Influence... its a word used often in our vocabularies. Im sure if we stop to think about it, there has been one or more people who have come into our lives and drastically changed us as human beings simply by their influence in our lives. But what about negative influence? Or the media's role in our lives? How does the media influence us? We have become known as a "fast food" generation in the sense that we want everything fast and delievered to us.. how much of that concept is derived from the media? What about the way we choose to dress? The way we speak? Or even the music and movies we subject our eyes and ears to? As much as we would like to think that we have escaped the media's influence in our lives, it is all to apparent. Take the hip hop industry for example. In almost every song, women are denegrated and refered to as "hoes" and "bitches". Upon questioning, many women just brush it off saying, well they're not refering to me. Yet if you spin the situation around, and say instead of a rapper saying something it was George Bush, and he wasnt talking about women but about black people, describing them using the N word... would the same standard apply? Would people accept that we wasnt talking about ALL black people... I think not. In our society we have been conditioned to think that the way people think, speak, and act is acceptable. Do you think it is a considence that the percentage of teenage girls with eating disorders has risen 60% in the last 20 years? The idea that "thin is beautiful" is directly taken from the media and its influence. So that leaves the question, how do we shift the influence of the media from negative to positive? Can it be changed? And if it is changed, will society change? A few questions to ponder... Upon thinking of this topic my mind raced 20 years in the future... when i have children what will the chain of influence be? The truth is, our world cannot be exposed to anything we dont create. Why do we constantly as a human race insist on feeding off of negativity? Influence... its all about influence.Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Influence...
Influence... its a word used often in our vocabularies. Im sure if we stop to think about it, there has been one or more people who have come into our lives and drastically changed us as human beings simply by their influence in our lives. But what about negative influence? Or the media's role in our lives? How does the media influence us? We have become known as a "fast food" generation in the sense that we want everything fast and delievered to us.. how much of that concept is derived from the media? What about the way we choose to dress? The way we speak? Or even the music and movies we subject our eyes and ears to? As much as we would like to think that we have escaped the media's influence in our lives, it is all to apparent. Take the hip hop industry for example. In almost every song, women are denegrated and refered to as "hoes" and "bitches". Upon questioning, many women just brush it off saying, well they're not refering to me. Yet if you spin the situation around, and say instead of a rapper saying something it was George Bush, and he wasnt talking about women but about black people, describing them using the N word... would the same standard apply? Would people accept that we wasnt talking about ALL black people... I think not. In our society we have been conditioned to think that the way people think, speak, and act is acceptable. Do you think it is a considence that the percentage of teenage girls with eating disorders has risen 60% in the last 20 years? The idea that "thin is beautiful" is directly taken from the media and its influence. So that leaves the question, how do we shift the influence of the media from negative to positive? Can it be changed? And if it is changed, will society change? A few questions to ponder... Upon thinking of this topic my mind raced 20 years in the future... when i have children what will the chain of influence be? The truth is, our world cannot be exposed to anything we dont create. Why do we constantly as a human race insist on feeding off of negativity? Influence... its all about influence.
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It is all about influence, the "Chain of Influence". It is something I myself wrote about a couple of months ago on my blog. It is something that Pastor Troy has talked about. It is an epidemic that is posioning our culture, our world. Can it change? Yes! We can change it! How? With one person at a time, one child at a time. We need to concentrate on oour young people and teach them, show them what is right and they are the future. They are the future and the ones that can change our pop culture. 20 years ago, we didn't have to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle, or skate board, now you get a ticket. 20 years ago, you wouldn't see a model on TV wearing a bra, now you see women wearing so much less. Soaps on TV couples went behind closed doors, now thay show them under the sheets and there are not much of a sheet left. What do we do? We influence, teach, coach, mentor one person, one young person at a time.....
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