The Medium is the Mess

According to Sojourners magazine, these are the values media is teaching our kids 4.5 hours a day:

1. Happiness is found in having things.
2. Get all you can for yourself.
3. Get it all as quickly as you can.
4. Win at all costs.
5. Violence is entertaining.
6. Always seek pleasure and avoid boredom.

So, how are you going to counter-act that? I'd enjoy your insights this week. But first, if you happen to be a preacher, I'd enjoy you posting these on a slide during worship tomorrow, and walking around "Oprah Style" during the announcements or offering and asking your people how they intend to counter it.

Comments

[elisabeth]

The problem as I see it is that the parents are caught up in the same consumerism that their kids are learning, and the media simply a tool that makes their job easier. As a society we are not placing our children first and parents are struggling to do and have it all and as a result are plugging their children in, rather than parenting them.

I think we give families a safe haven; movie nights for the whole family at church, mother-daugher bookclubs, serve meals for families to eat together before an evening service. And, yes, even paintball, which seems to me to be a lesser evil than sitting our children in front of a Gamecube. Paintball will get the kids there, it is builds a community, and hopefully it encourages kids outside of the church to think that is a cool place to be.

[Angie]

How do we counter act these six invasive, scary values? That's a tough question, especially when one of the things we do as youth directors/ministers/leaders is invite the kids to join us through activities like paintball tournaments (an activity that promotes values #4 and #5 on this list for sure and touches on #2 and #6).

Thoughts?