Anonymous Contribution for Chapter 5: “A story About Mass Media’s Harm”
A while back I turned off the News reports on my phone. Apple phones come with a handy “top news app.” I don’t want it anymore.
In early high school, I remember taking Hutterite history and ELA, where the article and topics we discussed opened my eyes to the fact that literally there is a world out there and it’s huge and it has so many problems and there is literally nothing I as an individual can do. Hearing about racism, the Genocides, everything, I really wanted to do something, to show that I cared. But our colony doesn’t do a whole lot. We donate and help as Siloam and other soup kitchens, but I felt like I could do more. Enter activism. It’s kind of funny now, looking at my old Google+, Pinterest, and Insta posts. I reposted anything about climate change and disasters. And the news was EVERYWHERE!
I became one of those trolls that stalk pro-choice pages and prowls flat earther pages and I left nasty and long comments about how horrible they were blah blah blah. It’s funny now because I realize now that these were people with their own set of ideas, who were just reposting from somewhere else. Like me, they didn’t really know what they believed yet, so they spat up whatever news-castor popped into the explore page, reposting headline articles they didn’t read. As they say, it takes one to know one.
What did it for me was on a pro-life page, I was in the comments liking and disliking everything, when I left a comment under one woman who commented, “you all don’t know anything.” I sneered back, “More than you. We know it’s wrong.” I was 15!! I didn’t have CLUE!
She then directs messaged me, telling me her story: abusive family, drug addiction, and finally, she ended up pregnant. She was a young teen and scared of what her family would say, she got an abortion. She wasn’t of her choice, but at the time it was the only option she felt she had. I sat there, reading this story of a woman who was living a life so completely dis-attached from the image of being loud and an activist. For the first time I saw a face and a person who was as scared and confused as me behind the comments. I realized that my comments and posts and everything meant next to nothing. Suddenly the pages I follow, pro-my-values or not, made me sick. They were opinions. All of it. People yelling over this line of right and left running through the whole world. And young moms and scared people like this one were in the middle and were young and impressionable were making choices based on what they were told: The victims of all the screaming. And I was just one of the screamers.
I deleted my Facebook. Reddit, Instagram, and Pinterest and I haven’t been back. I made a choice then, at 15 after that exchange that shook me: I didn’t want to scream along with all the other opinions. I wanted to do something. That was what I wanted all along. I now help in the school full time. I do a lot of sewing and you know, the normal stuff. I fohsorg where I am needed and quite honestly, I feel like everyone is still in this rat race. I don’t have to be. I’m on the sidelines quietly doing what I love. This is how my view on mission has changed over the years: it’s a quite and silent progress. I’m thinking now of this whole COVID 19 thing. Everyone is scared, and I was too. Both sides started yelling their views and opinions- because humans yell and panic when they’re scared. I was too. Till I turned off my news and prayed. Just like with that one woman, I can’t get emotional about it and yell along with everyone else. It’s about being rational. Doing what you can.
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Anonymous Contribution for Chapter 5: “The Impact of Mass Media and Celebrity ‘the Global Village’ Phenomena on Myself”
This is a tough one for me to write, partly because I’ve never examined the impact of mass media on myself closely enough to have formed some insightful, well-articulated revelation and in other part because I know that pop culture and celebrity, specifically, doesn’t have a very positive impact on me overall. However, I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on a topic that has been something I’ve struggled with ever since I got hooked on mass media.
Hands down the most detrimental effect that mass media has on me personally is how it normalizes non-Christian values. Celebrity divorces, breakups and pregnancies out of wedlock are frequent headlines on “people.com,” to the point where it’s practically pointless to root for your favourite couples because chances are, they’re not going to last. This definitely creates a warped view on love and relationships that is not supported by my faith. I’ve caught myself wondering how anyone can uphold a lifetime of marriage and yet here we are, as Hutterites, with a practically perfect record. Drugs and alcohol are romanticized. Women empowerment translates to body positivity which somehow means posing nude on magazine covers and trying to destigmatize professions like being a stripper - there’s a whole movie about this. I understand why some people have to be strippers, I do not support it, but I get it and it’s sad. Following celebrities and influencers' perfect lives too much has literally affected my self-esteem and motivation at times.
It’s crazy how long it took me to realize how completely different pop culture values and my Hutterite values are, and to recognize that I have to preserve them against the onslaught of social media and celebrity culture. I was watching a popular vlogger that I enjoy, when the topic of the video steered to porn and it struck me how chill they were with discussing their different interests and how regularly they watch it. I had become so desensitized to the concept of porn through reddit memes and youtubers joking about it, that it took a vlogger and their friends explicitly talking about it to create a moment of clarity for me where I was like, this is actually not okay. Porn culture is frankly disgusting, and I don't see any benefits to it being a social norm; it’s absolutely gross.
Mass media, to a certain extent, ostracizes many aspects of my faith and normalizes things that, in my opinion, negatively affect young people. Be it porn, or the idea of losing your virginity asap, or promoting violence and gun culture.
I’ve heard it a thousand times, technology is a tool, the internet especially, and I have benefitted incredibly from it. It’s only disturbingly recently that I’ve come to realize that the influence of other people using the internet can manipulate my mindset, my values and my principles. It’s only recently that I’ve become comfortable with standing steadfast in my core
beliefs against the onslaught of social media and pop culture and not letting myself give space to things I don't value.
That said, for me, it took exploring these concepts to come to this opinion. In a weird way, I had to experience things that I don't agree with to recognize that I don't agree with them. You have to have a really good foundation to stand on to not fall for most things on the internet and to realize not everything Ryan Reynolds says and does is right even though he’s awesome.
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