Let me go through a list of terms with you and see what images you arrive at as you read each: social networking sites, advanced placement courses, mobile phones, mp3 players, interactive computer games, rap music, online videos, sex-ting, A.D.H.D., eating disorders,. This is a short list compiling common terms associated with today's teenagers.

While a number of these categories reference innocuous elements that make up our children's environment, other references are clearly negative symptoms of how far we have come in our communication styles and the degradation of innocence that have served to alter the experiences our children are having with each other. This is a taste of what our future holds.

It is obvious the influence technology has on our way of doing business, interacting with one another, and being entertained. We have become accustomed to "plugging in" and all things electronic are commonplace. Information is available at a moment's notice through a Google search, every high school student has a mobile phone which they are allowed to take to class and text their friends with all day long, break ups are done over the internet, overt sexuality and vulgarity is acceptable, hours are logged onto the computer as teen boys battle each other on a virtual playground they pay a monthly fee to access. What's missing: direct social interaction, developing rewarding personal relationships, establishing a dignified and honoring respect for ones self and others, the art of problem solving, and refining essential cognitive skills critical in developing a mature brain.

Why are these factors important? Because we are not meant to live through devices. The fulfillment of being human is that we can acknowledge and pursue our reason for being. The discovery of being happens when we are connecting with one another and enjoying synergy as well as conflict. Discovering our purpose leads to using our skills to create a highly prosperous and abundant life for ourselves, our children, our world.

Parents are the key to directing children and teens down the path of fuller and healthier lives. Assessing the home environment, schedule, and interaction levels is critical to reducing the outside influences that limit our children. We can therefore create practices that can change their core belief system and develop our young people into successful and happy adults.

We all recognize that children are the key to our future. The dramatic shift in technology and our stressful economic times has impacted the development of critical skills necessary for our children to become productive and powerful adults. Taking the time to pay close attention to assisting our children will be serving our future and theirs for the better.