When I was growing up, and walking the mile to grammar school (yes, that really happened, every day for years), my cousin and I would get there early so we could stop at the little candy “store” run by a neighbor out of her porch.

We would stock up on penny candies, like fireballs and licorice, and I’m not sure why, edible vampire teeth, sometimes attached to edible lips. I don’t remember the flavor, but I remember they were waxy, and for the life of me I don’t know why we wasted our precious pennies on them when we could have had chocolate.

Maybe it was the lure of the vampire!

For vampires at that time, we had Nosferatu (really old), Dracula (eternally vintage), and on T.V., Dark Shadows – my mother’s favorite. Since then, it seems fascination for vampires has rocketed and even some of my adult, married children would binge watch TV shows like True Blood or Vampire Diaries.

Wikipedia lists 100 vampire TV series as far back as 1978 to today, and that doesn’t include animated and web series.

Many of the newer vampire shows, now available on streaming services, are focused on teens, like the Legacy series and First Kill.

Personally, I don’t understand the fascination, and I don’t think it’s just because I am also eternally vintage. But that’s the beauty of human beings – we are all unique.

Still, I wonder if today’s teens, many of whom are really into the vampire craze, realize they already have something in their lives that sucks the life blood out of them daily.

Maybe you guessed it – cell phones, and for others, computers or tablets, where youth spend hours on social media or gaming. Cell phone obsession is not just an obsession for talking to friends, it’s an obsession with feeling a part of something, waiting for the likes on a text, a mention on social media, a confirmation that you are valued, attractive, funny.

And if you don’t get those likes, that affirmation, you often feel discouraged and left out. It ruins your day and your mood. It is also a source for bullying, criticism and critique, all of which can dimmish your, our, self-image and do irreparable damage.

It sucks the life out of you, and it worries me, and it worries parents, and it worries anyone who sees the beauty and potential in every young person, that is before it is sucked into the vacuum of social media.

One of the most disturbing images for me is not the TV vampire, but a load of kids, with their mom, getting out of their car in the supermarket parking lot. Four kids and an adult.

All of them were looking at their cell phones when they got out of the car, and never lifted their heads up once from the screens as they walked, perilously, across the parking lot into the store. One young boy walked into the backend of a parked car, and barely looked up from the screen.

They were oblivious to the world around them. They ignored their family members. They were lost in social media. Land of the Lost.

Life is too short to live it inside a cell phone. It’s a false world which gives you false messages about who you are, before you’ve even discovered who you really are.

Garlic may be used to ward off vampires, but the only thing that is going to protect you from the damage of being tethered to your cell phones is you.

You are graced with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, but sometimes even the those who have lived many years lose sight of that. Do not be ashamed to ask for help. Do not be ashamed to pray, so you may remember who you are – a child of God.

Have faith in yourself. I do.

Photo by Loren Cutler on Unsplash

Copyright © 2022 Mary Clifford Morrell. All rights reserved.