what Jeff's got coming up. Yeah. Jeff Porschow on the way. Todd Stacey, Congressman Gary Palmer, and then in the third hour state Senator Chris Elliott. I'm looking forward to the Jeff Porschow. As far as social media and the youth, Jason said, "Don't begin until 10" would have been much better. Steve says, "We waited until 8th grade for my oldest son. I would suggest still limiting the phone in social media. My kids go to a private school where no cell phones are allowed the whole day. It's such a good thing." Yeah, I was under the impression that most schools were like that, but are the public schools? Are they letting kids with the cell phones these days? I think so. I think so. I think so. This texture here, yesterday's way -- oh, this is Jerry. I'm sorry. Yesterday's way is still the best way. You must be a real man and a real daddy. If you have a daughter, you have to teach her to be strong. And I agree with that completely, Jerry. It doesn't have medicine. I banned Disney TV in my house when my son was very young. My daughter was heavily influenced by it, and it shows. It's actually amazing. There's an entire generation. They talk about this online a lot, but like the SpongeBob generation? Mm-hmm. Grew up watching Nick -- they have like Nickelodeon voice. They talk like the characters in these Nickelodeon shows that they've been on for so long. Wow. It's wild. If you pay attention, you could tell certain generations of the kind of intonation and the things they say. It is. Wow. It is. They know that. Yeah. It's 859 FM Talk 106-5 Mobile Morning. Stan and Dalton, we really enjoyed it today. You all will be back Monday beginning at 6 AM. (upbeat music)