The Solution: Nothing Changes if We Change Nothing
The Solution will explore the world of youth and young adult substance misuse prevention by providing the latest news and trends in prevention, highlighting the work of NYC community coalitions, and offering tips on how to effectively organize a coalition. We aim to inspire and empower everyday citizens to create positive and lasting change in their neighborhoods.
The Solution: Nothing Changes if We Change Nothing
Life Goes On
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Join Ronni and Chevar as they share their thoughts on how society and social media plays a role in our lives, and what are different ways to navigate. With our special guest host Sofie Forbes and Daniela Mejia.
Host
- Ronni Katz, Director of the New York City Prevention Resource Center - RKatz@childrensnyc.org
- Chevar Francis, Community Development Specialist, NYC PRC - ChevarF@childrensaidnyc.org
Special Guest Host:
- Sofie Forbes, Community Development Specialist, NYC PRC SForbes@childrensaidnyc.org
- Daniela Mejia, Community Development Specialist, NYC POP - DMejia3@childrensaidnyc.org
Social Media Data
https://timily.app/screen-time-statistics/
https://www.addictiongroup.org/resources/internet-addiction-statistics/
https://worldmetrics.org/tech-addiction-statistics/
https://www.sokolovelaw.com/personal-injury/social-media-addiction/statistics/
A Playlist For Prevention - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5s8JdK892BTN5mWkRmbZ31?si=QWt4C_BHSY-o08RBJt3Fpg
- Bob Marley - Three Little Birds
- Snoh Aalegra - I Want You Around
- Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out
- Sarah Ramirez - The Story
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nycprevention/
Instagram - @NYC_PRC
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thesolutionnyc727
Tik Tok - @NYCPartnersOFPrevention
BlueSky - @NYCPRC.bsky.social
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Depends upon when you're listening, and welcome to the solution. Nothing changes if we change nothing. Wow. Wow, I haven't said those words in so long. I'm here with my partner in crime, Shavar. Say hello to our audience who do. They may have forgotten us by now.
SPEAKER_00I'm surprised you remembered all that. Surprised like, oh, I totally forgot that part of the show. But welcome, Shivar Francis, co-host of the solution. Nothing we change. Nothing changes if we change nothing. I'm excited. It's been a while. A little a long time.
SPEAKER_04I don't even want to, I I don't even want to go back and see how long.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna look at the back tricks. I'm not gonna look at the data. It's been a long time. I mean, life, light's been going through uh uh it's it's a thing that's do light's been doing its thing this year for a variety of reasons. And uh I just dropped for those of you I always talk about my kids, talk about my kids, just dropped off my son at school about a week and a half ago, or a little bit less than a week and a half. Uh dropped him off at school. Excited for him. He's entering his junior year. He's actually staying off campus. I'm giving a lot of information why he's gonna kill me. Staying off campus, you know. I'm not nervous about that. However, you know, he's becoming a young man and I wanted to help him experience his independence and you know, and and learn and experience the world in a different aspect where he has to be more responsible. However, you know, the third year in the summer they said, Dad, I'm gonna graduate early, I said, Oh go for it. I'm happy for you, go for it. You know, and he said, I want to continue to get my master's. I said, go for it. So that these are all his decisions, you know. Hey, if you guys have ever heard me say this, I don't take credit for my kids' success. You know, I step in when they struggle to support, you know. So like this is all him. Like I have the that that adage of things in life are a choice, and this is what he's choosing. And I'm happy and proud of them.
SPEAKER_04That's right. Well, you've done that great job raising your kids, and they're taking over the torch now. And you know, that's all you can do. You can raise them to the best of your ability, and then they're gonna start making their own decisions, but you gave them both incredible foundations, and with all the love and support, uh my money's on them. Both of them. I mean, your daughter's doing so great, your son's doing great. You know, it's like but yeah, we've been we've just been busy. I mean, we we have two new team members, so you'll meet a little bit later. Um, the work has really been busy because our coalitions are on fire. I really think they are. The you know, we're seeing such great work in New York City of prevention. Um and we're seeing the the idea of prevention expanded into so many different facets. Um so we're excited. I mean, it's great to be here. But yeah, life starts, you know, goes on whether you you want it to or not. It's gonna happen. Um you know, and and as you know, I've had a lot of changes over the last six months, you know, with my wife passing away and just having to chart a new course in life. And I there's excitement in that. As much as there's grief, there's also joy, and you know, I think life's not just one or the other. It's it's so many different elements. Like um, and Dolly Parton died this week. That was like the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Dolly Parton.
SPEAKER_04You know, but but when you think of Dolly, she's not gone, she's never gonna be gone. Absolutely. Left behind so much that even if we never if we hadn't seen her in ten years, we still wouldn't have even realized we hadn't seen her in ten years.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because she's so present in every way. So her legacy will continue. And uh I think Saint Dolly should definitely be uh on the agenda here.
SPEAKER_00Saint Dolly.
SPEAKER_04I can see her being a saint.
SPEAKER_00No, I don't disagree with you. I I think a lot of people, uh in especially in the well, I well, I meant say especially, but in partially the black community will definitely say like she has uh been an advocate, a supporter of uh it's like a like you said, an angel, a saint, you know. Like they to take that stigma of you know that we don't get support from a from a white group, but we do. We have people like Dolly Parr. We had. And not only we had, we will continue. You know, she has uh uh I saw an article about whatever her initiatives will still move on, although she's passed away. I forget the initiative, I'll look it up in a moment. But the work that she's done, I think, is amazing. And I know it's amazing.
SPEAKER_04And she did so much of it without anybody knowing.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she did yeah.
SPEAKER_00I saw the whole story about her and what's this the the Whitney Houston, the remake, what was it called? I Will Always Love You, that's the name of the song.
SPEAKER_04Uh I Will Always Love You, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because that's I was right. I didn't know that initially the the original person who was supposed to do a cover was Elvis Presley. He was supposed to do a few.
SPEAKER_04I vaguely remember that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I found that out this week. Uh he was supposed to do a cover of it, but he wanted uh his manager wanted 50% of the publishing. And Dolly was like, nah. Nah. Yeah. Like apparently that's one of his stipulations of the Elvis at the time is to get whatever he does, he has no matter what, he gets from 50% of the publishing. And she said no. And Whitney Houston sung it, and it was the biggest uh re uh uh cover in history as far as like sales. So she made the correct decision into keeping her public.
SPEAKER_04And then she put the money back into the black community. Yes, yes, which I thought was amazing. But what I found interesting, she I was watching um an interview with her, I think it was on Larry King, and the first time she heard the song, she didn't even know Whitney Houston, because the Elvis deal had fallen through. Right. So she didn't know Whitney Houston was going to use it, and Whitney Houston was going to use another song, and then they chose um this one, and she's driving on in the car, and all of a sudden it comes on the radio with Whitney Houston singing. She had to pull over. She was so blown away. She said that was the first time she heard it. Nobody told her that Whitney Houston was going to be recording it uh for the film.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I heard that Kevin Costner acts for the song, for the bodyguard. And so that's how that's how it kind of got tossed around. So I again we miss, we miss, definitely miss Dolly Parton. You know, there's so many stories um that you can go through.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, I have my own.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and we're gonna share that later. I want to make sure the team comes on.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna share it later. I'll talk about but uh I have a couple of Dolly stories, but um I I see there's people knocking on our door.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Should we let him in?
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Alright, we're gonna let him in. And there's my favorite picture coming up. Alright, we just see Sophie appear in a minute, we'll see Daniela. We'll welcome you both formally in a second. We're just waiting for Daniela's face to appear. Um Although we can hear your voices for those who listen to us on you know, Bud Sprout and Spotify and you know, just the audio. Um it it wouldn't really make that much difference. But now everybody's here, so uh welcome you guys. We're just telling everybody that we have some new team members. We were just getting into it. Uh so why don't we take a few minutes and let them introduce themselves, you know? Just if you could tell our audience who you are, what you do, and anything else you want to share about yourself. Uh, who wants to start?
SPEAKER_01I can start.
SPEAKER_04Okay, then go for it.
SPEAKER_01Um, hello, I'm Daniela. I'm the community development specialist for New York City Partners of Prevention. We call ourselves Pop. Um, we're a group of coalitions uh looking to strengthen prevention efforts. Across New York City, we have coalitions in all of the five boroughs. Um, we do really cool initiatives like social media campaigns. We have an Instagram account where you can follow us, which is at NYC Partners of Prevention. Um, and we work on a bunch of cool other things, but I'll pass it off to Sophie.
SPEAKER_02Hello everyone. Um, my name is Sophie. I'm one of the community development specialists at NYCRC. Um I work very closely with Ronnie Kvar and Daniela. Um not sure what Ronnie Kavar shared about the NYC PRC or if you guys are all familiar with what we are, but we work with the coalitions as Danielle mentioned about the five boroughs. We provide trainings, uh, technical assistance. We kind of just um are a good resource for all the coalitions that work with substance industries among the five forests.
SPEAKER_04Okay, well thank you, Sophie, and again, Yella. Um hopefully the sound is coming through okay. Um I guess you'll be able to tweak that a little bit tomorrow, you should do. Uh but they're the newest additions to our team. They came on last spring, both of them. Uh they're supported by two two different grants, but having them um on our team has been incredible. Um so we were just talking about uh just all the things going on and how and and of course we talked about Jolly Party. So I'm curious, like you guys didn't I mean, you're from a very different generation than she is. I mean, a couple two, three generations removed. What did you know about Dolly Parton growing up? I mean, is is she someone you knew about and and had you know a a thought about or I mean I I don't even know what other people besides myself think because she was so far removed. Like what what did you guys know?
SPEAKER_01Um I was actually introduced through um to Dolly Parton through Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel show. So that's how I knew who she was because she came on as like um Miley's um, what is it, like her aunt or her godmother. Um, and then through that show I found out she was like an actual famous like country music star. Um but that was like my first introduction to her.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, I'll go off of that um kind of same experience. I think that's r how I was really formally, I guess, introduced to Oliver. Um and I personally do not normally listen to country music, but you know, there's certain songs like Jolene, it's so just like not just stuck in the category of country, like almost everyone probably is part of it or is familiar with the name of that song. Um I know Dolly did a lot of I think a lot of charity work and promoted a lot of different things with um within communities and all that. So not only do I know or didn't know Dolly as like you know this Panna Montana Disney character, but um definitely you know she was able to learn a lot about Dolly moving past uh Panamontana cameos.
SPEAKER_04That's pretty cool. It's interesting too, uh the day she I think it was the day she died, a monarch butterfly came flying through my um backyard several times, like right in front of my face. Um and then I saw two white moths and they signify death um flying together. Um and the next day we found out about Kim Curry. So a sign from beyond, I don't know. But anyway, um just just so we we don't kind of lead into each other's feet, we should probably stay muted while we're not speaking, because it tends to do that. Um but Shamar, did you want to uh you know, introduce any thoughts here?
SPEAKER_00No, I mean it's funny that that Daniela mentioned the whole Miley Cyrus thing. I actually was on social media this morning and I did not know that she was doing that show until I scrolled on social media. I was like, oh, I just saw a clip. I kind of I scrolled by it, but I saw the clip of Dolly Parton in Dolly Parton, my introduction. I was a little, little kid in my introduction, super little kid, and had no clue who this lady is. But I do know the the nine to five song because that was a that was a movie, movie and TV show, I believe. Like way back when I was too young to even know what I I was there, but I didn't know what was going on. I just know that dude's just working uh I'm I can't say I could rap though and do poetry, but the same thing is in mind. But that was uh that was my introduction to Dolly Parton, you know, seeing her on TV. Uh again, so before you guys came on, we talked about Ryan I talked about the advocacy work that she did. You kind of alluded to that as uh also Sophie did the amount of work that she did in her own community to combat racism, to work in diversity, inclusion, everything that we can't talk about anymore. Uh I'm sorry, we're gonna get flagged, but those things that we can't talk about anymore, um, is what she embodied, you know, and I think it's extremely important. I I I was on social media and you and I did after the pasting and you see so many people of color to the black people, you know, praising her and talking about them like missing her, and you have uh white content creator content creators asking, like, why do why like why why aren't we standing up for Dolly Part and also the way the black community is? You know, and like and what does that say to us? This is based on things I've seen, not one person, but a few people saying the same thing, like, like this person meant so much to another community, like, you know, like why, why, how can we promote that? How can we build on those things, you know? And unfortunately, you know, we do lose people that that the world needs, that the world cares about, that care about us, you know. And I'm gonna share a person that I met as a child, and I didn't know how significant it was uh until I got, you know, I got home and my mother was like, You bet this guy? It was Muhammad Ali. I was a child come walking home from school and he was in the neighborhood and some tall black guy giving our autographs. I was like, okay. And I was a tiny kid, I had no clue. And I get this, I get this autograph and I go home and tell my mom, and they all freaking out like, where is he? He's across the street, you know, the 10-hour autographs. And like, and I don't know what I did with that. I was like, put it in my book bag. I have no clue what I did with that autograph. No clue what I did with that thing, man. To this day, I wish I still had it. But being able to meet him and seeing what he stood for, watching his interviews, uh, you know, those advocates, those people who stand up for what's right, for what they believe is right, you know, and uh and and I mean sometimes it may go against the grain of what the rest of the world thinks. Sometimes we need that. We need a Dali Part, you know, we need a Muhammad Ali. We need these people to we need a market. We need these people, we need a marketing, we need these people to be those those agents for change, you know, and and that's how and that's how you build legacy. I think the important part for me, and I talk to people a lot about is legacy. Like, what does legacy look like to you or for you? You know, like when we when we move on, like what what is it that and it could and your legacy could could impact one person. So I don't want you to think I have to impact the entire world. No, you don't. No, you don't. As long as you impact one or two people, and if that's not your thing, that's also okay. You know, but like for me, anyone I come across, I believe like I want to be a part of your legacy. I want to be a part of your story. So if you ever interact with me, I'm always gonna uplift you. Like we did a training last like a few weeks ago, and I'm like, you're all superheroes. If you want to have when it's like, yes, yes, I can. Like, and that, and that I think that's and like that's like you know, uh like I said, a Muhammad Ali, uh Dolly Parton. I wish I've met Dolly Parton. Um, well, I really wish I met her, you know. I wish I actually went when we went to Tennessee, I wish I went to to is called Dollywood, that's what it's called. I probably made that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but it wasn't anywhere near you or it it's up in the smoky mountains, so you it would have been several hours to go there. Yeah, I live in Tennessee. I don't think it was open yet.
SPEAKER_00I could have stayed in one of my old.
SPEAKER_04You could still you know what? You it's still there. It's still there. Um, but you you guys I mentioned to you that I met Dolly Parton and it was in 1977, and I was already a big fan. I I mean a lot of people don't know this about me, but I played in a six-piece all-female country band in New York City for a whole bunch of years, and I did that full time for a while. And we were like um before the Dixie Chicks. We were actually known in Nashville, and um we were known by the Nash by the local country radio station, and um I was following Dolly's career. I watched her um on her TV show, which we got here in New York City, and um I went to see her, and it was at the bottom line, and I didn't even realize till I looked it up recently what an iconic performance it was because it was recorded. It was the third of a um three night stand. It was her trying to launch her solo career after um being linked with Porter Wagoner, who was her um mentor and um and person she was his girl singer, so to speak, and now she's trying to embark on her own. We went to see her. I can't say we I don't even remember the friend I went with, it was so long ago. But we got there like in the afternoon because we said we better get in there now and get our seats. So we and we sat we were able to get seats right up front. Um, and all of a sudden, guess who walks through the door? But Dolly Parton. And she's not all made up, she's got a kerchief on her head, she's got jeans on. I mean, she and she was much younger then, so she didn't have all the plastic surgery yet, at least from the neck up. Uh, but anyway, from the deck down, apparently she had. Uh she walked in and she just stopped and talked to us like we were her best friends. Like, how y'all doing? And we just we chatted with her, we hung out, and then she went backstage. And the next time we saw her, she came out with all the fancy costumes and they recorded it. And uh it there's an album. I I looked for it. It was Spotify said they had it, but there were songs on there that were released like five years later. I said, No, this is not the actual record. Uh so that was my first time, and then I saw her again in the 80s when I was in my band, and I won tickets on the radio to go see her in a stadium, and I was there. I I think I went with my bandmates, and um somebody who was dressed as Dolly, um, a Dolly impersonator was there and and they were like full on Dolly, walking down the aisle as Dolly singing, turns around, sees them, and just gets hysterical laughing and stops singing and started talking to them. I mean, she never changed, she was always this incredible person. And if we learn anything, we learn that like Shamar said, you know, you can just change people one at a time. You don't need to make the you know, she wound up changing the world, but she did it one person at a time. Um, you know, and that's that's really special. All her fame and started, she never lost who she was. Uh so there's a lesson there for all of us to be able to take that with us. But you know, that's and I'm not I'm actually gonna connect that to prevention. Because when I first started in prevention, people said, What is your goal? I said to reach one person. And they said, How are you gonna change anything if it's one person? I said, Because then they'll reach another person and they'll reach more people and we start with one person. And um, I mean, before I knew about environmental strategies, which yes are important, but we still have to reach people on that individual level if we want to see change because it needs to spread. So I'm happy if I reach one person. I'm not gonna change the world, but I can change my corner of it. So that's all my dolly stuff, wrapping it into prevention, and uh let's see where we take it from here.
SPEAKER_00No, absolutely. Uh and please chime in Sophie or and or Daniella. Uh that does lead into prevention, you know. And anyone who knows me and I have a conversation with you, I'm gonna tell you that you're doing prevention. I'm gonna tell you how you're doing prevention, how you are getting people uh to make alternatives in their lives opposed to something that'll that'll bring them down, you know. And and Dolly was one of them, like I said, Mohammed Ali is one of them, Sophie is one of them, Daniela is one of them, Ronnie is one of them, I am one of those people. You know, like the the ability to have a conversation with sometimes people just want to talk or be heard. Right? The fact that you know, Ronnie, you went to this concert and she turned to stop and spoke to that just reminds me, like we've said all this many times in this podcast, people are human. No one's above anyone, you know, and to take like you know, and you see whomever's seeing Dolly Pond, like, wait a minute, you think that's life-changing, right? To stop and to speak to me, not just look at me and walk away. I to like you are you are your god goddess level, god level of entertainer, you know, and I appreciate that you were able to share that story and how the experience, Radi. You know, like I get like I didn't realize I was meeting God level in Muhammad Ali. Just some some tall guy who was kidding me out. But as far as like again, again, I her doing the work, uh her you know, impacting your life or anyone's life is prevention, the impact you have. Right? You know, and we and if you listen to our podcast, we always bring it back to prevention, right? And what that impact looks like. You know, maybe maybe they whoever saw her then or later on or before became a musician in their lives. Or or became a philanthropist because of her. Right? She changed a lot of people's lives. I think that's the important part. And something we did uh we did talk about we kind of talked about this before this episode. We kind of it kind of alludes to this. Uh we talked about social media and social media addiction, right? And sometimes we get addicted to our celebrities, right? Sometimes we get caught up in that. But how but just think about how do we how do we navigate that? Right? How do we uh uh not have it be an end or end or be all, you know, because like the there's a phrase I'm not sure if anyone knows, is uh the FOMO. You guys ever heard of FOMO? Fear of missing out in in the stage right with social media that's abundantly clear, you know. Uh uh when I was younger, you know, we didn't have that. So, you know, if you saw someone famous, you saw them and that was it, right? Now we have so much interaction. Yeah, we we can see dolly parts. Well, I'm using her as now, which is because we just spoke about it. We'll see Dolly Parts every waking moment. We had breakfast today. You had uh uh women got her hair done today or later in the afternoon, like so the social media, you know, there is an addiction piece there, but how do we navigate that? You know, I think is important. We and I I'm gonna I'm gonna pull up some data points in a second. But I guess I have a question for you guys, you know, um how does uh and I'll answer it, how does uh how did or how does social media impact your life or how did it? And I'm gonna go really quickly um because I'm not that much of a social media person, but I've shared this story before. Uh Facebook that is well I I use Facebook for birthdays, I'm gonna be very clear. That's how I remember anybody's birthday. However, um my uh my sister through my father, we actually reconnected because of uh Facebook. You know, I was on um I was on Facebook and I saw a comment or a picture of someone and I wrote someone. I was like, I think you're my sister. Little like that. That was the comment. And she rolled back, I think you're my brother. That was the comment. And it's the the irony of that, like we like that story is like we had mutual friends growing up, literally literal mutual friends, but we never saw each other, you know. And to speed the story up, we were able to reconnect and re- and re- and recreate that bar from when we were little kids. Uh the unfortunate part is that the fortunate and unfortunate part, the fortunate part I was re I was able to reconnect with her. The unfortunate part, she actually passed away. So, you know, she passed away of lung cancer. So me and be able to to to speak to her prior to her to her leaving this plane, I think for me was that that's where I whenever someone who says social media is bad, I'm like, well, I have a good story. I have a good story. And that's my story that I always go to where I was able to reconnect with her uh before passing, you know. And always love her. Shout out to my her name is Farah. Shout out to my sister Farah. So if any of you guys want to share your thoughts on how social media may impact you, do you participate in FOMO? Um do you doom scroll? Please come off come off mic and share.
SPEAKER_02Um, I'll speak on it and I will 100% admit I I scroll. I do. Um, I can't help it. Whether it's Instagram or TikTok, it's usually TikTok. Um and I will say like social media like technology, you know, has its great moments um and can also be the source of many headaches um or other feelings. And I also just think it can impact you depending on what stage of your life you're in. Um I know like in society social media can be seen as something maybe a little more scary when you're on the younger side, just one, having maybe too much access to information or being a platform, you know, maybe when you're of middle school age where it could be used for something harmful like bullying or any of that. Um, but I also think social media is great. I've learned great recipes off social media, TikTok, Instagram, any of that. I personally don't really use Facebook, but I do have an account. And again, I kinda like use Shavar. I use it to you know keep in contact with family or family friends from you know that I've known maybe my whole life but don't regularly keep in contact with. Um I love social media to see people's experience traveling and kind of you know, tasting maybe my trip off of experiences they've gotten to do, places they've gone, restaurants they've experienced. Um yeah, I d I will 100% admit like I will spend hours scrolling if given the chance, and that is you know, maybe not the best thing. I probably should turn off my phone or put it down maybe an hour before bed because you're scrolling and you're like, oh no, five more minutes, and then you look at the clock and you're like, oh an hour passed and it's one in the morning. I shouldn't be sleeping right now. Um, but you know, like all things, moderation is key. Um you kind of just need to know like what's healthy for you. Um make sure it doesn't become an unhealthy habit.
SPEAKER_00Quick statistic before that, before I want to address you said something you said about headaches. Uh the screen time gives me headaches sometimes, so now I actually try my best not to be on the phone as much as possible. But I want to give a quick statistic, and this is about uh uh young people with the age of uh eight to ten. If you didn't know, average six hours of screen time per day. That's a lot. And teenagers average eight hours of screen time a day. That's a lot. That's a lot. And the the whole idea is when we looked at this, we talked about addiction and how does it affect your life. You know, why do you need so much screen time? You know, what are you getting from it? You know, what is the interaction? And like that that is their social networking, you know, for them. That is their interaction. Um, however, some of our young people are you losing the idea of a so like the actual physical face-to-face social action reaction uh social uh interaction that they need. You know, like they do see themselves in the phone a lot, you know, because of the FaceTime calls, what have you. Uh, there actually is a statistic of of older folk also. I'll find out, I'll find that in a moment when I'll definitely share that. But yeah, this is important, man. You know, not only so, and I think the other question is I'm gonna stop there. I want to make sure I get Daniela, I got some more questions. Daniela to share her thoughts in Ronnie, please, before I move on. I want to get that statistic first. Does Daniella or Ronnie want to share their thoughts on this social media interaction or lack thereof? Please go for it. Go ahead, Danielle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um I was gonna say is that the great thing about social media, social media and like the internet in general is that they've globalized like the world. So you have access to so many people from, you know, like if you have, like, for example, I have family in uh foreign in a foreign country, like in other countries, so it's easy, like Shabar mentioned in a story with Facebook to connect um with multiple people in different countries. Um the downside to that is that we have like unlimited access. And so with that comes like your own responsibility to set up boundaries with social media and like how you use that in general. Um, like for at least for me, I also Doom scroll a lot. Um, and I have like a very high screen time. Um, so I do put like limits on myself, and I have um iPhone has the feature where you can limit um how long you're on social media. So it'll bring up an alert, like you reached your time limit, and it'll like close it out for you. So that's kind of a way in which um it like guides me day by day. I know if I went like over it or if I didn't even go near it. And sometimes like you can press dismiss, and sometimes I do, and you keep scrolling, but at least I have you know the the reminder that okay, yesterday I went, you know, past the alert, so I know I'm going like excessively over.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, I you know, I've I've lived from a time when social media was like science fiction, you know, the whole idea of it and life was so much simpler. I was talking with a friend the other day in my age group. You know, I'm a boomer. Everybody who knows me knows that. And and a lot of us are actually productive people who really believe um in very progressive values. And uh you don't even know we're blamed for everything else. But uh, we were talking about how we would just disappear here. We leave in the uh the house at 10 o'clock in the morning, nine ten. We wouldn't come back till dinner time. We run our bikes, our parents wouldn't know where we were, but nobody worried about it. Um, because we kind of knew our boundaries. You know, for me, social media and just like even the beginnings of the whole thing, AOL. Uh, you know, I was on AOL when it was uh it it was dial up and you know, I'd moved to Tennessee. AOL led me to my recovery. Um having relationships in a chat room uh called Women's Point of View, uh where I eventually became a chat room host. Um but led me into my recovery. There were people there who cared enough about me to stay up in the middle of the night and talk to me. Um and then on the phone, and I wound up getting into recovery there and almost 29 years later. I'm still in touch with most of those people. They've come and they've stayed at my house. Um we we created I mean, we really have strong friendships. We still visit each other, we still follow each other's health um journeys. I had one someone actually, one of my dear friends from that that chat room uh who I've met when I traveled to California, um, text me this morning talking about some health scares she's having. Uh, you know, and this it was amazing. There were people in that room from teenage through 40s, and we've all stayed in touch. So there's a lot of positives, but you're right. Once you cross that line, and we were we were looking at the data yesterday, and and we'll put the links in when we publish the um the podcast when it goes live. I I wasn't surprised, but it still made me say, Wow, this is I mean, people are so taken over by it. Today's youth, they that's their world. It's like, what are they missing out on? And you know, that's why I'm very encouraged to see that kids cannot use their phones in school. Um, they have to actually relate to each other. And just as last week when we had our networking event, um, you know, most people stayed off their phones for the most part, except to check messages, emails. We had a couple who were on them constantly, and they didn't really interact a lot. But the other people there did, and it was really wonderful to see people in person remember. It's not like we don't know how. We just are so used to not doing it that we forget. And um I I'm con I do have a concern because it's an addiction. Um, yes, am I addicted? I have an addictive personality. Of course I'm addicted. I'm addicted to doing research. If if I find one thing, I'm gonna, you know, send you 30 things because that's just my personality and it's at my fingertips. But I am concerned about it, and prevention I think needs to look at that because young people are getting um their dopamine fixed from you know social media. So it's that's how you know it's so addictive. They're seeing personalities on there who are role modeling in ways that are not always positive, very often not. I mean, there's a whole slew of things, and a lot of research and data coming to light these days. So as we look at the world of prevention, this is another facet I think we need to look into. Also, the algorithms, if you know, somebody mentioned something about drinking or drugging, you're gonna see all these ads after that. Uh so we really need to look at the whole thing. I think a lot more research needs to be done by all of us as prevention practitioners and um prevention specialists, and look at how we can apply the same principles to social media addiction because it's leading to the same end results. Um seeing mental health being affected, we're seeing higher suicide rates, just a whole bunch of things, higher drug use. Um, you know, there's a lot of data on it. Um, I know Chevrolet wanted to comment on that, so I'm gonna I'm gonna step back and let you see.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm glad you you said something that you know I do want to acknowledge, uh, and I kind of alluded to it earlier about the amount of time we spend on social media. I mean, based on the data, you know, they have adults at seven hours and twelve minutes. Um that's that including uh passive uh listening. So that's actually a data point that's there also. So just like we we we talk about our young people, the adults are doing that also. And Ronnie mentioned something uh that I'm gonna connect to, or like to connect to rather, is uh the content that's sometimes displayed on our phones. Like you say a word, someone sends a road an air shot of your phone, you get bombarded with this, with it, you know. And if our young people are staying on the phone eight hours, six hours, what content are they consuming, right? One, that's an addiction, right? Two, is uh do they come across any of these ads like I was sharing with the team the other day. Like I don't see as many alcohol ads, I see way more cannabis ads on social media. Maybe it's because of because of work I do. And they may hear me talk, there was talking about it, my phone ad is here us talking about it, still may pop up. So for me, it's for me, it's a bit for me, me, Javar, it's a bit concerning where I that's something I don't participate in. But however, I would say 40% of my feed are cannabis companies and ads that you know, so I go into and change my algorithm like it's like a bunch of art artists. So I go try to change my algorithm. Other than that, you know, but again, I I don't know to that point, like what is a young person consuming within those eight hours? What kind of content they're coming across. Are they exposed to the same things that I'm exposed to? And I'm an adult. I I can make the decision, right? I'm not saying young people can't make the decision, but if you look at if you look at a can of whatever, it looks like and it says can and it says seltzer, you can order it on on through through the through in uh Instagram. Why not order it? You know, I'm not I'm not I'm not promoting ordering, but that's how it can come across. Like, you know, I don't they don't check ID when you order these things. Like you don't have to get proof of age. So, you know, so that can lead to a variety of things that may happen with our young people. Or people who are in recovery or trying to escape those things, and it's in their face. You know, you know, again, that we're all we're all humans, we're all able to make decisions, but sometimes curiosity outweighs the specific type of decision that may best benefit you. And that's the nature of human human beings. But but but and do sc doom scrolling, doom doom scrolling is why I stay off of TikTok. If you ever got a TikTok video, you cannot watch you cannot watch one. It's like with Pringles, gotta eat them all or whatever, or or Pokemon, gotta catch them all. Like, or yeah, I think Pringles is once you pop it can't stop or whatever. That's literally Instagram. So when a friend sends me an a I'm sorry, a TikTok video, I do not open it because I will get caught there two hours later. I will not open it. You can send it to me, friends and family. I won't open it. Everybody wanted to say something.
SPEAKER_04No, I just, you know, we're there's positive aspects too, and we can't ignore those.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04You know, so I think we need to look at both sides of the issue.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean, I opened with talking about, you know, reconnecting with my sister, you know. Uh it gave me an opportunity to create a family group on social media for my cousins who, you know, prior to my grandmother passing away, I uh because I'm the oldest grandchild, it was like people leaned on me to keep everyone together. So like that was that was a positive, you know, and I speak to my cousins. They use me as a of I can't speak to this cousin, I must speak to to to to Shavar through you so to get to you. So like now there's a ton of positives, man. Like I like anime and so is it, you know, uh, you know, and I'm back into drawing again. So I started drawing. So all the I have a ton of uh uh uh artists that I follow, so like 100%.
SPEAKER_04But even like you're using it like our coalitions can really utilize it in a positive way, and it's it's a way that's low cost or free uh to be able to get your message out. And I think it's important for us to remember uh to utilize it like that. But um just you know, going back to Daniela and Sophie, um, so I mean as we look at social media, I just want to like what drew you both to the kind of work you're doing, um, and the kind of work you hope to do? Uh like how did you get here? They're thinking I can see the scene coming out of their ears. Anyone want to share?
SPEAKER_00Then they're trying to find the mute button, but while they talk, absolutely, as far as social media, what I was and please interrupt me when you guys find the mute button. I think the idea is how do we use social media to Ronnie's point about our coalitions? Are we using the the Instagram lives? Are we using the the TikTok lives? Are we using the uh the polling systems to gather data? What does the interaction look like with our coalitions and prevention? Like I said, Sophia Daniela, unmute yourself. Please interrupt me.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry, you were breaking it up a little bit, Ronnie. Could you repeat your question, please?
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm curious, like I know we we when we first interviewed you guys, we we alluded to this, but like what what attracted you to this work? And um, like how'd you get here? You know, what what brought you to what you're doing now? And I mean I know Danielle, you get to utilize social media a lot in what you're doing, and and Sophie, somewhat. Uh, but what brought you to you know to prevention even and where do you hope to go with it all?
SPEAKER_01That's a great question. That's a big question. Um I would say, well, I've always been interested in working with organizations at a community level, because I feel like that's where you have the most impact, is like I know a lot of people think about like state government, federal government, but I think local government is really where you can have a direct impact with the people living in your community. Um, so I knew that I wanted to work um specifically with coalitions and community-based partners, because I think that it's uh um an important and useful way like to have a person-to-person interaction and connection. Um and I actually really do love the social media aspect of Pop. So that was actually a really big attraction for me when I was applying to the role, um, and learning in ways that we can utilize that for the coalitions. Um, because I know that it can be a bit daunting if you're not familiar with it, and it also can be like a big take on, but it could also be so useful um even from like collecting basic data as to like what your demographic is online or what type of content you're sharing, and like what are people um being receptive or more responsive to. Um, and then I know also like we have coalitions that they'll put up ads in like the link NYC and things like that, where they um they publish it and they pay a price, and then it will give them metrics for them on how many people they reached and things like that. But that also costs money, right? So if you're able to like capitalize on that through social media, it kind of eliminates that barrier that you would have for like funding for that avenue or something like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, very good point. And it's not expensive to do that to do or to boost your post. Yeah, it's it's it is affordable.
SPEAKER_02How about you, so um yeah, it is a good question. Um I well my background comes in public health. Um, and did I know exactly what I would do with my my masters in public health? Not necessarily, but funny enough, it was it primarily focused on needs assessments um and evaluating programs. And that's you know we do a lot of you know reviewing deliverables like needs assessments, logic models, action plans, all that stuff. So I'm happy that you know my masters could bring something useful to this position. Um, but through my masters and my undergrad studies, I did a lot of work with communities, whether it was helping a coalition develop and work on a needs assessment to uh bring the community together and you know, bring to light certain information that they needed or working with individuals within a specific community that recognized various disparities at different specific groups within the community was facing and kind of bringing that to light so that action could be taken. Um and then as I mentioned to Travar and Ronnie in the beginning, you know, with my mom and my sister being social workers and having that background and you know, having those type of conversations at the dinner table, it really got my, you know, my brain thinking, my gears going and wanting to not necessarily follow suit with them and be also be a social worker, but I think that's why I love public health, it kind of brings aspects of social work into it and can help, you know, allow you to connect with people on the level that I think kind of like social media sometimes eliminates that connection, that real like face-to-face or genuine conversation. Um when people just scroll and look at you know cute dog photos or videos like they're cute but you're not really making that real connection with people. So yeah that's kind of a lot but that's my background and um I think with this work I just like I said I hope to connect with more people um and kind of just get a better sense of why people and communities you know orchestra are around the way they do what people you know their lived experiences, how that's an impact how they function today and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_04Shabor I know you wanted to share some data too so if you're ready with that.
SPEAKER_00Sorry about that I was looking at some data while we were talking and this uh for those who need any support especially under the under the guise of uh social media there are treatments that are out there there's cognitive behavioral therapy uh the the well it's in clinical trial right now as their detox there's digital detox camps out there uh uh what else is out there let me see if I saw some more uh multi-week digital detox counseling uh family therapy skill building so there's ways to work around it you know although we did say there are positive there are tons of positive I don't want anyone to think we're punching down and beating up uh social media because it's it's necessary right how how frequently can you talk to your cousin in Italy and they're five hours away the different time zone right you know it's different time zones so you get to speak to that person that I think that's the one part that we forget that it does allow for for I think you were saying this earlier uh Daniel I want to misprint misquote you but like the uh we're able to connect with people from around the world no matter no matter what right no matter the time of the day you're able to talk to someone 14 hours ahead of you right you know so that's the that's one of the cool things but I think again like I mentioned earlier how do we use it is important. And Ronnie was talking about it also with the coalitions how do we use it you know because again uh social media sometimes this does get the negative things tossed on them or the addiction part the amount of screen time the you know the this and the that but there are benefits there. You know Ronnie said this a moment ago this is where the young people congregate this is where they talk to each other this is where they connect this is where you know like when I grew up fashion and music was regional right you knew that someone highly dressed as they could like when they came into your neighborhood you aren't from around here because the clothes you're wearing now because social media we all look alike that that's the that that's the one that mean I kind of I kind of have like a eh with with with it but I think again like if anyone was struggling and that there are ways to support you know so let me ask you guys a question. We're gonna get out of here soon enough but before we get there how do you guys what does detox look like for you how what does control look like for you I know Daniela used to say you have the time limits on there I used to have the time lists on there and I used to realize I click the dismiss button every single time. So I just took it off because it defeated the purpose for me when I do when I do and I share this with Daniela in the office the other day um I leave when I come home call the kids make sure they're all right and I leave my phone in a different room my iPad still rings so I have the iPad I don't use the iPad which is also data on that uh I don't use the iPad as much but that's what I do when I get home the phone stays in another room as long as I spoke to everyone I know where you are uh and and if it's important my iPad will ring and then or I'll get a message and I'll check it that way otherwise because I don't have I don't have social media on my on my iPad I use it as like an art tool so how do you guys uh navigate or or move around with the what is your what is your detox or your regulation of social media what does that look like I'll start us off I guess um I think for me personally like if I'm with friends I'm very aware of my phone and I guess not using it.
SPEAKER_02Um obviously you know if I get a text from one of my parents, you know, I'll typically glance at it just in case it's something like important. But I try to be very intentional about not you know being on my phone if I'm with friends or family or children I feel like I'm trying to live in the moment um and really be present and not scrolling not any of that. But I will say I I definitely should set better boundaries when it's just me myself and I in my apartment. That is where the the scrolling does come into play. But at least when I'm you know with friends with family and you know in the presence of other people I am very aware and very intentional about not you know just eyes down on my phone.
SPEAKER_00That's the part I love about social interaction because if I'm with you I'm not staring at my phone I'm probably staring at you awkwardly like because we it's like why is he staring at me? Why is he talking to me? Because I don't want to be in my phone. So I appreciate the that part especially the social interaction I love hanging out with people I love talking to people it's so important.
SPEAKER_01Thank you Sylvie Ronnie or Daniela um yeah I was gonna say um I take the approach that instead of looking at looking at it from restriction like looking at it from like restricting my access to social media I think about it more so like in what other avenues can I like pour my cup into because then that means I'm less on my phone. I am really big on journaling so I track like I track like all of my daily habits like how much I drink how much I read if I exercise um so like I track everything daily um and I make sure that I'm like walking well I'm I'm trying to walk because I stopped walking for a while but I'm trying to walk at least like an hour a day um have enough water because I don't drink enough water either um make sure I'm reading so like on my commute I'll read to work and then home from work. So I'm not like I'm inadvertently I'm using social media less because I'm like pouring into the all those other areas that's usually what what I try to do.
SPEAKER_00And I'm trying to get Daniela to walk more also because she it's easier for her to take a particular train to get home if she refuses because she doesn't want to do the walk. Daniela I like the idea of a habit tracker if you have one if we can find one we could attach it as a PDF so people could participate in tracking their habits whether it's phone time or usage or whatever. Go for it, Ronnie.
SPEAKER_04Uh well we're at that time um you know we this went so fast and a lot of great stuff shared and I learned so much about you guys uh that I didn't know that so that this was cool but should we ask some more famous question oh I was gonna change the question there remember we talked about the question we didn't change the well that's I'm gonna tell you to ask because I forget you had a new one and what is we wanted we wanted to know you Ronnie about how you navigate social media I'm working on it I'm working on it I see what you did there I see what you did there. No no I'm living alone for the first time in almost in 25 years. So social media is keeping me connected right now. And also I gotta go see what Punch is doing because if I don't check on Punch I don't know if he's doing well. I mean we live at a time when it's so easy to get caught up in the negativity and um little things like seeing how a cute little monkey's doing they lift my spirits or I I do I do uh positive affirmations every day. You know I share gratitude every single day on social media and uh on Sunday I shared a selfie because I'm always putting pictures of my dog dog cat and um you know you guys know because they they have to put up with me putting pictures of Hannah constantly and saying look look look uh but anyway I put up a picture of myself and ask people to send me a selfie and respond. I got like 15 people post selfies in an hour and and send a beautiful message and it was just really nice. And I thought that's a really good use of social media and selfies because we we never see each other's faces half the time. People I even had comments like it's so good to see your face.
SPEAKER_00Um so I I've been using it more lately because for me it's a connection um you know and also I'm a research hound if I'm watching something I've got to look up every actor and what have they done and legwise yeah but you know what did I do before that was available so uh I'm working on IMDB is my friend and Ryan knows I love baby videos love baby videos so like she's like setting little baby videos of babies doing weird things or funny things. But our question um let's see Ronnie we have a separate question that we asked every episode or a set of two questions we want to change it up a little bit because we wanted to do an episode about uh uh called the pie uh uh playlist for prevention but we want to we want to change it up a little bit we want to ask you to do both Sophie and Daniel if you have a song that speaks to you you know and it doesn't have to have the word prevention in it but the song that helps you navigate the world like you know like it's take a moment and while I talk so uh and you guys can share your song so we can start building this playlist that'll be on Spotify, album music and everybody can find music we want to share with you but we're gonna be building this playlist over time. But the song that I always lean into is uh people always misquote the title of the song the title of the song is called Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. People call that everything's gonna be alright. That's not the song that's the chorus in the song okay that's Michael Home talk about uh self-uh care but yeah my song of choice for now in in addition to others would be Three Little Birds by Bob Marley and that's the song I want to add to our uh prevention playlist playlist for prevention do you guys have a song that you want to share I'll share my song um the song actually I was looking at my playlist because I wanted to make sure it was a really good song that I listen to often um it's by her name is Snow Allegra and um Snow Allegra.
SPEAKER_01Yeah and her the song is I want you around um I was listening to that yesterday yeah it's like a very like calm soothing warm song I usually listen to it like on weekend mornings like like 7 a.m like I'm making my bed my coffee is brewing like it's very calm so yeah that's my song brings me peace I'm gonna add those two songs we to the to the playlist we're gonna start it off but thank you thank you yeah so if you got one for us or two I do um it is by Florence the Machine um shake it out I love Florence the machine and the machine and I it is a song you know I have on my Spotify I don't really do playlists I kind of just hit shuffle and just see what happens.
SPEAKER_02So it's like a roller coaster when you when I listen to music it could be from literally anything um but and Ronnie's definitely gonna get this reference but I'm gonna bring it back to Grace Anatomy when you know Meredith and Christina are just like we just need to dance it out. When they're going through troubling times whether it's stress, emotion like um difficult emotion, whatever what's going on in their lives they just kind of just dance it out and that song is what I feel like. I feel like that would be if I was in Grey's anatomy and they were like you know here's this episode you need to just dance it out what would it be to it would be to that. So if I'm stressed or need to release some emotion I usually end up after listening to it and after dancing it it out feeling like a weight's been lifted off my shoulder feeling more at peace. Even though it's an upbeat energetic song I I do end up being very much at peace by the end of it.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I think we all should dance it out. I love it.
SPEAKER_04Go for it Ronnie Yeah well I as a musician I have so many songs some of my own even um and I was sitting here but the song that I just keep going back to is the story. And um it was also on Grace Sarah Ramirez did my favorite version of it um and Brandy Carlyle does a very good version but not like Sarah Ramirez and in the musical episode which a lot of people don't like I feel like in the head of me becomes the soundtrack of my life half the time um but the story is just um it became the song that I I started thinking about a lot when my wife was at the end of her life too that even you know among all the craziness and all the turmoil um we were made for each other because we told the story of each other and no matter what that was our story. And hopefully I'm gonna have a new song that I'm writing called You Are My Home and I will debut it on here when I have it. So I'm working on song after course a couple of verses. But this list is gonna grow and we're gonna be asking our guests every time um but in the meantime this hour went by very fast. We actually talked for just about an hour and um that's because we had a lot to say and we love having the two of you on our team.
SPEAKER_00Just I hope you know how much you've made us so happy and uh it's really this is such a wonderful team and uh that's why we wanted you to meet them too because Shamar take us out trying to think of the right phrase I wasn't saying welcome back but we ain't going nowhere we just took a break you know we're excited to be back so you'll hear a lot more episodes from us but you know we're gonna get out of here and guess what this is the solution nothing changes if we change nothing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah she says
