Monthly Archives: September 2022

The Truth about Youth

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Emma Kenney

How many times have you as a teenager been told you are incapable of doing anything worthwhile simply because you are young? How often have you been looked down upon and told you will never be able to change the world for the better? Far too often in today’s society young people are discredited, and far too often today’s young people lower themselves to fit that image of them, choosing to give up or slack off because that’s what adults expect them to do. However, the youth of today, especially those that call themselves Christians, should set higher standards for themselves than those expected.

The Bible makes it clear you are never too young to be used by God in one way or another. 1 Timothy 4:12 states, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” This verse makes it clear young people are called to hold themselves to the standards God has set, to the point people older than them can look at them and see God through them. This means being more than what has become expected of youth today. It means being young people capable of changing the world.

Youth changing the world and impacting it for the better isn’t a new thing. There are plenty of youth who have fought to change the world and just as many who have changed it unintentional just by staying true to their good morals, both today and in years past.

A perfect example of this is Anne Frank. Anne Frank was a Jew born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She died in the March of 1945 during World War II at the age of 15 after her family was caught by Nazis. Most people have heard the story of this girl, told in her own words through the diary she kept while her family was in hiding. Anne Frank didn’t do anything that could be considered especially spectacular, other than hold a positive attitude even when her world was falling apart all around her. Her family went into hiding when she was 13 to avoid the persecution they were facing in Germany for being Jewish. Anne had to leave behind everything she knew — her friends, her home, and even most of her possessions — to move into an empty hidden room within the building of her father’s company. During the following two years, her family stayed confined to that room, growing accustomed to staying in the dark and having to be quiet out of fear of being discovered by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. Anne was a typical teenage girl; she had periods of hopelessness, but more times than not she kept her positive attitude through everything the world threw at her. Ultimately her family was caught, and everyone except for her father perished within concentration camps. Her father eventually found and published her journal, which is still highly loved today. Anne’s personality can best be shown through her own words:

It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart…. I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!

The girl wrote she wished to “keep on living even after her death,” and she successfully managed to do that through her diary, which will most likely be read by youth and adults for generations to come because of her inspiring and uplifting hope and unending joy.

Anne isn’t the only example of a young person who has impacted the world. In more recent times the world has been impacted by a boy by the name of Jack Andraka. He won a $75,000 prize in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his pancreatic cancer detecting tool in 2012 as a freshman in high school.  Andraka partnered with John Hopkins University to complete his life saving invention. Abigail Tucker, a writer for the Smithsonian Magazine, states the following:

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers, with a five-year survival rate of 6 percent. Some 40,000 people die of it each year. The diagnosis can be devastating because it is often delivered late, after the cancer has spread. Unlike the breast or colon, the pancreas is nestled deep in the body cavity and difficult to image, and there is no telltale early symptom or lump. “By the time you bring this to a physician, it’s too late,” says Anirban Maitra, a Johns Hopkins pathologist and pancreatic cancer researcher who is Andraka’s mentor. “The drugs we have aren’t good for this disease.” But as the cancer takes hold, the body does issue an unmistakable distress signal: an overabundance of a protein called mesothelin. The problem is that scientists haven’t yet developed a surefire way to look for this red flag in the course of a standard physical. “The first point of entry would have to be a cheap blood test done with a simple prick,” Maitra says. That’s exactly what Andraka may have invented: A small dipstick probe that uses just a sixth of a drop of blood appears to be much more accurate than existing approaches and takes five minutes to complete. It’s still preliminary, but drug companies are interested, and word is spreading. “I’ve gotten these Facebook messages asking, ‘Can I have the test?’” Andraka says. ‘I am heartbroken to say no.’”

Andraka began working on his invention after a close family member of his died to pancreatic cancer. The teenager began researching the disease and its treatments, and he was devastated to discover the lack of successful ones. The boy decided he would take it upon himself to find a way of detecting the disease before it was too late for other people and their families, like it had been for his. He spent months on his design, partnering with John Hopkins University, and he ultimately went on to be one of the only freshmen to ever win the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Andraka saw a problem in the world and took the time to create a way to fix it.

Another modern example of a young person who has changed the world for the better is Malala Yousafzai. Most people today have heard of this girl and her fight for female education in Pakistan. The girl was born in Pakistan on July 12, 1997 and is currently 19. She began fighting for the right of women to gain an education, was threatened by the Taliban, and eventually shot as she was coming home from school one day. Though the girl was shot in the head, she managed to survive and went on to become the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17. Her fight began in 2008 after the Taliban began attacking girls’ schools. She began giving speeches and writing a blog speaking out against the violent and impressive acts being committed by the Taliban. In 2012 the Taliban issued a death threat against her, and later she was shot on a bus by a man who boarded and demanded to know which girl was Malala. Her injury left her in critical condition, and she was flown to England to receive better treatment. Though she had to have part of her skull removed to reduce swelling and surgery on her facial nerves to fix facial paralysis, Malala was fortunate enough to experience no major brain damage whatsoever. After she recovered, the girl began attending school in England and wrote a book that was published. She was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize and won it the second time she was nominated in 2014. The young woman still actively speaks out about the need for girls around the world to have safe and legal access to education and the positive effects it would have on society.  According to biography.com:

For her 18th birthday on July 12, 2015, also called Malala Day, the young activist continued to take action on global education by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. Its expenses covered by the Malala Fund, the school was designed to admit nearly 200 girls from the ages of 14 to 18. “Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets,” Yousafzai proclaimed in one of the school’s classrooms. That day, she also asked her supporters on The Malala Fund website: “Post a photo of yourself holding up your favorite book and share why YOU choose #BooksNotBullets — and tell world leaders to fund the real weapon for change, education!” The teenage activist wrote: “The shocking truth is that world leaders have the money to fully fund primary AND secondary education around the world — but they are choosing to spend it on other things, like their military budgets. In fact, if the whole world stopped spending money on the military for just 8 days, we could have the $39 billion still needed to provide 12 years of free, quality education to every child on the planet.”

In October 2015, exactly 3 years after she was shot, a documentary was released about the woman and all she had accomplished. It, as well as her book, are still incredibly popular today.

Malala was willing to give up everything, including her life, to stand up for what she believed in. She was willing to fight not only for herself, but for every other girl across the world who was experiencing the horrific discrimination she faced when the Taliban tried to prevent her access to an education. The young lady showed you don’t have to be old to fight for what is right; you only need to be brave enough to stand up against all odds, even when it seems as though there is no hope of success.

As seen through these examples, young people, whether today or from years past, are perfectly capable of changing the world and impacting it for the better. Teenagers can achieve things just as meaningful as adults, if they only choose to rise above the standards expected of them and abide by the principles God laid out for them. When youth fight for what is good and what is true and what is just, there is very little they will find themselves unable to accomplish. In the words of Anne Frank, “How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Works Cited

“Anne Frank Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 08 Jan. 2016. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

“Anne Frank Quotes.” Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

Kaiman, Jonathan, Amanda Holpuch, David Smith, Jonathan Watts, and Alexandra Topping. “Beyond Malala: Six Teenagers Changing the World.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Kettler, Sarah. “Malala Yousafzai Biography.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Tucker, Abigail. “Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer.” Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, Dec. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

Don’t Hate on my Mismatched Socks

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Katie Kenney

Why do people dislike mismatched socks? Socks don’t matter that much and they don’t define a person, so I don’t understand why people are looked at differently just because of the socks they chose to wear. Now, not everyone bases how they feel about a person on their choice of socks, but some do base their judgements off of other exterior things a person has or does. People are judged on the clothes they wear, the shoes they have, the house they live in, and many other worldly things. Characteristics can be forgotten in the examination of worldly things and too often, people change the way they look to please others. Some people are even told to change something about their outer appearance to be accepted by others. This thinking process doesn’t really match up to Scripture.

In this world, the importance of a person’s appearance seems to be increasing almost daily. There are advertisements for gym memberships, workout equipment, and diet plans all over television. Plastic surgery is more common than it used to be, with 15.9 million cosmetic surgeries and procedures in 2015 in the United States alone. On social media, mean comments are left on pictures of people, who aren’t wearing makeup. Many people get to be so concerned with the way they look and it tears them apart. Eating disorders are becoming more common and depression is overcoming a young population. It seems to be everyone is obsessed with changing themselves to make them look like a better person, but that doesn’t make sense if God only cares about what’s inside.

It is known God and man have different views, especially someone who isn’t a Christian. We don’t have the knowledge and wisdom God does and we are just overall inferior. We are imperfect, broken people and we have faulty views. One of those faulty views is we need to change our appearance to be desirable. Moreover, people think other people need to look a certain way to be friends with them. The “weird nerdy kids” are cast off and ignored because some people don’t want to be friends with someone who doesn’t look like they came directly out of a magazine spread. Movies thrive with the storyline of some kid who didn’t have any friends until she changed her hair, switched her bulky glasses out for contacts, and got an entirely new and trendy wardrobe. These are all physical things and it makes no sense for someone to suddenly want to be friends with a person immediately after they change the way they look. It doesn’t align with God’s thinking and it just isn’t rational. People shouldn’t want their friends to look a certain way, they should want their friends to have certain characteristics and personality traits, which have nothing to do with one’s outer appearance.

Faith is what gets you into Heaven, not good looks. God said those who believe and have repented will be allowed to walk through the gates of Heaven. He says nothing about only certain people getting into Heaven because they meet a certain number of societal standards that have been set by those on earth. God doesn’t want us to be consumed with things of this world and that includes our image. Yes, we should take care of ourselves, but we shouldn’t want to change our physical features by excessive exercise or surgery. Changing our physical appearance is altering the image of God because we are all made in His image.

It is common to hear people say it’s what’s on the inside that counts. That statement is quite true. God doesn’t value how nice your hair looked today, but rather the content of your heart and mind. God looks inside of us to determine whether we get into Heaven or not. Many spiritual things happen inside of our hearts that are only seen by those around us if we tell someone or do something that shows the change that happened. Baptism, for example, is an outward sign of an inward agreement. The clothes you wear don’t even compare to how important these spiritual things are. God’s works are superior to man’s works, so we shouldn’t value some clothes over the thing God has done for us and in us. He works in mysterious ways we cannot fathom and the things He does are so great and powerful it is ridiculous how much attention we give to our doubts and worries. His works hold so much more value than our clothes ever will.

To go along with God not caring about your physical appearance, God doesn’t care about what you have. On social media, you can scroll through your feed and you are bound to find someone who is talking about something new they’ve gotten. People like to have content. For some, having all sorts of objects might help fill a void they have. For others, they might like to be the best by having the most things or the highest quality of something. It might seem like to be seen highly of in this world you must have a lot of money and a lot of things. In Heaven, however, that isn’t the case. We don’t need earthly things in Heaven because we will have the presence of God. God is greater than any shirt you could buy. There is a story about a man who was told by an angel he could take one thing to Heaven. That man decided to bring gold and lots of it. When he went to Heaven, those who were already there found it funny he brought gold saying he just brought some bricks. This story shows things of this world do not have great value in Heaven. They’re equivalent to bricks and last time I checked, God is better than any brick.

It is a regular occurrence for judgments to be made based on looks. In movies, we see the nerdy kids with braces and glasses being excluded from activities because they don’t look like the popular kids. We hear stories on the news about suicides and major cases of depression because someone didn’t feel accepted by those around them. In certain stories, the sadness the person felt was because exclusions were made to set them apart from others. People judged them based on their outward appearance and didn’t care to look further. A person is so much more than the shoes they own and the clothes they wear. Unfortunately, the world has tainted our view of what is important about a person. We care more about how we look than God does. God doesn’t judge us because we don’t have Adidas sweatpants, but some people actually make silent judgments based on the fact someone doesn’t have a certain piece of clothing, like Adidas sweatpants. Our looks do not define who we are, and it can be hard for some people to understand that. The whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” saying is forgotten when it comes to people. Someone could totally not be what society says is beautiful, but they could be the best person you have ever talked to in your entire life. They could be sweet and kind and have all sorts of other lovely attributes. Just because they don’t meet societal standards of beauty doesn’t mean they aren’t good people or they aren’t beautiful. They are beautiful in God’s eyes. Even so, their characters are more important to God than their physical bodies.

Whenever someone says they are fat, which they may not be, they almost always drift toward a diet or exercise. Some diets are simple while others are extensive. These changes in what they eat can possibly be a good choice for their health, but some diets are unnecessary and can actually be harmful to the body. The reduction in food intake is often seen as the most important part of a diet, but in reality the changes to the food you are eating is more effective. However, the aspect of switching out bad foods for good foods could be seen as less appealing and harder to do than eating less. It is more common for someone to decide to eat less if they want to lose weight than to change the foods they are eating. This doesn’t always work at first, because the body starts to eat at the muscles that have been stored up before it starts to eat at the fat.

Younger generations have picked up this knowledge about eating less to weigh less. They also have been influenced by the thought they shouldn’t like their bodies and the way they look unless they fit into certain criteria. These two combined do not have a good outcome. Statistics say that 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls have a desire to weigh less and be thinner. When you have thoughts and beliefs as a child, it can be hard to change them when you are older. The thoughts you have may stick with you and if young girls start to think they want to be skinnier in 1st grade then it is probable they will continue to think that when they are in college. Eating disorders are serious and can really hurt your body. Anorexia nervosa can cause you to have a weak heart, severe dehydration, fatigue, muscle weakness, reduction of bone density, and other weaknesses that aren’t good for your heath. Now this is just one eating disorder and doesn’t include others like bulimia or binge eating disorder. People try to ignore the downhill slide of their health just to be thinner and, in their minds, prettier. God wants you to take care of your body. Your body is a temple and if you do things that hurt it then you are not glorifying God. God doesn’t want you to hurt yourself to be “prettier.” He wants you to accept the way you look because He made you that way. God made us and created us to look exactly the way we do and we should be happy because God took time to care for us. He took time to make us a certain way, and we shouldn’t hurt ourselves trying to change that.

People are just people; what effect could they have on us? In all actuality, the opinions of others affect us quite a lot. It is common for the average teenager to care about what their peers think of them. Whenever there are class discussions about self-confidence, a large portion of the female percentage do not have very high levels of confidence. They want to find approval from others, not only on their characters but also with the way they look. Almost every person in the world talks to at least one person each day, so it is rational to want the people you have conversations with to like you. And in this day, a big part of you is how you look. First impressions mean practically everything and sometimes first impression don’t include any words being said. Some people have social anxiety disorder and analyze every little thing they do just to look or seem a certain way, even though they know it is irrational. A larger percentage of people have a lot of stress over meeting new people because of that. They want people’s approval and they want to be looked at as presentable along with some other attributes.

When you constantly worry about what other people think, it can handicap you from doing what you are supposed to do. It can prevent you from fulfilling your God-given purpose. Everyone has a purpose and it is greater than stressing out over what someone thinks of you. People will want to bring us down and cause us to be incapable of fulfilling our purpose, but God doesn’t. God wants us to care more about spreading the gospel than about if your locker neighbor will like the way you styled your hair. Spreading His Word is definitely higher up on the priority list. We shouldn’t focus so intently on things of this world, because they aren’t the most important things to exist. The things of God hold more value, so when we care deeply about how we look and how we will be perceived, we are being disrespectful to God. We shouldn’t focus on the opinions of other people on Earth, but on what God thinks of us and how to spread the Word.

If you keep doing something repeatedly, it becomes a habitual thing or process. After a certain amount of days, it just becomes a part of your regular routine. You might switch things up in your life so it can be easier to do that thing. If you continually worry about what other people think and how you can change yourself to make people like you more, it will become a habit. You will do things differently so you can stress about it. Your life might end up being dictated by the worry and stress your mind creates. The more you stress, the more control and power you give it. God wants us to be calm and serene in Him, to not panic and be alarmed. We need to trust God and get rid of the stress we create because God takes care of everything. We can’t let the need to be liked by other people control the way we behave. We need to let God take control and rule over the insignificant worries that are made.

People all over the world want to change you and make you different. It’s tempting to want to conform to what the world says is normal or perfect, but what the world says doesn’t always line up with what God says. God’s words and laws are way above manmade laws, so it sounds like our best shot is to obey God over man. As a whole, mankind wants you to change to be accepted, where God accepts you completely. We can’t let people make us stress out over miniscule things like being liked and looking a certain way that aligns with societal standards. Those things are so small compared to the plans God has created for you. God is so much bigger than other people’s opinions. Put your trust in Him and pay more attention to what your character is than to what your outer appearance is. So, I’m going to keep wearing my mismatched socks and when people tell me they would like me better with matching socks, I’m going to ignore the comments because I know God loves me, mismatched socks and all. I suggest you do the same.

Bibliography

“Get The Facts On Eating Disorders.” National Eating Disorders. NEDA. Web. 18 October 2016. www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-facts-eating-disorders

Lim, Teddy. “10 Clear Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Care What Others Think.” Lifehack. N.p. Web. 25 October 2016. www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-clear-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-care-what-others-think.html

Media in Today’s World

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Tim Seaton

Media is a big part of our world today. It has a significant effect on people, whether they realize it or not. People watch TV and change their beliefs or ideas based on what they see and hear. We are able to see this through the world and our friends. When we see the media, we might see all about a superstar’s family and relationships, how they look, what they are like, what they own, and occasionally about their religion. We as people are so wrapped up in the world of media we can often don’t see we are wasting time. God has calls us to be stewards of His world, and when we are using so much time on media, we are taking time away from caring for the world. We should be using this time to take care of the world we have been granted and enjoy it.

Media has many positive and negative effects. Even when we are just looking at the news, we are affected by it. Media can make us more aware of what is happening on local, national, and global levels. We can learn about local flooding, national elections such as the presidential election, and we can learn about global wars we are involved in like the war we are in with ISIS.

The media can help us spread the word of God. Billy Graham and Franklin Graham use the media to spread the Gospel. Through the media, we have heard about Franklin Graham’s exploits to have Christians stand for what we believe in. We have heard of how the Christians in Asia stand up to ISIS even though they know they will be killed ruthlessly. They are doing somewhat what God did. He stood up for what He believed in, just like what we believe in today and what those people in Asia are doing. We hear about all this through the media.

The media also has the capacity to affect us negatively. We see every day how people criticize each other and try and show how they are better. They brag about how they have the better things and how they have more money. They are trying to use social media to gain popularity and have more than the others. This isn’t necessarily what people intended media for. They didn’t want to have people be negative and to be non-esteeming to others. When people are using media, they don’t realize how life isn’t all about how much money and property they have and how much better than the others. They may like to think it is what life’s all about, but it isn’t.

Another bad influence of media on us is the fact it draws us away from God. It is quite obvious some people use it for their own recognition and to gain popularity. James 4:16-17 comments on boasting: “As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” This is saying to us we need to make sure we don’t boast. It says in the Bible it is evil, so the topic is addressed, and yet, we still do it because of our sin nature. We want to be the most famous and richest person, so we are going to boast. It is Satan driving us to do this, but we need to drive him out and not give in to his evil ideas. We should try to be as close to God as possible in our nature. We can never be God, but we can be as good as we can. It is also saying when we know of something that is right in God’s eyes to do, but then we don’t do it, we are sinning. This ties into media. When we are using media, we are choosing what we see and don’t see. We know what is right and wrong, and when we choose to let others do the wrong thing and we have a chance to stop it, we are sinning in God’s eyes. The same goes for us. If we have the opportunity to stop something wrong in our lives, but we let it sit and fester in us, we are sinning because we make no attempt to stop it.

We can’t go a day without seeing the effects of media. As we see almost anybody, they have their phones out and are using Snapchat, Instagram, or any of the other media apps. We use media every day and it affects us. We need to realize even adults are affected by it. The younger generation is even more affected by media because we were born into the digital age when all these new media apps and electronic devices are being created. Media has been tracked to numerous health concerns in youth. Some kids are prone to seeing media as a reason doing drugs, having sex, and doing other things we have been told not to do are okay to do. They aren’t. And media isn’t necessarily trying to paint that picture. Now, sure. Sometimes those things are put in to make the movie or show more appealing, and yes, it does happen in real life. But that doesn’t make it right. We are told by our parents it isn’t right and we shouldn’t do it, and they definitely are wiser than us, so I think we should trust them when they say it’s wrong.

I also want to make the point media affects our moral roots. For some people, it is believing in Jesus. For others, they don’t believe in any god. And still for others, there are other gods like Allah or Baal they believe in. Our morals as Christians are sex before marriage and drugs are bad, among many other things. Some people don’t see it that way, but in America, our morals are those things are bad, so we shouldn’t do them. In society, since we are quite often judged by what we have and what we wear; people use social media to show what they have and then they try and show how they are better than people who don’t have what they do. We think we absolutely have to have what all the famous people have. They have all the nice stuff, so that means we have to have the nice stuff too, right? Wrong. We don’t have to have all of that stuff if our life isn’t aimed at attaining those things. Our life should be focused on God and how we can show Him through us. Media portrays all these things as ones we must have. It praises selfishness, a virtue we know is not a good one to have. Media is telling us the possession of fame and fortune will make us a valuable person. Through research, it has been shown many youth have developed eating disorders, lower self-esteem, psychological complications, and have experienced other difficulties by taking negative ideas from television, radio, and other mediums for media. Negative media influences can warp the values and conducts we should have as teens that are supposed to steer us in the right direction.

In school, it has been shown kids who watch lots of TV have a smaller vocabulary of words and have lower test scores than that of kids who watch small amounts of TV. It has also been shown these kids cannot read as well as those who watch less TV. Watching lots of TV has also been shown to affect you later in life. People who watched less TV in their teen years of life were shown to have gotten higher college degrees than those who watched more.

Using media doesn’t just affect us mentally either. It also affects us physically. It has also been shown if you watch more than two hours of TV or use a computer for more than two hours a day, then you are more likely to be obese when you grow up. This goes to show media can affect us negatively even long after we see it or use it. When we spend our time looking at media, we are spending time looking at things that probably are just useless wastes of time when we could be out doing sports or doing something else productive. Why do we really need to know what is happening on the other side of the world with someone’s clothes? We really don’t because unless you are a clothes designer, we don’t need to know whether pink clothes are trendier than green ones. We may like to, but our lives don’t depend on it either. Lots of the things we do on computers and TVs are just for fun and are things we don’t have to do. Media just wants us to think all of these things on our screens are more important than other things we could be doing.

We see ads and commercials everywhere. We see them on the side of roads while we are driving, but we especially see them when we are using our screens. When we are watching TV, we see multiple commercials in between each segment of the shows we are watching. When we are browsing the Internet, we see ads on Web sites, and when we are using our apps, lots are sponsored, so there are ads there, too. All these ads greatly influence people and what they buy. Even though the consumers who buy the products are usually adults, the ads are often aimed at the kids of the parents. If the advertising is effective, then the kids will most likely ask their parents to buy it for them. Marketers have used media successfully to gain consumers through kids. They have especially targeted the 12 and under age group. They have found great success in this age group. They have gotten their parents to spend over $500 million a year on them.

Media also leads us to stereotyping. When you are watching a show, look at the characters and realize how much they fit together perfectly, just like puzzle pieces. In real life, not everybody is like that. Look around at school or work and see if everyone rarely ever has conflicts. All the people on ads are edited to erase imperfections. Even when we know this, we will still be affected by these because we think just maybe we can look like him or her. Maybe we will look just a little better than we are, just like they do. I don’t want to be a naysayer, but we probably will never be like them. Media also shows a lot of prejudice toward certain people. In video games, 64% of the characters are males. On TV, 74% of the characters are Caucasian. This all goes to show we are prejudiced toward people who are the majority of the totals.

Media also teaches kids being violent is acceptable. In video games, often the way to win is to knockout an opponent. In some video games, it even comes down to kill or be killed, or kill or lose the game. Often in movies, the way the good guy comes out victorious is by defeating the bad guy in a violent way. A study has shown young kids have a higher chance to be bullies in school if they watch violent movies and TV and play violent video games. Seeing violent behavior in the virtual world can translate into violence in our lives as humans, where it really can hurt people for life, not just in a game.

A study done by the RAND Corporation shows teens are twice as likely to engage in sexual behavior and acts if they see sexual acts or behavior in the media they look at. Many objects in media say sex as a thing most people do before we are married, and since everyone else does it, it is okay if you do it, too. Often, TV and movies display teens who have sex as the “cool ones,” whereas we as Christians think those people are people we don’t want to hang out with or even be around because they can and probably will negatively impact us because of what they saw on media.

There are many ways to use media safely and at acceptable times. When you are eating, don’t watch TV, but instead talk to others. Don’t watch TV while doing homework because it will distract you and you will not be able to accomplish anything you are trying to do. Set a time limit for media such as TV, video games, and social media. Once you reach that limit, do something that exercises your brain for at least a minute for every minute spent using media. You can keep your media in common spaces such as a family room or addition so you won’t be tempted to use them after your time is up. When you are with visitors, make sure they are aware of your amount of allowed media usage. When you are looking at an advertisement, think about who the ad is targeting, whether the ad could really be true, and what makes it appealing to you or others. Be able to separate the fake things from reality in media and use your judgment about what to use and what not to use.

I don’t want to make it sound like media is a bad thing. In fact, I think it is a great thing if we can just use it for the right purposes. Media is a positive thing that has been turned negative by people who are trying to one-up each other. It wasn’t meant that way. A little bit a day isn’t a bad thing unless you use it for bad purposes. Calling and texting isn’t bad. Playing video games isn’t bad. Using Twitter and Facebook and all the other social media apps we have today isn’t bad. It is when we let Satan into our hearts and let him take control and use it for those negative things that are out there. We need to learn to turn away from the sin nature we have as humans and follow God not just in reality but in our media life, too.

Bibliography

http://www.pamf.org/teen/life/bodyimage/media.html

How Does the Media Influence People?