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Day 8
Thought-Provoking Info
By Al Menconi
I come
across a lot of interesting statistics
and quotes as I research the effect of
entertainment on today’s family.
Here are just a few that indicate how
we are being affected by the entertainment
media.
- The
average kindergarten graduate has already
spent nearly 6,000 hours watching television–more
time than it takes to obtain a bachelor’s
degree!
- Eighty-seven
percent of all sexual activity in
prime-time on the major TV networks
is outside marriage.
A typical TV-watching teen will witness
nearly 14,000 sexual encounters in
a single year.
- Over
90% of young people age 10-17 have
recently watched an R-rated movie --
79% watched with their parents!
- U.S.
children average 38.5 hours a week watching
TV, movies, videos, and playing video
games – it’s virtually a
full-time job!
- The
average American child is bombarded
with an estimated 20,000 30-second TV
commercials every single year.
QUOTES
“In the 1950s, the League of Decency
was formed to fight Hollywood because
traditionally-religious folks felt it
was 'outside the moral sphere of American
culture.' Today Hollywood is the
moral sphere of American culture.” – Writer Tim
Appelo (LA Times, 6/21/98
)
“A thousand years from now, if
somebody were to come back and study this
culture, I wonder what they would think: ‘They
all worshipped these screens. They had
these little shrines in their homes with
small screens. Then they had individual
idols they worshipped.’” – Writer,
producer and director Gary Ross (USA
Today, 6/4/98 )
"Census data shows that America
now has 37 million 10- to 19-year-olds,
all programmed by a lifetime of TV ads
to be voracious consumers. It’s
a demographic imperative.” – Amy
Pascal, president of Columbia
Pictures, explaining why so many
movies are aimed at teens (LA Times,
4/15/98 )
“The great thing about film is
it’s a true democracy–people
vote with their dollars. And as long as
they keep paying to see it, then we get
to keep making movies.” Screenwriter/producer Dean
Devlin explaining why he doesn’t
make more positive movies (he is simply
giving the public what they want) (Premiere,
6/98)
“The Networks say they don’t
influence anybody. If that’s true,
why do they have commercials? Why am I
sitting there with Jell-O pudding?” Comedian/actor Bill
Cosby (Associated Press, 10/8/97
)
“A student is not above his teacher,
but everyone who is fully trained will
be like his teacher.” - Jesus, Luke 6:40 (NIV)
Reflect: Even
after surveying how much we entertain
ourselves, many people still protest – “Yes,
I listen to a lot of music. Yes, I watch
a lot of TV and DVDs. But you don’t
understand. It doesn’t really affect me!” Is
that really true? How can you be sure?
Remember that entertainment has an agenda – it’s
asking you to accept its morality. Are
you buying what they’re selling?
For the next few days, we’re going
to look at how our entertainment
affects us.
Response: Look
through your local newspaper and/or USA
Today for
quotes and statistics that show the power
and impact of today’s entertainment
media. How many albums has so-and-so sold?
How much money has such-and-such movie
made? Remember, in America we often express
what we really value and believe in dollars
and cents. Feel free to email us any statistics
and quotes that you think may be significant
at info@AlMenconi.com.
Verse of the Day: Luke 6:40
"A student is not above his
teacher, but everyone who is fully trained
will be like his teacher." (NIV)
To understand how this relates to today’s
entertainment, we must first understand
the similarities between entertainment
and audio-visual instruction in the classroom.
In countless schools across the country,
television, videos, movies, and even video
games are being used to instruct students.
In fact, most educators claim that audio-visual
instruction is one the most effective
means of teaching.
But what if you move the audio-visual
instruction from the classroom to the
living room? What if we call it entertainment
instead of instruction? Does that mean
it no longer instructs? Of course not!
It still teaches. What is it teaching
us? Does it teach us to live for selfish
desires and (deny biblical values), or
to sacrifice selfish desires and live
by biblical values? Has your entertainment
media made you a student of the values
of The Holy Bible or the values of The
Satanic Bible?
Remember that it’s not just entertainment – it’s
education. We must understand that rock
videos and other means of entertainment
are educating us to accept their values
while they are entertaining us. If we
see our homes and our nation becoming
more and more immoral, we need go no further
than to examine the values of our entertainment.
This verse promises that if we spend enough
time with ungodly entertainers, they will
train us to become just like them.
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