The Influence of Culture

I was reading the Sunday newspaper last night and as I flipped through the flyers I found a familiar face staring up at me from the cover of the USA Weekend flyer (which, by the way, isn't something to read on a regular basis) and they published this article by Michael Meyer entitled The Secret Power of Tweens: Their idols may be teens (or even older) but it's pre-teens these days who influence popular culture - for everyone, and what do you know, Miley Cirus was our topic otherwise known as Hannah Montana.

Yup, there she is... the pre-teen idol of today. At only 15 she has captured every 8-12 year old (and older, actually) with her t.v. show Hannah Montana. With 5 albums, 3 Disney Soundtracks and 2 tours, she has enraptured many children into believing that they can be like here if they just "believe in yourself." Even in Target today I went to look at the "musical" instruments and there was a purple Disney Hannah Montana Guitar; for the rock star in all of us.  Yeah, um, Okay...

I've seen even some of my friends, young and old, talking about Miley and saying how much they just love her and her music and her show and her tour and her clothes. Which is fine in one way but in another way... there are so many other things to be loving besides Hannah Montana. She's just a girl, just like anyone but to envy her life would be foolish.  I don't want to make a "blanket statement" and say that she isn't a christian, (only God knows her heart).  Beautiful clothes, shoes, guitars and concerts are going to crumble away into rubble at the end of the earth.

Anyway, this might be way off the subject, but as I was reading it I was struck by the final paragraph:

"Now the bad news, preteens may grow up to be your boss, and you may join professor Rapping in her frustration about being marginalized. "When I grew up, you were supposed to respect your elders," she says. "Now kids think they know everything - and aren't about to listen." Even worse, grown tweens might not be "down" with toiling. "In a push-button society, preteens are getting used to getting things immediately, " says child psychologist Michael Osit, author of Generation Text. But the trade-off may be an invigorating youthful spirit. when did you laugh most with friends and think you could do anything? Your own tween years no doubt. And remember, from infancy to the grave, we're all "tween" something."

How sad that this is all they get. That they notice that "kids think they know everything and aren't about to listen" These are low expectations from the world. And just so you know, Miley/Hannah aren't the only teen idols of today. Things like Guitar Hero, Halo, Air Rivals, Xbox, PS2, PSP, video games, computer, books, t.v. shows, anything you like so much that you would do it all the time and sacrifice your relationship with God and your family.

The culture just gives us up for loss because of the mistakes we make or the things we do. They don't believe that we can make a difference so why not just go and do drugs or drink underage? Why don't we drive over the speed limit? That's what all the other "cool" teens do. Why don't we wear those clothes? That's what the fashion is this week. How come we don't like to learn? Is it just because the teen scene has classified it "uncool" to have knowledge? Why is it bad to read books? Do we really need to clean up after ourselves or serve our parents by actually doing our chores? Is opening the door for other people really such a bad thing? Think about it and send in some questions you would have like the ones I've listed above. How has the world altered and twisted our view of things so that it is bad or good to do certain things?

Seriously, send me some questions and we might be able to do a post about it. Some of the ones talked about above are going to become titles for a few posts on this blog. Maybe yours can to!