COMMENTARY: Myspace and Meaning
The New Media Environment has changed the landscape in which we do ministry and the way in which young people view themselves and those who are communicating the gospel to them.
I am looking at a random personal webpage on the Myspace Network. In case you do not have teenage children, Myspace is a giant internet based social network of young people. The young man’s webpage I have chosen to look at is fairly typical. Smack bang in the middle of his Myspace page is a picture of him and his girlfriend. There is nothing that unusual in a 24 year old male romantically displaying a picture of his special lady. However this photo is different. The first thing that hits me is just how big the picture is, it dwarfs everything else on his page. Ok I lie; the thing that hits me about the picture is the question, “How did such an ordinary looking guy get a girlfriend who looks like THAT?” Looking at the smug expression on the guys face and noticing the way that he holds his girlfriend like a trophy, I realize that this picture is not about romance, it is about social status.
Next is a picture of his brand new BMW sedan, this is followed by a picture of his hip looking apartment. As I scroll down his page I find at least ten other pictures of this guy at nightclubs and parties with a variety of people who are cool or attractive or a combination of both. The page is a thinly disguised attempt by this young man to show that he is a social success.Despite what Myspaces’ millions of users will tell you, the network is not about catching up with friends, or blogging (keeping an online diary), but rather about social status within the new media environment. The key cultural currency on Myspace is the amount of people who have registered themselves on your personal page as your ‘friends’. Knowing someone is not a prerequisite to registering yourself as their ‘friend’. All you have to do is click on a few icons and list yourself as their friend. Spend a short time on myspace and you will realize that it is a sort of giant Generation Y social version of the Hindu caste system.
To achieve a high ranking of ‘friends’ you need to have the following equation in your favor.your personal hotness + your coolness + buying the right music + choosing the right TV & DVD’s the watch + making the right Tourist choices to travel to + appearing to be social busy + engaging in cool hobbies/ interests = High friends ranking
Myspace is a way for young people who have come of age in a media saturated environment to position themselves and to establish identity. In a media environment in which marketing is king, young people have become marketers of their own personal image and ‘brand’.
We are in a New Environment
One of the mistakes we can make as leaders is underestimating the environments and contexts in which we live. By failing to recognize them we become unaware of the way in which we are shaped and influenced by these environments. The Christian writer Jacques Ellul noted that humans had lived through several ‘environments’. Ellul claimed that humans first had to live
through the environment of nature, then society, then technology. The American media analyst Marshall McLuhan added a fourth environment the media environment. McLuhan and his disciples noted that the media environment has replaced the other three environments. The media environment is now the dominant influence upon the lives, hopes and dreams of young people. At first glance this is not new news, as Christians have been for generations bemoaning the influence the media has over believers. However much of this concern has been over the media’s seemingly corrosive effect upon morals, primarily sexual morals. This concern has seen a number of Christian books and speakers recently hitting out at the trend amongst Gen Y young women to dress and act in a sexually provocative manner.These books and speakers fear that such a trend has lead to a rise in sexual promiscuity; their answer is to encourage young women to dress more modestly. However what these speakers and writers have failed to realize is that this move amongst young women to dress more alluringly is actually not primarily about sex! Are young people having more sex outside of marriage? Probably. But what we have to realize that this trend is principally about creating social importance within the media environment.Researchers have noted that in fact the primary reason young women diet and dress to impress is not to seduce or impress men but to establish their place in the female social hierarchy.
A classic example of this phenomenon is Paris Hilton. Hilton’s dress sense is sexually provocative to say the least; she has posed in raunchy photo shoots in countless men’s magazines. If so inclined you can download at least two sex tapes off the internet featuring Hilton engaged in
actual sex. Stunningly when questioned about her sexual appetite, Hilton responded she is “not very sexual and amongst her friends is known to prefer cuddling to sex”. Much of what on the surface looks like a rise in sexual behavior amongst young people is actually more about posturing and positioning yourself in the new media environment. Young women are dressing provocatively in order to imitate women celebrities who seem to have the perfect lives, rather than trying to get the guy next door to sleep with them. In the new media environment sexuality is a powerful social symbol.Being Discipled by the New Media Environment
A survey cited by Time magazine recently noted that on average Americans aged 8-18 were spending 6.5 hours a day using electronic media, which jumped to 8.5 when you counted multi-tasking. That does not count the amount of time that young people are exposed to other media communication forms such as billboard and print advertising which is an extension of the media. For most young people there are two realities that they encounter the reality they encounter in their everyday life and the reality that is shown to them by the images that are communicated by the media environment.
The media environment which is influenced primarily by the world of big business tells us that we can have all the happiness we want by buying the right products and experiences. Celebrities are the saints of the media environment in that they appear to us as to have managed to live their whole lives in the media reality. It is no wonder then that 14% of Gen Y’s believe that they will become celebrities.
Therefore it is seen that in order to be socially important and to have a life of meaning one must imitate the lives that they see in the media.
The media environment tells us that gangster rapper 50 cent is culturally important, therefore if you want to be important you need to buy 50 cent’s album, his clothing line, watch his film, play his computer game, drink his energy drink and imitate his ghetto hoodlum manner and lifestyle even if you are a middle class white kid living in the suburbs of Rotterdam. The media environment is the primary discipling influence upon young people; it is telling them that personal image management is of utmost importance to finding identity and meaning.The Medium is the Message
Thus the ground has shifted under our feet. How we disciple young people who are immersed in this new media environment is key. Below are several questions to ponder as you minster to youth in this new environment.
* Many young people suffer from great status anxiety about their place amongst their peers and in youth culture. It is key that we ensure that our youth ministiries are places that young people can find respite from such pressures. How are you in your community of faith facilitating an environment for young people where they can be accepted as image bearers of God? How is your community of faith making it harder for young people to be accepted as image bearers of God?
* Marshall McLuhan noted that in the New Media Environment the Medium is the Message. The tools we use can often contradict our message. Yes it is key that we remain relevant in our communication of the good news. But when we use the tools of the new media environment in church we can subvert the gospel message and communicate the same message as the advertisers are communicating to young people (with a thin Christian veneer painted over the top). We can use the spoken word to tell our young people that the Christian life is about devotion worship and self-denial, but the tools of the new media environment, communicate to young people that life is all about being entertained all the time, about instant gratification and surface over depth. Have you unwittingly created a youth ministry that is dependant upon entertainment, popularity and ‘coolness’ at the expense of acceptance, humility and self-sacrifice?
* In the new media environment consumerism rules. It is fairly easy with the right tools to attract a large crowd of consumers. Are you creating a community of consumers or disciples?
* How can you help your young people navigate the changing terrain of sexuality and social positioning. What practical steps can you take to get these topics on the table of discussion?
* The new media environment needs navigating. How are you equipping your young people to interpret popular culture and its effect upon them?
* Celebrity culture and the desire to be famous is endemic in our culture. How do you help your young people to avoid falling into the trap of falling into the myth of Celebrity worship. Have you or any other christian ministires succumbed to the pressure to create celebrities out of its Christian workers?
*How do you communicate the good news of Jesus Christ in a culture when consumer culture offers people a fantastic life here and now?
posted by Mark Sayers @ 2:36 PM
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