Who's Buying You?

I love being entertained. I always have been, and I always will be. The film industry is something that has always had a special part in my life (perhaps a little too much…*ahem*). But what’s wrong with entertainment today, aside from the fact that I may be a little obsessed with Disney?

I learned how to read when I was four, and I’ve been eating up books ever since. I have seen every Disney movie you can think of and I can quote each by heart. That talent has been expanded to almost every movie that I have seen up to this point in time.

My favorite music genre is country (which I’ve been told is odd for being a northerner… *shrug*), but I also enjoy a few other genres here and there. I also have a playlist on my Spotify labeled, “Epic Movie Music” in which I keep a library of my favorite film scores.

I love watching television dramas that have twisting plots and intriguing characters with deep personalities and otherwise ­­­meaningful backgrounds. I enjoy spending hours on YouTube listening to comedy shows or interviews between actors and actresses on their movie-making experiences. I’m unabashedly one of those nerds who enjoy watching the four-hour film-making extras on DVD’s and the crazy girl who buys the memorabilia that explains every detail of a television show down to the very costume fibers.

The problem with our entertainment is often confined in one little word: content.

The fact that we as a people love to be entertained is fine, in and of itself. But it is what we entertain ourselves with that can serve as a problem.

During the second semester of my sophomore year at Bob Jones University, I took a class called Media and Society. The main class theme concerned how media affects our society or how our society affects our media. It was a fascinating class that really made me think.

If the class made a recurring statement, it was this: media exists to make a profit.

What our teacher, Dr. Gary Weier, strove to teach and help us consider was what our media choices (e.g. movies, music, books, social media sites, etc.) promoted and what content or views we were encouraged to accept.

Through the semester I was really pressed with how true this statement is. I thought through some of the books I’ve read and the movies I’ve watched, searching for tell-tale signs of what kinds of lifestyles were being promoted. And, although I’d say personally that A and B lifestyles were wrong, I’d find myself accepting that very thing in my entertainment choices.

Whether it’s a single-mother scenario with no father in the home as shown in the Toy Story franchise or encouraging homosexual relationships as noted in the popular British television series, Doctor Who, anything we watch, read or listen to is trying to promote some view or belief on the audience.

Who’s buying you?