[00:00:00] Speaker A: To kick off the 2025 year of the Local Clique, we welcome Boyd and Jackie Pitts with Boyd's Garage. And also brother Jason Lohorn with Proving God's Will podcast and Salem Baptist Church. Justin is back with more tech tips and tech news roundup and lots of more information coming your way. Stay tuned, learn more about fun local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown in for good measure, the Local Clique starts now. Hello everyone. Welcome to the January edition of the Local Clique. The Local Clique is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology and local people. And back with me again this month, Mr. Justin Malden. Hello, Justin. Happy New Year to you.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Brr. It is cold outside.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: We get to experience everything here. So I'm saying it's cold now on the day of recording this and you know, when this podcast podcast releases in just a few days, it may be sunny in 70.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Maybe everybody maybe listen to this going, I don't know what he's, what he's talking about.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: It's actually really nice outside right now.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right, it's Tennessee. If you don't like the weather, just wait for tomorrow.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: And there's a lot of truth to that. So I think 2025 should be a very interesting year technology wise. There's a lot of AI things I'm sure still coming down the pipeline. We seem to talk about that quite a bit. But yeah, you also have, you know, Apple's always at the forefront of everything. Google as well. Is there anything kind of big picture wise you're thinking 2025 may look like.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: So actually the big thing that I'm looking forward to and we'll see this over the next couple of months hopefully because we're about to see something that I don't know has ever really happened is it's going to be GPUs, graphics processing units, which really, when you talk about AI, those are used quite a bit.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: In AI. But you're looking right now at, there's really three big manufact manufacturers, Nvidia and AMD. And intel is jumped into that game too over the past few years where they're looking at introducing new graphics cards. I'm just going to say graphics cards or GPUs. And so you may think, you know, oh, you're going to use those for video gaming or you know, maybe use it for video editing. No, the AI Front is going to be where I think they're going to take a big, big leap as these, these chips are not like you think of processors in a computer, they're not as specialized, they can't do as many tasks right. As your computer processor can. But the tasks that they can do, they're much more efficient and powerful at.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: And so as they're making these things more capable and more power efficient and as Elon Musk is in the baby stages beginning steps of building his supercomputer out in Memphis, probably one of these chips that's being announced, it's going to be right here in the state of Tennessee in a large quantity running what's going to be the world's fastest supercomputer at some point.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm really interested to kind of hear how all these companies are going to keep up with the power demands. And we talk about that, you know, a little bit about the power draw that these big data centers need to process all this information, that sort of thing. I think on the big scale, if on the national spotlight you're going to hear more politicians and more people that have influence talking more about all the power needs it's going to take to keep all this going.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's, it's very interesting. All the things are more energy efficient themselves, but the scale at which we use them at exactly is so large.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: More than offset any power.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: And you know, we've talked previously about, you know, Google entering into contracts and agreements with modular nuclear suppliers for energy in Europe, you know, and that's the thing, you know. Or is that the type of energy source that we're going to need because it's a more on demand, you can control it more really. Here we're all about hydroelectric. Hydroelectric does ebb and flow a little bit depending upon the water flow. It's not as consistent. So it's, it's interesting to think, you know, as you said, how are we going to get this power and how we're going to get it to the grid and to these facilities that need it? Because we're rural, we're royal cooperative, our electric demands are met by royal cooperatives.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: As well, for the most part. There's some municipalities that offer their own electric service, but they're still buying it from the tva. That's who. Even those rural cooperatives, that's who they're buying it from.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: And so, you know, we're, we're blessed in the fact, at least where we live, we don't worry about energy consumption. And sometimes, yeah, we get told, hey, you need to, you need to. We're talking about the cold weather. You need to let back on your a little bit. Yeah, turn, turn that thermostat down a couple degrees. You know, maybe think about, you know, washing larger loads of clothes. You know, that's, that's the things that we, you know, that we, we worry about not, hey, we've got blackouts for days.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: You know, you know, and so that's where it is now. But as these energy demands increase, it will be interesting. And it's not just the AI front. It's. Everybody has. And we'll talk about this a little bit later. Little small devices all in their homes consuming, consuming power. And that adds up constantly. Yeah, that, that adds to it. We've got more and more people who are buying electric vehicles or EVs and those things need to, to be charged. And they may be charging at your home, they may be charging at a charger somewhere, but that's additional power consumption. Ten years ago, that didn't exist. And so as we shift from gasoline fueled to now putting it on the electric grid and that demand goes up. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's gonna be very interesting.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: I just think it's going to drive really the entire future of technology and the amount of it that we're able to use in a way. So, speaking of vehicles, we're going to have some interesting guests on this month's episode as we do each and every month. Well, we'll have Ms. Jackie and Mr. Boyd Pitts with Boyd's Garage in Woodbury. They have been there a very long time. People from the Canon county area will definite know the name Boyd's Garage because they're kind of synonymous for automotive repair and maintenance here in the area. And they do a great job. So we'll be talking with them in just a moment. But we're going to start with our very first guest for this month's episode, and that's Brother Jason Lohorn. And he is with Salem Baptist Church and has his own podcast called Proving God's Will.
We are very lucky and blessed to have Brother Jason Lohorn with the Proving God's Will podcast and Salem Baptist Church. Hello, Brother Jason. How are you, sir?
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Hey, Nick. Good to be with you here at dtc. Thank you you for the invitation.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, we go back, we, of course, you used to be the pastor at a church that I attended years ago and we've worked on some different projects Together, you know, technology wise and broadcast wise and stuff like that. So we go back quite a ways on some of this stuff, don't we?
[00:07:04] Speaker C: I tell you what, maybe my first introduction, I built a website while I was your pastor. And then you and I put together a radio ministry that is still going today.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: I know it.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: And we put that together and it worked great.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm. I'm proud of some of those things that we started. Obviously, it must have been okay because they're still doing it, so. Absolutely. So tell us about all your ties to DeKalb County. I know you've. You've lived in other parts of the country through the years, you know, in your job as a pastor and that sort of thing, but you have some very strong roots to DeKalb county, so talk about that a little bit.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: You got it.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: Nikki and I both, my wife Nikki and I grew up in Smithville, but we have lived in and around Middle Tennessee, in Kentucky, and even in Ohio for a stint in ministry, but grew up in smithville. And so DeKalb county native and blessed to be able to come back home. A couple of times I've come back to DeKalb county to live and do ministry. And in 2019, God brought us back home once again.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah. As they say, there's no place like home.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: That's right. That's right.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: So you, although you're in ministry and have been for many, many years, you actually got your start, I guess, work wise, if you will, in the automotive industry. Talk about that and your history in that part of the world.
[00:08:14] Speaker C: Graduated High School in 1987 from DeKalb County High School and then went to Nashville and lived in Nashville for a couple of years. Went to school at Nashville Tech, had a part time job at Beeman Automotive Group. My family jokes and says that if I don't mention Beeman Automotive Group in a sermon, it's not a real sermon, so. But it played an important role in my. In my development as a leader in history. I was working part time at Beeman, going to school, and that developed into a career. And by the time I was about 23 or 24 years of age, I found myself being the assistant service manager in the service manager of a large automotive dealership. And so that's a young age for that much responsibility. Absolutely. And I'm not a mechanic and so, but I'm a people person, business oriented, that type of thing. And they just took me under their wing and they began developing me as a leader. And so I was in A leadership position really from the time I was 19 until I left Nashville. And so just great opportunity. If I dream at night, it's usually a dream about being and Pontiac. So it's not nightmares. It's always good. But did get my start there. And prior to that I wasn't a leader. But it was during those years that God, I think, began developing me and began to speak to me about something else he wanted me to do.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, he was. He was working on you even at that moment of your life.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Sounds like he was teaching me things that you can't learn in a book and things that perhaps a seminary can't teach you. And there was leadership lessons that he was teaching me and developing in me that today I still tap into those every single week.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So God is kind of helped you go full circle. Brought you back to Tennessee and not only that, back to DeKalb county and not only that, but in Liberty, Tennessee. And you're the pastor at Salem Baptist Church, which has a very, very long history in this area and been around a very long time. Tell us about the church and also tell us about how you guys use technology in the church as far as to help you run the day to day part of everything.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: Absolutely. Blessed to be the pastor of Salem Baptist Church. This church is a historic church in middle Tennessee. In fact, here recently I found that it is probably one of the first 100 churches period in the state. And we're talking about a church that really dates back. If you look at our church, there's two dates on the front of it. 1809, which is when our church began. So Thomas Jefferson had just come out of the White House after his second term. And our church is starting. Well, our church is starting. We've got Andrew Jackson and David Crockett. They're down in Alabama fighting Native American Indians. You know, just things like that were going on when our church started in 1800.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Perspective a little bit, doesn't it?
[00:10:53] Speaker C: It does. Our church has also had a number of buildings over the years. We've got some in our libraries as far as some. Some photos and some sketches and things like that. But on the front of our building you'll see a date of 1927. So the building that most people are familiar with, that are familiar with Liberty, they'll see 1927. That's when our sanctuary was built.
So our church has a lot of history. In fact, we've got about five families that are still connected back to the original charter members from 1809.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:20] Speaker C: And some of their ancestors are buried right there in the cemetery at Salem, which again is historic. And so we've got a great tide of history. But our church is a, is a forward thinking church really. Probably to call me as a pastor, they almost would have to be. I would say I'm an old school preacher to a certain point. But technology wise, I've always embraced technology, but Salem has too. So even before I got there, they had embraced the Facebook live and putting the message or the worship service onto the Internet. They had been doing that for a time. So, so prior to Covid happening in 2020, they we were already well versed in being online.
Our church uses a Mevo camera that's about five piece in that wirelessly connects to an iPad back at the sound booth. Also, when I first came in 2019, they had just purchased a sound system that was amazing, that has some great high tech features. But back there in our sound booth we have, we have two monitors, we have the iPad and a laptop. All of that's connecting this camera to, to our website, but then also to the Facebook live page that we have. And so we're able to, to stream and get out there and people can see what our church is about before they ever walk through the doors. And by today that is probably one of the best draws that we have for any small business or church. A word of mouth is, is still key. I mean you got to have good word of mouth.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:49] Speaker C: And our church has that. But, but I'm telling you is the technology. It is having a website, sbcliberty.com that is active. Over 16,000 people have visited that site in five years.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: We're in a town of less than 500 people.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: And so when I first came in 2019, I developed a website and built that and quickly pushed that out there. Also built the website for the Salem Baptist association, which is SalemAssociation.org so anyone looking for a church home in DeKalb, Cannon county, or even Coffee county could go onto that website and there's maps. I built that website as well so that people could find a church. So websites are important. Our church has embraced websites. We also embrace Facebook Live. We do all those things. And maybe a plug for websites, I would say for small businesses and churches. I know that they have Facebook pages and that has its place and it's important. But a website is a brochure that a newcomer gets to see and there's more than they can scroll at their own leisure, there's more they can see there than just a Facebook post. And so I always tell churches and small businesses they need a website as well. In fact, they need anything they can to get out there to where their customer base is or for a church for people that need a church home. But Salem, we use all of that and thankful to be part of a church that thinks like that. And so I didn't have to introduce those things to our church. Some of it I built the website, but for the most part they had some of those key things in place.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's a good thing that you had all of that in place before COVID hit because a lot of churches were scrambling trying to figure out how do we continue to have services when we couldn't meet in person and that sort of thing. The technology was kind of new and they're trying to kind of navigate all of that. But you guys were almost really kind of blessed are already be there before that happened.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah, we were ready to go forever. How many weeks that was me and Amanda Brown runs our sound booth. Zach Roberts, Noah Roberts run our technology. In terms of Facebook, a handful of people would come in and we would do that so that we could get a message out to people.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Right. So you have a very active media footprint for the church, but also just you as well, because I know you have your own podcast that you operate right there, you know, out of the parsonage. Right.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: It's actually out of my office and so in the, in the church in the basement. I've got my office there and to the left of my desk I've got a set up for podcasting. And so yeah, I've got a decent footprint out there. A digital footprint. It started off with. Probably started off with the YouTube channel. It's called Living in Liberty with Peewee. So I get a YouTube channel that I. That I developed and it's been going now for about two and a half, three years. I've had that active probably up to 75 or 80 episodes. And it's just a rural small town preacher. You know, people can ride shotgun with me and. And sometimes it's me camping or riding a four wheeler or doing things around the church and. But it's been interesting, it's been fun. And what I found with. With podcasting and the YouTube channel is I find that I've got ministry and hobbies are merging together.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker C: You know, I'm not good at hobbies. I'm just not. But, but if I can find a hobby that actually helps me with what I do for the Lord, then You know what, it's a win. Also, the podcast Proving God's Will, Proving God's Will started though as a website back in 2011. I was in Gordonsville and I had written a book called the Gideon in youn. And I come to my deacons and I said, hey, I've got this book that I've wrote and it's self published. So, you know, no one sought me out to write the book, but God had me write the book, I think. And so I said, hey, I've got this book and I need a way to push it out there, but I don't want to push it out there in the church website. I said, I'm going to develop another website that's probably going to have teaching and preaching resources over time. So it started off small and just kind of crawled and. But there's an avenue that people could link to like Amazon or Barnes and Noble and find the book, right? And so that has led to Proving God's Will as a podcast. The podcast that I've developed it, it will appeal to someone that just needs some, some biblical commentary maybe or some leadership tips. So it's not just ministry related. There's times it's leadership just abroad.
I'll talk about things that relate to the church often. Sometimes it's current events, you know, so it's a mixed bag of what I will bring. But again, it's coming from me. Most people know if they know me a little bit, they're going to know they're going to get something that may edify them or help build them up a little bit. But Proving God's Will as a podcast has been great. Anchor was the platform that I used. It was free and then they were bought out by Spotify. And so Spotify now Spotify is going through a change right now. It was Spotify for podcasters and now it's Spotify for creators. So but I'm grandfathered into their into that group. So I don't have a fee that I pay. And so I'm able to record these podcasts, upload those into that platform and they push it out to Apple and all the other different gotcha avenues for people to be able to hear that. Also on the website proving God's will.com I've got blogs, of course there's a link to the book. There's just different teaching and preaching resources. So if someone was trying to find, you know, whatever I'm trying to help people with, it's Proving God's Will dot com, all of it can be found there.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: So if they go to that website, everything can be kind of linked to that one place. They can consume all of that.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: You can go there and from there you can find the YouTube channel, you can find the church Facebook page from there. You can find video sermons from there from Salem Baptist Church. So all of that starts with proving God's will dot com. If they go there, they can find all kinds of things.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: And you're doing that from Liberty, Tennessee. You don't have to be in Nashville, you don't have to be in Murfreesboro, you don't have to be in a big town to reach the entire world. Right. With the way the media is right now.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: Exactly. And I didn't have to spend a lot of money. That's right. You know, I use a pod track Zoom Pod Track 4 is what I use to create the podcast. And so, so what is that?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Is that like a recorder or a mixer or.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: Yes, yes.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:04] Speaker C: So it's a small device. It's probably about. It's probably a little bit more than twice as big as a phone, but it's not huge. It'll fit in a backpack very easily. It's probably about 8 inches long, 4 or 5 inches wide. You can hook up or manage four microphones from that device and four sets of headphones. It also has a mixer and gain control. So you can control each microphone if you've got a. If you've got two or three guests and one is talking very loudly, and that's just their nature, maybe like me, you can back them off a little bit individually. There's also a channel there that if you wanted to have a call in, you wanted to call someone. So if I was recording my podcast and I want to call you and have you on a segment, I can.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Just call and have a remote guest, so to speak.
[00:19:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. You can be piped in and I can control your volume. And I'm telling you, when I do that, I've done it on a handful of occasions. You really can't tell if they're in the studio with me or not. It's that good.
Also too, with that podcast, track four, you also have a device or a control for presets. So the intro music that I found, listen, that is a YouTube copyright free music. It's out there for podcasters. So if you're looking at podcasting, you don't have to spend a ton of money up front. You don't.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: And you don't have any training in all this, do you?
[00:20:23] Speaker C: No.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Formal training. I mean, there's no. I'm going to wake up and automatically know how to do all this. You just kind of jumped in. You researched it and learned how to do it, right?
[00:20:32] Speaker C: Absolutely. Researched it. When Covid. When Covid hit. You know, as a pastor, I'm used to going out. I base out of my office, and I'm going here and there all the time. And so we couldn't go the places we normally do. So I began researching, you know, how can I learn to podcast? And so I'm a lifelong learner. If you're a leader, you're going to be a lifelong learner. So I'm like, how can I learn this? So I thought, while everything seems to be down, I'm going to add something to my ministry toolbox. And so adding podcasting was something. I had the time to do it. I learned how to do it, and I had a little bit of know how I guessed, but not much. I just learned as I went. Went along, and I'm still learning. I'm not perfect at this.
One of the. I think one of the greatest lessons or the thing about podcasting that we have to learn is that, you know, what message do we have? Or. Growing up in Smithville, we'd say it's a niche. But today the fancy way is to say niche. I don't know they come up with that word.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: It just sounds like it's more expensive when you say it that way.
[00:21:31] Speaker C: I grew up in Smith. It's a niche. So my niche is helping people with leadership, right? And helping people that want to know Jesus Christ better. I can help people do that. I can help people some on the technology side of things.
That's kind of my gift or people skills. I've got some of that. So those are my things. If someone's looking at creating a podcast, they simply need to ask themselves, you know, what is it that I bring to the table? Ask yourself, what is it that maybe other people ask me about? Am I a resource person for my co workers? Do they always ask me about these things? And if so, you might be someone that can help a lot of people in that area, right? And you may say, well, I don't know if I help anybody, but you probably do. You just got to ask yourself those questions. And I think that that's what I continually try to do and say, you know what? How. How am I helping people recently? What is God using me to do recently? And I'm like, you know what? Then maybe I can podcast and talk about those things and they'll help somebody.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: And really, I guess if somebody was, you know, maybe they've got the itch themselves to start a podcast and they're listening to you talk about like, hey, this is doable, right. But one of the biggest things you can learn, the technology, you can learn how to do it, how to publish it, the equipment and all that, but you've got to have, you've got to have the right content. Right. You've got to have something people want to consume, people want to tune in and hear about. And that's kind of what you're touching on. I think you talk about the niche, whatever.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And even after you've done it for a little while, you know, that's the hard part, is to find out what your audience wants to, to know about or what they want to hear. And, and there's times that you, you have an idea what that is. There's times they may not know what they want and you just have to show them something. There's an old quote of Henry Ford where he said that if he had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said, we want faster horses. But he gave them a car, he gave them an automobile. And they realized, oh, when they saw it, hey, this is what I need. So, so sometimes we're presenting things to people that they don't even know they need and it's going to help them. Sometimes they have a need and we're going to touch on that. And we know it too. But you mentioned earlier about around the world. This is one of the things about being a podcaster or being in this space, you can actually touch people around the world. I'm always amazed at some of the comments I get or the emails I get following up from a podcast or the YouTube channel, either one where people will comment and say, I'm, you know, I'm in Kentucky, I'm a friend of so and so that you pastored years ago. And next thing you know, God's using me to speak into their life. In fact, I've got a son in law in Cincinnati, Ohio that works for a golf course. He is a, an assistant superintendent. Austin does a great job. He helps manage like 27 holes at a golf course. Big place. And there's a lady that works in the, in the office or in the, in the pro shop and she was asking Austin something about life. She just had a question about something and he pointed her to my podcast.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: And next thing you know, she has consumed pretty much whatever I put out there. So, you know, if I put a podcast out there or something in living in Liberty with Pee Wee, as far as the YouTube channel, she'll. She'll go and listen to those things. Other online resources. And so, you know, I've never met this person. And so. And she lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I'm. I am helping feed sheep there. Amen. Yeah, but then there's comments you get from other states, I get listen to other places. It's amazing what you can do. And as a podcaster or a content creator, the limits are just listen. The Internet just takes the limits and makes them go away. And again, back to being thankful for the Internet, thankful also for WI Fi. And you know, even back at Salem, our. Everything we do there hinges on the fact we need fast Internet fiber. When fiber was offered to us through DTC Communications, we jumped on that because we needed to have the best or the fastest WI fi that we could have. Without it, we probably couldn't do any of those things that we're doing at all. And so we're thankful for that. And again, that also helps push it out to people around the world from Liberty. Amen.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: You know, you were talking about.
She not only consumed that most current, maybe podcast or message or video from YouTube, she went back and watched it. All right, so you're not republishing all that old content. You do it one time and it lives there in a library. If you can't, you know, if you will, and you can reach people over and over and over and over again for something you did years ago.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. And it just. I go back and look at the analytics every now and then, you know, I don't get too caught up on that, you know, that, you know, but I watch it. And they all. All of our podcasts and all of the YouTube episodes, all of it, they just slowly climb. They just slowly climb. And. And there's people that are listening to that or seeing that that I don't. I don't know who they are. But again, it's living on. I'll tell you something else I'm doing that my family doesn't quite know about. I've got a podcast that I'm creating that is not published publicly for anyone to see.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: It's.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: It's hidden and it's called When God's Invited. And so something I'm doing with that because I've got the technology and I've got the. A little bit of experience. I've been working on my story, mine and Nikki story. And so I'M doing something that will outlive us. I'm recording podcasts as I develop the story and go back in our time and look at what we've been through as a family. I'm recording episodes and I'm linking and pulling those into the. Into the web or into the podcast platform. And in doing so, here in the not too distant future, I'm going to make that go public again. No one's going to look for that other than my family, but it's going to give them a narrated account of their mom and dad's relationship and how God has brought us through all these years.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: So that's kind of autobiography podcast almost.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: It is, yeah. It's a secret. It's a little bit. I just let it out, but it's a little bit of a secret. I think I'm on, like, episode four or five.
The key to this, though, is just being natural. So if you're looking to create a podcast or even what you and I are doing here today, when you and I are used to being in this situation, being natural is what we have to be. Just be who we are.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Just be yourself, right?
[00:27:37] Speaker C: And something today, you know, I know we do some editing. There's times I do some editing, but today the current trend is less editing, too. It's like just being who you are, you know, mistakes and all, I guess. I don't know, but back when we started the radio ministry, way back in the day, when you and I developed that, when I sat down at my desk, I was recording five sessions that would be five minutes long each, and I would sit down, and early on, I had to wrestle that to the ground. And I just had say, okay, I just need to be me. I'm talking in a M into a microphone, recording this.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Don't overthink this.
[00:28:10] Speaker C: I just need to pretend and understand I'm talking to somebody out there that needs to hear what I'm saying, and I just relaxed and was able to do it. That's something people do have to get past. You know, just be yourself in the podcast and not try to, you know, watch your P's and Q so much. You know, how you enunciate things, all those things. I mean, you have to be real, right? You have to be real. And people that it is certainly anyone that knows me, if they hear me trying to be too perfect with my speech, they're gonna go, what's wrong with Brother Jason?
[00:28:38] Speaker A: What's he doing? That doesn't sound right.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: No, he's usually a little more Relaxed than that.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Well, you're doing amazing things and I'm really proud to see kind of where you've taken all this, you know, from the beginning of that radio ministry idea that kind of worked on together to now. You're worldwide.
[00:28:55] Speaker C: Absolutely worldwide.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: So if people want to learn more. I know you kind of mentioned your website, but give that website again or any places that people can find out more about your podcast or the, the church streaming and all that sort of thing.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: Couple places, couple of websites. I'll point people to sbcliberty.com and that SBC is like for Salem Baptist Church. So SB liberty.com and then proving God's will.com on proving God's will.com you can find anything and everything that I'm pushing out there. The podcast, the YouTube channel. And by the way, the YouTube channel is living in Liberty with Peewee. My nickname growing up was Peewee. And so some. Okay, everybody that knows me will know that, but people that don't, they're like, why do you. Why are they calling you Peewee? So that's kind of an indictment on me. But, but proving God's will.com is probably the easiest way to find all that other content that I send out there. Teaching and preaching resources.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, keep up the good work and I'm subscribed and I'll keep checking it out. So you're doing a great job.
[00:29:46] Speaker C: Thanks for the invitation, Nick. I appreciate what you guys do for us at dtc.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you everybody. Stay tuned. We've got more of the show coming up in just a moment.
[00:29:56] Speaker D: Great communities attract talented people to live, work and raise their families.
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Great schools help knowledge hungry students learn, think creatively and follow their passions. We've built the network that helps their dreams take off.
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We keep those farmers connected to the technology that ensures their crops can thrive.
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[00:31:40] Speaker A: Gaming builds real skills for real careers in esports and beyond.
Project manager, Content creator, Customer service rep, Software developer.
Build your skills with Fiber Gaming Network and DTC. Learn more at fibergamingnetwork.com it's that time of the show where we always like to relinquish the microphone for just a moment and let Justin take over for part of the show that we affectionately call Justin's Tech Tips. Justin, take it away.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: As it is the new year and everybody's got New Year's resolutions set. And I hope that as of right now, with it being so early in the year, that everybody is sticking to those resolutions.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Oh yeah, no doubt.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: You know, there's different aspects of our lives. You know, a lot of people want to do self improvement, some various things, but what I want to do is talk about some New Year's resolutions related to technology. There's three things. If you can just do one of these, that'll help you throughout the year and then maybe next year you can implement another one of them. But number one is just going to be everybody just needs to focus on turning those notifications down a little bit. And it's a simple thing. You know, we, we've talked about decluttering before, but sometimes, you know, if you've got 95 notifications from 17 different apps that are on your phone and you're not paying attention to them anymore because those notifications have become useless to you, right? If they're so prevalent, they don't mean anything, maybe you need to consider going into your settings and turning those down just a little bit, right? So most of the time, what's important to you? Okay, obviously if I get a phone call, I want to know that, right? If I'm getting a message from certain people, I will say I don't care about the spam messages or people who may not be in my contacts necessarily, but family and friends, loved ones, I definitely want to know when they're trying to get a hold of me. But you can modify your settings to where those things that aren't as important or may be distracting to you, making you less productive, adjust it a little bit so that those notifications that you are getting do matter and do mean something. The next thing is clean your devices. And this goes for cleaning your actual physical device inside and out. So we think of how often we do pick those devices up, how often we touch it, we're touching other Things, they. They can get some dirt and grime and germs on them. So clean them. All right? Clean them. We wash our hands often. We need to be cleaning our devices, too, that we're touching a lot. And then even. Even the inside. This kind of goes with turning notifications down, but get rid of old files and things and clean up, Clean up storage. You know, you've got your desktop that's got 100 different files saved on it. As somebody that's very near and dear.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: To me, what a cluttered desktop full of icons that you can't even see, what pictures on the background. I don't know who that would be.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: You know, I know.
Operating over here behind the camera right now, the individual who's watching that, our lovely marketing manager, she's thinking, there's no way your desktop's cluttered because I see how your office looks.
That's probably what she's thinking. But the digital appearance is better than the physical appearance. I am more organized than it appears, but just get a little bit more organized. And then lastly, just always a friendly reminder, Keep your stuff updated. Keep your devices updated. You know, recently, you know, with an update actually caused an issue with my device. So I was having an issue where my notifications were about 8 to 10 seconds delayed. And so it was kind of funny. We're talking about turning down notifications, but I would have my device and I'd look and I'd read a message, and then my device would give me the notification for the message after I had set my phone down and it was delayed. And it was just a bug in the software because those do happen.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Right?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: But an update in the software fixed that for me. So now I'm not seeing. I'm not seeing that delay. But what I was thinking was happening, and it became frustrating to the point that I had turned off a lot of notifications because they were useless because I was getting notified as soon as I set my device down. Oh, and I'm picking it right back up. And I'm like, no, I just saw this. I don't need this again.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Which made your screen time usage really go.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And so sometimes you have bugs and things that your device fix. Of course, it's security vulnerabilities. We always want to stay up to date. You don't. You don't want to be the person who hasn't updated your device and something from two years ago manages to cause you to. To get hacked.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: I know we usually use the term hacked, but you could legitimately be Hacked or have a compromised device if you're not. If you're not updating. And that. That's not just a smartphone, any. Any computer or anything, any sort of device that can be updated through firmware. We have so many IoT Internet of things devices that may be attached to your network. If you've got cameras or smart devices or anything of that nature, make sure that you're just double checking that, you.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Know, a lot of people do online banking or they have, you know, family photographs, different things like that that you want to secure. You know, you really need to stay on top of. Of your software updates and security updates. It's not always added features you're. You're trying to get when you do an update is just making sure that you've patched any kind of security holes that could be out there in your device or your software.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I had a buddy of mine not too long ago who had. His system got compromised, and unfortunately, he did not have a backup system in place, so he did not have anything saved anywhere else. And he. He lost everything on his. His device. And it was. It was not due to a hardware failure, which can happen, which is why you should back up, but it was due to something. Got into a system, managed to take a system over, and he got infected with malware, and he, you know, lost it all. So I hope everybody is successful with whatever you choose to do. I hope that you can. You can stick to it and, you know, not give up in January or February by the end of the year, you know, be successful in this and anything else that you want to do in life.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: That's right. We are very welcome to have very special guests with us. From Boyd's garage, we have Miss Jackie and Mr. Boyd himself from Boyd's Garage. How are y'all doing today? Doing good.
[00:38:12] Speaker E: We're doing great.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: We thank you so much for coming over here and being with us and. And you guys have been there for a long time. I know. We were talking off camera just for a minute. Talk about when you got started there.
[00:38:23] Speaker E: We got started. I started. I was 14 years old.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:38:27] Speaker E: And started doing mechanic work. My stepfather started the business, and it stayed in his name for several years. Then like I said, we haven't been to business 40 for 50 years.
[00:38:39] Speaker A: That's a long time.
[00:38:40] Speaker E: Worked there all my life. I was raised here in the county.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:44] Speaker E: My wife was raised here in the county.
[00:38:46] Speaker F: My family was the Smithson family. My mom's side, they had the Piggly Wiggly. My mother's Side of the family grew up in the grocery business.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:38:53] Speaker F: So I worked with that starting out. And then of course, my dad was a Rogers. They're from the Readerville area. I've been from county my whole life.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: So deep roots here.
[00:39:02] Speaker C: Yes, right.
[00:39:03] Speaker F: Yes, right. We were. We actually. We graduated together.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:06] Speaker F: Boyd and I had been to school from kindergarten all the way up.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Oh, that's neat.
[00:39:10] Speaker F: And started dating at the end of our senior year and dated four years and married. And here we are.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: So being around automotive things and cars and things like that from such a young age, it sounds like you were destined to do this.
[00:39:22] Speaker E: Evidently I was.
My real father knew nothing about mechanics. My stepfather did. And I was his hands. He taught me for 10 years how to work on cars.
[00:39:35] Speaker F: Got his ASC certifications.
[00:39:37] Speaker E: Certifications, right. I got all of them.
And I just. I did love it. Yes. I bought a bunch of tools. I go to school, come home to school and go to work. And I didn't ride around much in town. I worked.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: How hard is is it to get certified like that in the ASE certification? Is that a lot of work?
[00:39:58] Speaker E: No, you just gotta keep it up. We have every four years I have to retake test on it to keep recertified. And I'm currently recertified on all of it.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker F: You got to have 3 years experience working somewhere before you can even take the test.
[00:40:09] Speaker E: I may be the oldest person around, Scotty.
[00:40:13] Speaker F: Maybe for different county.
[00:40:14] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: That's experience talking. That's what that is.
[00:40:17] Speaker E: We've been very blessed. We got wonderful, wonderful people that works for me. We got four technicians.
They're all top notch. I got wonderful customers. And we try to keep the door open.
As long as you can talk to people, you can fix anything.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:40:34] Speaker E: We mess up. We do. We're big people and we say we can fix it. 98 of the time. We fix the problem.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: You're probably not just fixing their problem. You probably fix their parents problem. You've got generations involved.
[00:40:47] Speaker F: We really do.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:48] Speaker E: We got over 3,000 customers.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: You know, Whitbury's not that big of a city, so.
[00:40:52] Speaker F: That's.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:40:53] Speaker F: Yeah, we're very blessed. Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Well, what are some of the different kind of services that you offer there?
[00:40:58] Speaker E: We do offer electronic work on computers and stuff. We got the latest diagnostic equipment out there. The latest air conditioned machines. Two different kinds of them. We got them. We do alignments. We'd sell tars. We do balancing tires. We do suspension work. Brakes. We probably do 40 50% diesel work.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:41:22] Speaker E: Yeah, we do a lot of diesels.
We're just very, very blessed to have good employees that, that knows. All of my employees been there a.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Long time, you know, that's such a specialty that a lot of times that the diesel work is really hard to come by. Somebody that really knows their stuff that can, can fix those kind of problems. They're complicated.
[00:41:39] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Getting worse. Yeah. You got deaf fluid and everything else to worry about now. That's right.
[00:41:45] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And then alignments is another thing. I think that a lot of people might be surprised to know that because not many people locally do.
[00:41:52] Speaker E: That alignment does not make your car not shake. Keep your car in line. You don't wire your tires out, then it don't shake. And the tires last a lot longer.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:06] Speaker E: Most people wait just too late. I want my car lined up.
You can light it up, but you still have the shake because you don't run your tires.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So the time to do an alignment is every time.
[00:42:17] Speaker E: Put tires on. And you should do at least once a year.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: Tires are a big investment these days.
[00:42:23] Speaker E: Big. And keep them rotated. Regardless where you buy them at, keep them rotate.
[00:42:27] Speaker F: That's one thing. When we sell a set of tires, we recommend an alignment.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:31] Speaker F: Because you want to know, and the tire manufacturer too, if there is a warranty on it, they're going to want to see that you lined it up right at the time you have the tires put on. And that's one thing. Our alignment guys, he's what, 40 year veteran and doing alignments?
[00:42:45] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:42:46] Speaker F: He checks the front end to make sure everything is good and tight. Because if it's not, doing alignment is not going to do any good. It's not going to hold.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: And there could be safety issues there too.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:56] Speaker F: So that's one thing he does. He checks the suspension first to make sure all of it's good.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:01] Speaker F: And then he'll do. Because we have people come in for an alignment and we have to say, come here, you know, this ball joints ready to fall out. Or we got to get this fixed first.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: This is not something you can pushed to the side for a month or two. This needs to be fixed right away.
[00:43:14] Speaker F: That's one thing. If our technicians see anything that is a safety for anything, they'll tell them while they're there, hey, this is not safe.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: That's a blessing. Because you know us as drivers of these automobiles, we don't know. A lot of times we take for granted that everything's fine. I didn't Notice it.
[00:43:29] Speaker F: You can't get up under there and see.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Right? That's true. A lot of times you need something on a lift to even have visual access, to even inspect it, right? Yes. If you're like me, even if you had access to it or were inspected, you wouldn't know what you were looking at.
[00:43:41] Speaker E: And one of one other thing we do, we think a little different. We don't do oil changes. We do complete services.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:48] Speaker E: We change the oil, but we check lights, we check brakes, we check tires, we check air pressure. There's about 40 different things we check on every service we do.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: What are some tips as far as how often you should think about oil changes and do you have any recommendations as far as types of oil or, or things like that?
[00:44:09] Speaker E: That's one of the biggest problems nowadays. People has got a mindset of running 10,000 mile. I'm not saying that's wrong, but your vehicle will not last down the road farther. They need to get a mindset every.
[00:44:27] Speaker F: 5,000 mile for the synthetic.
[00:44:30] Speaker E: For synthetic oil.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:44:31] Speaker E: And that's what 90% of it is nowadays, putting oil changes off. They think they're saving money. But in 50,000 miles it's going to cost you a bunch of money. That's what causes nowadays the cars run so much all related parts.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:47] Speaker E: It creates so many problems.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: You got a lot of more turbo motors and that sort of thing.
[00:44:52] Speaker E: Yeah, correct. Yes, sir.
[00:44:53] Speaker F: Yeah, you can catch things. The sooner you change it like every 5,000, like say with us we're looking at other things besides just changing the oil.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
[00:45:02] Speaker F: So you can catch stuff now then where if you wait, you may have a whole laundry list.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: And not only that, but you know, you can never change your oil too often, but you can definitely wait too long to change it.
[00:45:14] Speaker E: Yes, correct. And far as the brand of oil, I think it's all good. Just bigger things, keep it changed.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:20] Speaker E: I would not run one brand down over the other brand. Just keep it change.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: It's more about the frequency of the oil change rather than the brand of the oil. How often would you recommend as far as rotating your tires?
[00:45:31] Speaker E: We rotate over 5,000 mile.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:33] Speaker E: Every time we change oil, we rotate. If we sell you a set of tires, we do not charge a dime to rotate them.
[00:45:40] Speaker F: Oh, for free.
[00:45:41] Speaker E: Yeah. That's just a service we offer and we keep up with them.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: That's very nice.
[00:45:47] Speaker E: If you got a problem, we'll catch it before you run your tar.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Now do you typically have to rebalance tires when you Rotate. Or is it not normally necessary?
[00:45:55] Speaker E: Not normally necessary unless you've got a problem to slung a weight off or something like that. And at 5,000 miles you won't tell me it's bouncing, it's shaking. So I have time to look at it.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Yeah. How important is it to find out what's causing the dreaded check engine light early? Do you want to take that for granted that it'll be fine? I'll check it in a few months. Or do you probably need to go ahead and maybe get that scanned and see what's going on?
[00:46:21] Speaker E: My philosophy is yellow's caution.
Greens go, red stop. Okay. When it's yellow, it means to have it checked pretty soon. Not sometimes engine light is very.
I'm talking about in all back to the oil situation.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:42] Speaker E: It could be very dangerous. Sometimes it's evap problem which is not dangerous at all.
It does need to be checked.
It does need to be fixed because the computer wants to see the whole circuit running around and around when the lights on. The computer is not making a complete circuit.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: It's not happy about something. Something's out of space, something correct somewhere. Yeah, I've noticed too. It seems like a lot of times after fixing those kinds of problems, seems like your miles per gallon gets better, improves a lot of times.
[00:47:16] Speaker E: The biggest thing people need to understand on check engine lights. So many people have one light fixed. Well, two weeks later it comes on again.
Most cars got over 1500 codes in them, so it could. It's always the same thing. A lot of times it could be, but it could not be too. It could be something else. Setting that light on.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Yeah. You may have multiple correct notifications and you just can't tell what. That's a good point. I never thought about that.
[00:47:49] Speaker E: Yes. Everybody, when it comes back on, it's done the same thing it was. Well, it could be, but it could also have a whole totally different problem.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: How important is it as far as using the Internet for your business to do what you do? I'm sure for research and things like that, it's invaluable, Right?
[00:48:04] Speaker F: Yeah. He remembers the days of the books catalog, you know, parts catalogs and looking up how to fix stuff in manuals. But now our guys use it every day.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Every day.
[00:48:14] Speaker F: Yes. We would be hurting without it.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:16] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: And it changes so quick information changes. So now you can stay up with it a lot.
[00:48:20] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:48:21] Speaker E: We order our own parts, credit card.
[00:48:23] Speaker F: Process running and yeah, you're paying.
The software we use to run the shop retains all the customers History. You know, somebody will call up and say, I think I had my starter just replaced six months ago. And you'll look back, well, it's been a year and a half ago.
[00:48:38] Speaker A: It just feels like.
[00:48:39] Speaker F: Well, you just can't remember. Remember all that. But it's wonderful to be able to access all that.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:48:44] Speaker F: And keep all that. And that's one thing we do, is keep the history of everybody's vehicle. And like I say, some people will sell their vehicle and when maybe when other one of our other customers purchase it, we can just. We can just transfer all that history too.
[00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:58] Speaker F: But yeah, the text, look it up. You know, their service tech bulletins on stuff and they.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: They just check it saves a lot of time.
[00:49:05] Speaker E: And we're on Carfax.
[00:49:06] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:49:07] Speaker E: Everything runs through our shop builds carfax.
[00:49:11] Speaker F: If we do your vehicle, you can actually download the Carfax app and choose us as the garage. And you can actually access your history.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: What's your favorite part about running a business in Woodbury in a small town you're so connected with and you know, everybody in. What's that like?
[00:49:29] Speaker E: It's the people we get to meet, every relationship we build, and if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be there.
[00:49:37] Speaker F: It's like family.
[00:49:37] Speaker E: It is.
[00:49:38] Speaker A: It's more than just a job when you enjoy being around it.
[00:49:42] Speaker F: You see people not only in the shop, you see them out in the community and. Yeah, it's a good feeling.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, you guys are very well respected because I've talked to a few people and bring up your name, Boys Garage and go. Yeah, they're good people. And I've also had people, they really know their stuff.
[00:49:59] Speaker C: I have had.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Had that happen.
[00:50:00] Speaker F: So I appreciate that.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Well, if people want to learn more about Boyd's Garage or make an appointment, you know, quit putting off that check engine light, that sort of thing, what's the best way to get in touch with you phone?
[00:50:12] Speaker F: For sure. We do have a website you can go to and schedule an appointment.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:50:17] Speaker F: You can. I'll take. Can't schedule. You can request an appointment.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:50:20] Speaker F: And it will email us and I'll check it and then I'll get back with you whether you want by email.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Or determine a good time. Yeah, that's open. Yeah.
[00:50:28] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: So do you have a website or they can call.
[00:50:30] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Or are you on Facebook as well?
[00:50:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:50:35] Speaker F: Yep.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: All right. Well, Boyd, Jackie, we appreciate you being here today. Good luck on everything that you're doing and in another 50 years, we'll meet again and we'll discuss this. How's that?
[00:50:45] Speaker E: Thank you very much.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: Go ahead and make an appointment for this.
[00:50:47] Speaker F: Right. Sounds good.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: All right. All right. Appreciate it so much.
[00:50:51] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:50:51] Speaker E: Thank you, everyone.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: Stay tuned. We got more of the show coming up up in just a moment.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Do you know what room the router's in? I can't get onto my Zoom meeting. Try it in our spacious new family room.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Okay.
Still not working.
[00:51:07] Speaker E: Try it in our beautiful backyard.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Still nothing.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: Your new home checked everything off your list except for Internet from DTC.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Oh, come on.
[00:51:20] Speaker C: Sign
[email protected] for fast and reliable Internet.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: I'm going to hand it back to Mr. Justin for his part of the program we call Tech News Roundup.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: Justin, not in this part of the world, but over on the Southern hemisphere, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. There has been a big uproar lately in the country of Australia.
They recently passed a new bill that bans the use of social media for anyone 16 years or younger in the country.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: So I don't have children who have social media yet. I don't have a teenager or anything like that. But I would imagine that there's probably a lot of teenagers in Australia that are not happy.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: I can imagine.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: Now there's probably even some parents who probably aren't happy that they're being told, you know, what to do and not to do with their children. But I think that it's. It's a delicate conversation to have about social media usage. There are pros, but there are several negatives to it as well. It's interesting here, the Prime Minister for Australia specifically, when asked about this, cited the risk to physical and mental health for children from excessive social media use. I think, you know, it's one of those things. Social media is fine, definitely in moderation, but, you know, there's various avenues, I think, of things that we talk about that can be addicting to people and oftentimes that comes in the forms of physical substances. But I don't know if we talk about the mental aspect of it.
[00:53:00] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: As much. And I think there's some science that readily shows that there's dopamine addiction. We see social media now so much short form video. Oh, here's 15 seconds. Oh, that's awesome. Swap up, dopamine hit. Swap up, dopamine hit. Swap up, dopamine, hit. And people wonder, well, how did I just spend two hours on my phone when all I did was watch videos that were 15 to 30 seconds.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: How often have you been on your, your iPad or your phone or your computer and you start to look at one specific thing on the Internet, right. And you blink and it's two hours later, where did the time go? You ever do that? I do.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Well, and that's what these social media sites want.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: They want you to stay the whole point. Right, yeah, they, you know, they, the more eyeballs they have, the more revenue that they can generate. More advertisements you just saw.
[00:53:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: And so that's what they want. So they're doing it on, on purpose and you know, with younger people who don't have, you know, the same mental facilities and their, their brains physically just have not matured the way that an adult brain has. It's still developing, it's still going through different stages and things. And so, you know, I think that there's, you can look at it, but then also at the same point, you know, we, we live in what we call the land of the free and we want to be able to make our own choices and decisions. So it's very interesting to see, of course here in the United States we do have protection. If you're 13 or under, there's some pretty heavy restrictions on Internet usage already. Technically, if you're under 13 without a parent's consent, you shouldn't be using social media anyway.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: And I'm sure that's always the case.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say there's a lack of enforcement on that and there's really no clause to that. No, that's, that's what people are even asking about in Australia. There are, you know, what's, how are they really going to enforce this? Because there is the ability. Now this is a staged rollout, it's not overnight thing and it all has to be banned. But they could face fines, these companies, of up to 30 million, 32 million US dollar and that's in US dollars. So in Australian dollars that would be 40 or 50 million.
[00:55:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:04] Speaker B: But 32 million US dollars for violations of this. Now again, how are they going to enforce it? How are they going to prove it? But they do have to take steps and measures, reasonable steps to show that they are trying to curtail the usage.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: That's a pretty serious teeth to this law that they're setting up. Yeah, they mean business on this.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: And so that, you know, that, that's interesting. We, we've seen here in the US recently some bills passed to enforce age restrictions on certain content, on more mature content and in certain states. And so, so nothing specifically that I, that I know of for teenagers.
But, you know, so it's not unusual to see something like that. But again, it's really, how do you, how do you enforce it?
[00:55:50] Speaker A: How do you enforce it?
[00:55:51] Speaker B: And then the only other thing that we're going to talk about on this month's episode is the Federal Trade Commission is continuing their steamroll train of antitrust investigations against big tech, as people will call it. So a new investigation has been opened up against Microsoft by the FTC commissioner who's opened up an investigation specifically looking at their licensing agreement really within their cloud computing software. And it's interesting to see this because right now there's already another antitrust allegation against Microsoft. There is an antitrust investigation against Alphabet. Where they're looking right now currently is trying to force them to sell off Google is what it looks like they're going to try to sell, which is the biggest piece of Alphabet's business because the company was Google first.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: And then as it expanded, they became Alphabet as the parent company and Google is now a subsidy of, of Alphabet. And so that's a pretty huge thing because we think of search engines and we, I don't. Nobody ever says, did you, did you go search that on the Internet?
[00:57:03] Speaker A: No. Did they say, did you go Google that?
[00:57:05] Speaker B: Did you go, did you Google that? So, know, it's very, you know, it's a very large thing, but, you know, Alphabet's going after that. Amazon's got an antitrust against them.
Apple has an antitrust investigation against them. Meta, who is parent company at Facebook, has an antitrust investigation against them. So right now there's a lot of inquiries and every, everybody knows those companies. And, and when you're looking at the antitrust aspect, it is, are they so big that they are a monopoly that they're controlling it, that there's not a competitive environment and that it is causing, you know, an undue burden on commerce, you know, and it's giving them an unfair advantage. And so it's harming consumers. Right. That's, that's at the end of it. It's. Is it harming the people?
[00:57:50] Speaker A: That's the, harming the consumer.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: The United States questions. Now, these are just inquiries. We don't know what, what the result of any of them will be. But it's interesting, and I said the term big tech on purpose because I think that's how most people relate to it. They, those companies are responsible, literally those five companies are responsible for about 80% of Internet traffic.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: You know, on the web and so you've got five companies that make up 80% of what the world does or is associated with it or touches it in some form.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: Good point, though. And it shows you how successful they are, too.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, very successful, which is why they have. They have eyeballs on them. So again, you're that big, you're probably gonna. Somebody's probably gonna look at you.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Somebody's gonna want to know what you're doing. All right, well, thank you, Justin. I appreciate it. I think now is the time we like to keep everyone informed about all the things going on in DTC world in a part of the show we call what's up dtc. One thing that is continuing in DTC land, so to speak, for the month of January is high school basketball coverage. It is definitely still going on and it's getting closer to tournament time, and that's of things. So on DTC3TV, if you follow that, you can get to the part of our website where we'll let you know all of the schedule of the games that we'll be recording for later broadcast on DTC3. So we hope that you will keep in touch with us on our sports schedule. And I think that's going to do it for the January episode. Justin, thanks so much for everything. You did a great job. Thanks for keeping us informed and we look forward to hearing what you have to tell us next month.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Remember, though, I do want to tell everybody it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. So make sure you bring a smile to everybody's face.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: Oh, look at you cheering us all up. It's a great way to look at 2025 for the year as a whole. We also want to thank you for being with us this month and we will see you all next month. Learn more about the show by visiting us
[email protected] Also, be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast or video platform so you won't miss our next episode of the local Click. See you next.
