Will’s Brain Log

Working with teenagers, I hear and see all sorts of media. I-pods are filled with “Boom Boom Pow,” by Black Eyed Peas to “I Love College,” by some guy who didn’t even finish college. Movies like “Fast & Furious” and “I Love You, Man” are packed with teens and young adults. This is clearly a deep part of youth culture. But is this a good thing? We have heard for years that media affects behavior in some teens. Violent video games and movies have been the common thread among school shooting and other delinquent behavior. But these are just the extremes, right? Well, overall, I think it’s safe to say that media doesn’t cause everyone to react in extreme violent behaviors. However, I do believe that the media we watch and listen to affects all of us, including teenagers. Here’s why:

• Emotional Memory:
  • Your brain has an emotional memory, which is stored in the amygdala area. This means your brain doesn’t only recall a visual picture or event in your life. Instead, you remember how you felt at that time of the event. For instance, you don’t just remember going on your first date, you remember how you felt on your first date. We remember a big event such a graduation, but we also remember how we felt at graduation. This is emotional memory. 
• Triggers:
  • Here is the kicker, you don’t need to personally experience something  to trigger an emotional memory. An emotional trigger can take place just by watching another person or by watching TV. Consider this, have you ever been in an armed robbery? Have you ever had someone bust into your house and hold you at gun point? Have you ever been viciously attacked? Chances are that you haven’t and the majority of Americans have not personally experienced these, but you wouldn’t know it based on the majority of TV shows and movies. They make it seem like the norm. The goal of television producers is to trigger a little bit of pleasure filled adrenaline into our bloodstream. So very few of us are actually threatened in a way that is really life-threatening. However, our bodies are called into action as if we are! Next time you are watching a violently intense movie or show, put your finger up to your neck and feel your pulse. Chances are your body is reacting to the images you see in a fight or flight manner with an increased heart rate, though you are under no danger. A teen or adult doesn’t need to have been molested, raped, shot, stabbed, or abused to feel as if he or she has been. 

Overall, we, especially teens, have perception problems. What we perceive is reality and determines how we view the world. But what if our perception is wrong? We watch and listen to things that make us conclude, “This is the way life works.” We watch violent images, drug use, killings, and promiscuous sexual relationships on television and then continue to reinforce the images with the music we listen to. Lyrics about having sex with one girl one night and finding another the next night, getting so drunk you can’t move and mistreating your “hoe”. TEENS BEGIN TO PERCEIVE THIS AS REALITY!! Thus, they set themselves up for real-life experiences to reinforce the emotional memories they have stored. These behaviors almost always have expressions of rebellion, isolation, and intense negative emotions, such as anger, depression, frustration, and despair.

• So what can you do?
  • 1. Set the example. Your children will follow your lead. What you allow yourself to watch or listen to will directly relate to what they choose to watch or listen to. 
  • 2. Replace TV time with intentional connection. Take time to talk to your kids. Go out for ice cream, instead of watching your favorite sitcom. Join a service connection group as a family. Use these times to spark up a conversation about God or their personal life. If your not speaking into your child’s life someone or something else is. Remember, You have to disconnect to reconnect.
  • 3. Take the Challenge. I challenge you for one week to reduce the amount of TV and secular music you allow into your life. Encourage your teen(s) to take the challenge with you. Replace these times with some examples from above and worship music. I guarantee you will feel a little less stressed and see an improvement in your relationship between you and your teenager.

Praying God’s Best For You,

Will Hutcherson – NLC Student Pastor

Our culture is full of posers. And it just seems to me everyone wants to be a rock star, a movie star, or an American Idol. But why? Why do we allow our music culture dictate how things should be. We allow music and Hollywood dictate what clothes are cool, how we view sex, how we should talk, and how we should think.Believe it or not the truth is Movies and music influences us.

This week we are talking about America’s Next Top Poser, The Superstar. The people in media that we try to model after. But we are called to a higher standard. God is not calling us to be like this world, he is calling us to be set apart. 

Check out my blog tomorrow on how Music and Movies affect your teenager. 

     This week we are kicking off a brand new series called America’s Next Top Poser. This is all about our culture and how it affects us. From telling us how to dress, to how we need to act in situations. Every week we will explore a poser.  This week America’s Next Top Poser is the inner you. This is the part of you that struggles with who you are and who you want to be. But this inner you isn’t always authentic. Many times in life we put on a mask posing to be someone we are not. We try to be like our favorite rapper, movie star, or athlete. But is that how its supposed to be? To become something someone else is telling you to be? So we put on the mask of what we’ve seen modeled, but at the root of it all is acceptance vs rejection. 

• We put on the Happy Mask, the mask that says, “I’m always happy, never hurt. Things are always fine.” But really they’re not. This mask is a trap of constantly trying to avoid rejection. “If they saw what was really happening, they would reject me.”
• We put on the Calloused Mask, this is a guy’s favorite mask,  This mask says “I don’t need anyone.” We wear this mask because we are insecure. We have been rejected so much we begin to believe “If I just act this way that I know you will reject me, then it doesn’t hurt as bad. You are not really rejecting me, you are rejecting the mask.” I reject you, before you can reject me. 
• Or we put on the Righteous Mask, this can seem like a desirable mask to wear, but it is filled with false humility. This mask is the mask saying, “I’m only trying to help  you, because when I do, I feel accepted.” This mask also is an attempt to build self-esteem at the expense of looking better than someone else. This is a mask that is a selfish driven heart desperately attempting to heal from past rejection. However, it doesn’t work. 

Overall, fearing rejection is the driver for wearing the mask and missing out on true authentic friendships and relationships. But Jesus is the healer. In Luke 19, there is a story of a man wearing a mask, his name was Zaachaeus. Nobody liked Zaachaeus he was constantly rejected by the people around him for the job he worked. He wore the Calloused Mask. But then came the day where Zaachaeus was finished wearing the mask and it only took someone to accept him for who he was. To look past the mask and see the real him. Jesus accepted Zaachaeus and Zaachaeus was never the same.