A Media Drought for Lent
admin March 30th, 2006
When Lent began this year, I was faced with the perennial question of “What should I give up?” There was the usual list of possibilities, but one new suggestion from our Pastor was “Give up the media.” Don’t turn on the TV, or radio, and don’t read the newspaper. This would probably also mean not getting on the Internet, but I’m not sure if that would include email (does being a Christian always come down to splitting hairs?).
It made me think. Although I have gone for periods of time intentionally not turning on the TV, I hadn’t thought about avoiding all media. What would happen if I did that?
It could be a very good thing in that we don’t usually think about the huge number of social values messages we get through the media and how they subtly change our perspectives and behavior. Even when we only intend to listen to the news stories, all the advertising, commentary, sequencing and framing of stories, the music played, etc., influences what we think, often unconsciously. Even when I make a point of deconstructing media messages and work at not accepting other’s biases, I’m still getting a dose I’m not aware of. So, does listening to the media every day really help us to be ourselves, marching to our own drummers?
If the notion of not conforming to popular secular culture is a key ingredient in Christian simple living, and I believe it is, the question becomes, how much are we conforming to the culture without even knowing it? Are we being covertly co-opted because we are so ‘plugged-in’ that we aren’t aware of losing ourselves and the values we think we have?
You may be thinking, like I did, “I can make myself conscious and aware, and inoculate myself against the negative effects of the media. I will just listen-in without buying-in so that at least I know what’s going on in the world. I won’t let myself be changed by it.”
Fat chance! Consumer culture is more powerful, seductive, and subliminal than many of us realize. The media are so much a part of our society and economy that their very structures automatically insinuate consumer and economic growth assumptions into our thought processes and value systems.
In spite of believing this to be true, I still want to know what’s going on in the world. I’ve spent a lot of years in the behavior-change business, so I have at least some residual belief that awareness, education, and training can be helpful in changing our behavior and reducing our susceptibility to media influences.
BUT … I no longer feel invulnerable to media messages and I do believe that I, and probably all of us, should spend much less time plugged into the media. Our use of the media doesn’t have to be like an umbilical cord that keeps us alive through ‘mother media’. If we work hard at it, we can be less susceptible to unconsciously conforming to the culture – we might actually have more time to live the truly free life Jesus promised.
So I think I will give up the media for Lent. I want to test my own theory and find out how a media drought will affect my life one way or the other. Will it make life simpler?
What do you think?