Three Recs: April 18, 2024

The Oregon Trail, news consumption, and childhood online.

A bit of personal news:

As of this Monday, I am the director of content at Moody Radio. In this role, I am responsible for overseeing all of the content on the Moody Radio airwaves, encouraging the Radio hosts in their work, as well as architecting a digital media operation that will hopefully include all manner of digital content (text, video, and audio). I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this work, and intimidated at the same time. It’s been a joy to get to know my new teammates this week (but I do already miss my Moody Publishers friends).

And now, some links.

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#1) What’s the Price of a Childhood Turned Into Content?

A great article in *checks notes* Cosmopolitan?

Don’t get caught up in this article focusing on families who were making lots of money by turning their kids’ lives into social media content. I think much of what is explored in this article could apply to children whose lives are regularly documented on social media by their parents even if their parents aren’t making any money off of it.

“Sharenting” can be toxic regardless of whether or not parents are formal, profitable influencers.

Now a young adult in her 20s looking back on her childhood, Vanessa says the reality of the blog being the family’s main source of income put an enormous amount of pressure on her. “There was this idea that you have to look perfect and pretty and like nothing is wrong all the time in front of the camera,” she says. “And if it seemed like I wasn’t trying hard enough to maintain that image, like my smile wasn’t as bright as it should be or I didn’t say a line with enough enthusiasm…that would usually devolve into accusing me of not caring about our family. I was told by my mom, ‘Do you want us to starve? Do you want us to not be able to make our payment next month on the mortgage?’”

#2) The Story of The Oregon Trail

Tremendous video about a legendary game. When this kind of content is free, who needs streaming services?

#3) Toward Healthier Habits for News Intake

Sound counsel, as usual, from Trevin.

If you have limited time for news and commentary, reach for a book before a magazine or before you start scrolling on your phone. I can’t stress this enough. The best thing you can do to stay on top of the news is to dig deeper into the state of our culture so you have a greater understanding of the world and a way of interpreting the day’s news. Study the climate, not just the weather.

Prioritize books that distill and unfold a sustained argument; don’t chase the ephemeral all the time, staying on top of whatever’s “current.” Scrolling is like jet skiing across the surface, and reading is like a deep underwater dive.