We live in a real world that many of us want to escape from to enter into an unreal world where things appear real.
Take photoshop & magazines for example...the marriage of photoshop and the magazine has had a monumental impact on one's perception of what is real. The majority of images in our magazines today have been edited (removed) of their flaws or 'unattractive bits' so that the person appears to be more perfect than in reality. We live in a world unhappy with reality, so we create an unreal world that is perceived to better than what it is on offer. But...can we live up to this world? Can we live up to these high expectations? Are we supposed to? What stresses and strains, worries and warts are they actually creating? How are we supposed to deal with the disappointment and discouragement of not looking how our culture says we should...or not living the perfect life in the perfect house with the perfect family? How do we survive the ubiquitous false expectations of what it means to live life well by marketers and products.
1) One way is to certainly resist it and to refuse to be fooled by the falseness that is. This will certainly help.
2) A better way I suggest is to be formed by another story...to be shaped by an alternative narrative. I believe that if we were to hold up Jesus as our image and immerse ourselves into the story of God we would find a story that is much more compelling and meaningful; one that supplies lasting value and acceptance...not a fleeting moment of it.
3) A Third way may be to simply remember the picture you see above whenever you begin to devalue yourself because you feel you don't 'match up' to what others look like or the image you are told to you need to look like. You will notice that the editor has failed to remove a whole 'hand' from around the girls shoulders. What the?
Marketers and advertising sells us lies and false expectations. May we not be fooled. May we find our identity not in the marriage of Photoshop and Magazines but in the Image of Jesus and the Story of God. Perhaps the one thing that is real in our world is the hand of God upon our shoulder leading and celebrating life with us.
2 comments:
Have you seen The Trouble With Paris? It's a mini-series kinda crash course set of DVD's that deal with this exact thing. They describe it as Hyper-reality, an unattainable goal created by the media to sell more stuff to desperate-to-be-accepted and somewhat deluded people. You'd enjoy it, it's a really good watch =]
thanks Elliot for the heads up. I have seen this series. It is excellent. you might want to look at getting the book too. It is an excellent book that goes deeper than the series...you would enjoy the read im sure. hope perth is treating you well.
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