False Gods

I went to Church this past Sunday and the priest talked about "false gods." He was referring to television, celebrities (among other people), the internet, and the media in general. He did not mean that the media are evil. But that we spend so much time around it, in front of it, and our life surrounding it. He did not even mean that we are directly influenced by it (like we talked in class today), but that it DOES influence our values and beliefs.

It reminds me of a drawing my brother made several years earlier. Even as a high schooler then, he was perceptive enough to know that the media affect us. It was a drawing of a youngster sitting in front of the television, staring intently at the screen, and the boy saying "tell me what to do and think, master." It also reminded me of the cover of our textbook. Media is a cause and we are an effect.

Subjective opinions are often taken as objective facts by the audience. I am not infalliable to this. But I think that the more we learn about the media, the more we analyze, and the more we open our minds to such analytical ideas will lead to knowing what true and good values are.