Why I Deleted Tik Tok | Finding My Voice | Why Dreams Don’t Work | The Mister Brown Show Podcast
Welcome to this episode of The Mister Brown Show! Real talk, real life, real choices. In this episode of The Mister Brown Show, we are going to talk about ‘Why Dreams Don’t Work…’, ‘Finding My Voice,’ and ‘Why I Deleted Tik Tok.’
Quote Of The Day
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” - John C Maxwell
Sometimes we talk about things so much that it makes us feel like we accomplished it, even when we didn’t. And I can relate! I am a talker. When I was growing up and people would ask me what I wanted to be I would always say “an NBA player.” I thought if I talked about it enough, it would happen. But, things don’t just happen; you have to work for it. You have to work HARD for it! Earlier in life I was involved in a business called Amway. I went to the meetings, met people, and dreamed BIG! But I wasn’t willing to do the work that needed to be done to meet those dreams. I got the business cards and the right ‘stuff’, but again I was not willing to do the work of actually selling and talking to people to get them on board.
The idea of having a dream is great, but they don’t work unless you do. As Denzel Washington once said, “Dreams without goals are just dreams.” You have to set goals and work for it, or it won’t happen.
Don’t get me wrong, it is great to have dreams! Don’t like the job you have? Dream about what you could do! But figure out how to work for it so you can actually accomplish your dreams. It doesn’t come overnight, but setting goals will help you get there.
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” - John C Maxwell
Finding My Voice
Students frequently ask me a lot of questions. I will often ask them, “What is your goal with my answer? Is it a desire to learn and have a conversation, or to peg me as something and argue?” We live in a world where people decide if they like you or not based on how you answer a question, who you voted for, or what you believe on a certain issue; which can make finding your authentic voice very difficult.
When I answer questions and explain why I believe what I believe or think the way I do, I often hear students say “I never thought of that.” I think part of the reason is because some voices are so LOUD that they are all we ever hear.
“The loud voices are not always right, but the silent voices can't be heard.”
The loud voices are not always right, and sometimes they are even dead wrong! But they can be so loud! Oftentimes we find ourselves afraid to speak up because,
We don’t want to be at odds with anyone.
We don’t want to be the target of anything.
We don’t want to ganged up on.
We don’t want to be labeled.
In today’s world, if you do not agree with someone you are labeled as some type of ‘phobic.’ Just because you don’t agree with someone does not mean that you are afraid of them or what they are talking about. If I don’t like vegetables, that doesn’t mean I am afraid of them. Now, I am being serious and not trying to poke fun. It bothers me when people joke about people disagreeing with people or poke fun at people for not agreeing with them. As Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt…”
I heard a saying once that said, “Sometimes people on the right want to be right, but not righteous.” I thought about that. I want to treat people like they matter, because they DO MATTER. Now that saying goes both ways politically, the saying just “works better grammatically with the word ‘right’.”
I don’t want to be silent and avoid talking about things because of what “might happen.” As a motivational speaker, my goal is not to make people think the same things as me (except that their choices matter), but to make them think for themselves. I want to make sure that I am finding my authentic voice, being me, and also speaking up. While learning to do this, I want to make sure my speech is gracious and seasoned with salt. For me, that means, no name calling, no belittling, no patronizing people, and no sarcasm about or towards people.
We need to be respectful on all sides. We can agree to disagree, but commit to decency. We will not always agree, but we can agree on being decent and respectful. Conversations are never productive when we start calling people names or labeling them. We encourage our kids not to call people names, so why do adults act like it’s okay if they do it? Let's have a dialogue instead. Let’s commit to decency and have the conversation.
I am trying to find my authentic voice, and I hope you can find yours too!
Why I Deleted Tik Tok.
Are you on social media? I have been on all of them. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Youtube, etc…
My thought process with social media is that I want to be a positive, encouraging presence in an environment that is often the opposite of that. Kids are drawn to social media for the idea of community and sense of belonging. I want to encourage kids to make better choices and social media is one way that I can reach them on their level!
However…I recently had to delete Tik Tok. I didn’t want to! I have a growing following and some students even made a fanpage. But I had to delete it because of their horendice privacy policies. I heard about it in another video, did the research myself, and immediately deleted it. My conclusion was this:
In other words, the risk outweighs the reward. I mean China owns Tik Tok and they have previously stated their desire for world domination. Here are some screenshots that I highlighted from Tik Tok’s website.
So even if you don’t post something, they still have access to it. Let’s talk about the clipboard part quickly. If you copy something to your clipboard, they have access to that. So if you copy something from your email and paste it into your notes, they have access to that. Even though it is not even connected to the app. That's crazy!
If they have the ability to do it, someone, somewhere is going to do it.
This one right here is why I had to delete Tik Tok. You have to read this! The part about keystrokes really got to me! They have access to what you are keying into your phone and files not even associated with the app. That means when you key your passcode into your banking app, they have access to that. When you key in your phone password they have access to that. They even have access to devices that are not even associated with the app! I don’t access Tik Tok from my Mac, but according to this, they still have access to it!
For me, that's too much. I have to find another way to reach these kids.
I am not blaming anyone because I agreed to it originally too, because I didn't read the fine print. Yall, we gotta read the fine print!
This reminds me of a game I play with students when I visit schools. I’ll stand on the halfcourt line of the basketball court and say “I’ll start right here and shoot with one hand and if I make it, you owe me 10 pushups.” The students quickly agree and will repeat it, “So you’ll shoot from here and if you make it we have to do 10 push ups?” I reply “No, that wasn’t the deal, I said ‘I’ll START from here’.” The students will all go “Ohhhhhhhhh” and then watch as I start at the line, walk up to the basket, shoot one handed, and make it. It happens every time I do this and I always tell the students, “you have to listen to the fine print.”
So I'm not off of Tik Tok because I'm mad at someone or because I was bullied or anything like that. I'm off of Tik Tok because of their horrible privacy policies.
So that's it. I am done with Tik Tok.
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Thanks for watching! And remember, when you make better choices, you will live a better life. So choose well. Oh yeah!
