In a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, host Robert J. Marks spoke with Kent Marks, former Boy Scout guide who now works with Trail Life USA. In the wake of Boy Scouts’ precipitous decline over the last decade, Trail Life offers boys the chance to get outside and go on wilderness adventures. This is a huge opportunity to help young men get off the screens and into the beauty of creation. Speaking about the gravity of the problem, Robert said,

The impact of social media has just been terrible. Teenage suicides are up, depression rates are up. I think a third of all girls involved in social media have body image problems. And that’s terrible. These are the symptoms of digital addiction. And digital wellness corresponds to getting these people out of TikTok and Snapchat and other social media and maybe out in the woods and talk to people. Talk to people their own age, talk to fathers and mentors. Even if somebody doesn’t have a father, there’s going to be mentors. And the beautiful thing about Trail Life that I like is the background checks that you guys do, so you can feel safe sending your kids there, knowing that all of these policies are in line.

Trail Life is a great organization for families searching for ways to counter digital addiction and help boys become the men God created them to be.