Recently, I made some public stances against various behaviors that I believe significantly encourage harmful things to happen to young women and girls. A 20+ year friend of mine took notice of these changes and asked if they had anything to do with my infant daughter. I responded to her question with an emphatic "without a doubt!" And I wasn't ashamed to admit it; how my once chauvinist views have been completely reversed by the birth of my baby girl. These changes should have happened years earlier as I wasn't raised in a sexist fashion, but I'm not excluded in having self-experience being an honest teacher every now and then. And as I was expressing my renewed mind, all I could think about is the burning anger I would feel if I ever saw a picture of my teenage daughter in a tank-top and tights...taken in my bathroom...for all of cyberspace to ogle over. Of course, much of that anger would be from the thoughts that my baby has been convinced that she was raised as a hoodrat. But the other part would come from me thinking that she thinks she's so important that her virtual friends and their real friends HAVE to see her.
While there are several benefits to social media, one glaring negative is that it's convinced tens of thousands of people that their [filtered] image [only] is a major contribution to mankind. Some even are confident that their full image isn't necessary; as their most prized body part is all that's displayed. And I'm not referring to the dancers, models, and other savvy business people who utilize social media outlets as a marketing tool. Nope, the overwhelming majority chooses to degrade themselves for free...well really not for free...because attention pays a grip.
The computer age? The technology age? The information age? Nah, this is the individual age; and it's highly likely that this will be the last age. 2 Timothy 3:1-2 confirms my theory as Paul tells the young Christian that "in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves." How does this match? With the "selfie (where a person takes a picture of themselves)" phenomenon overtaking teenagers and adults alike, now a person doesn't need to reserve their conceit in their own thoughts or in conversation...they can give you visual proof. But there are other levels to this.
I've spoken before and given data about how dangerous the bathroom picture is for teenage girls, but the other issues speaks to insecurity. Obviously, there are people around the globe that have difficulty fending off people taking pictures of them because of what they produce for the public; and are unsuccessful in their attempts. But what we have here is people constantly snapping themselves. Almost as if to demand that we pay attention to them...as if they've found the cure for cancer, or are tutors to many of their neighborhood children, or have donated millions of dollars to fund domestic and foreign missions, or anything that has a profound effect on the betterment of society. Nope, these people want you to just notice their Jordans.
I won't belittle this any longer; but I will end with this thought I was told as a young athlete. If you're that important, you don't have to force people to notice, they will see you. To that end, let people take your photograph because of what you do for others, not for what you just did for yourself, which a lot of times is just take your own picture.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment