Your Kids and Surveillance Capitalism

Here’s a term that I just heard that all of us must be aware of: “surveillance capitalism”. The term and the practice is one that is especially prominent in our current online digital age. Simply stated, surveillance capitalism is about monitoring people’s online behavior, including that of our kids, in order to capture data about one’s preferences and habits in order to take that data and use it to target that person with carefully curated marketing and advertising, all in the name of getting that person to buy, buy, and buy some more. The data that’s collected is personal info, personal interests, the websites you visit, and your social preferences and lifestyle habits. Recently, Facebook was accused of tracking when adolescent girls deleted their selfies. Believing that these girls were emotionally vulnerable in that moment, Facebook then fed them a beauty ad. All marketing targets our hopes for redemption. Help your kids see that buying stuff doesn’t meet their need for Jesus.