Shiner man aims to raise awareness of social media dangers

A Shiner resident is spearheading a project to keep young children from being addicted to cell phones and to raise awareness of the dangers of social media. 
Donald Woods’ project is called Town Detox.
“Town Detox is the first of its kind solution to the phone addiction problem,” Woods said. 
Woods was inspired to take on this project when he worked for Chris Kaspar’s company, Techless. Techless is a small U.S.-based Texas company that has created a specific type of phone called Wisephone. 
A Wisephone is a pure and simple phone that enables people to call or text. It has a few basic tools; however, it has no social media access, no ads, and no access to anything addictive or distracting. 
While working at Techless, Woods started doing a lot of research on “the phone problem.”
“There are a lot of statistics on phones that are just terrifying,” Woods said. “(For example), 12 to 17 year-old teens are the largest group of Internet pornography viewers in America. 89% of child sexual advances start online and 30% of girls in 2019 reported to have at least one major depressive episode within the year. That was pre-Covid, so we know that number is only getting worse.”
“Three of my children attend Shiner Catholic School and I approached Principal Neely Yackel about doing an awareness campaign at the school and she was all in. We brought in Father Bryan Heyer, who challenged me to include not only the Catholic School, but everyone. 
We now have support from the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church, Police Chief Wayne Denson, the Shiner Rotary Club, the Shiner Lions Club, Shiner City Council, Shiner ISD School Board and the list grows every week. 
Everyone I have approached about this project has been supportive. I was planning with SISD Superintendent Alex Remschel, and he told me everyone he approached about it was very receptive.”
According to Woods, a survey was conducted at a youth event last year for incoming seventh to 12th graders and 60% of them said they wanted to do a social media detox.
“That blew me away,” Woods said. “That’s when I knew we were on to something. The kids know something is not right, but they don’t know how to stop. They also don’t want their parents to take away their new body attachment. I knew the solution had to be holistic, community-wide supported. 
It’s hard for individual families to have the ‘weird’ kid without a phone or smartphone. Town Detox is a way for all of us to support and protect the kids.”
Woods believes Techless is a great tool to help individual families protect their children, but they don’t solve all of the problems.
“They don’t solve the ‘but this is how I communicate with my friends’ problem, which is basically saying ‘everyone else is doing it,’” Woods said. “Shiner is better than that. We all need meaningful relationships and big tech is giving us fool’s gold.”
On Wednesday night, September 4 at the KC Hall, Woods is inviting students and parents to have a chance to strengthen the Shiner bubble. At this event, the students will have an opportunity to trade in their smart phones for a dumb phone like a Wisephone. 
“The goal is simultaneously incredibly ambitious and humble,” Woods said. “(We’re asking) that all kids and a strong group of adults adopt a dumb phone (or Wisephone) for four months and to save one child from Internet harm.”
Woods is also bringing in a 15-year Internet safety veteran and TEDx Speaker Jesse Winberger to talk to students at both schools from grades four to 12. 
“Jesse will survey the students about their Internet habits and will host a parent’s night where these details will be provided,” Woods said. “At the end of the challenge, we will survey the students again and measure the results.”
Woods believes this project will achieve national attention.
“’The Anxious Generation,’ a number one New York Times Best Seller book by Jonathan Haidt, essentially spells out Town Detox,” Woods said. 
“I learned about this later as the program was in development. There is national attention on this topic, increased by the new Surgeon General’s warning on social media. We expect major news networks like FOX to pick up a feel-good story of a beautiful and special place like Shiner, Texas protecting their kids.”
“Everyone reading this paper should be proud of our leaders’ initiatives in this digital detox. Shiner will become the national standard bearer for other proud communities who want to protect their children. What we do here effects more than can be humanly measured. May God bless Shiner!”
Visit www.towndetox.com for additional updates on this project. 
Those wanting to join this challenge or learn more about it can also do so at that website.