Pop Culture Faith

So there I was browsing the LifeTeen homepage when I was slapped in the face by corporate America. There they were, represented in actual size, two iPod Nanos on the homepage. Ok so iPods are hip and it is important for a youth group to be hip, so no big deal. As I browsed farther, I noticed that brand appearing on other pages as well. The adult leaders page sports the very elegant "cover flow" design of iTunes. Wait, I'm not done yet. The same brand appears once more on the FAQ section on the podcast page. No you don't need an iPod to play the podcast but it will "enhance your experience" for without one you cannot enjoy the podcast while "driving your car, working out, or mowing the lawn."

The point of this post is not to bash LifeTeen as I don't even know that they intended to promote Apple. I think it is very possible that they didn't even notice how many times the brand shows up on the site. I also respect the materials they provide to youth leaders and teens. My point is to illustrate an issue that has bothered me for a while now.

Where do we draw the line between being hip and relevant to the youth and endorsing pop culture? I believe we must be very careful about what statements we make both implicitly and explicitly especially when it involves teens and cool.

When I began to think about the effects of LifeTeen's implicit endorsement of the iPod and iTunes, I couldn't help but think about all of the underprivileged children I have worked with and how much they value being cool. The fact that the iPod is the most expensive mp3 player you can buy and mp3 players in general are a luxury, compound this problem in my mind.

When I saw the ad at the bottom of the homepage advertising the LifeTeen podcasts I could help but feel my heart sink in empathy for those teens that did not receive an mp3 player for Christmas or those that had another, less expensive, brand or a less cool iPod from years past.

I guess the bottom line is that I think kids feel enough pressure to be cool without their religion adding to it. Being aware of this pressure should moderate our use of pop culture to form the faith of our teens. Should we reject pop culture outright, or should we embrace it? I'm not sure I have the answer but I believe it will be some combination of both. We must focus on creating an environment of acceptance and work to make love and acceptance cool.

My first Blog

For the past two months I have been learning a lot about "social media marketing" and "web 2.0." For those of you reading this who are unfamiliar with those terms I am basically talking about the serge of Facebook-like sites and blogs, etc. that have popped up in the last few years.

Also over the last couple of months I have been encouraged to have a blog and to quote "join the conversation." Don't worry unlike most of the "experts" I have no hidden agenda with this blog. I don't care about my place on Search Engine Results pages or in how many minutes my new posts get indexed. There will be no keyword research and no attempts to optimize posts for carefully selected keywords. This blog has one purpose. That purpose is to facilitate conversations and to encourage learning through conversation. I can honestly say that most of what I know today was learned though a good conversation with a knowledgeable friend and the rest in arguments with those who disagree with me.

One more thing you should know. There is no theme to this blog. I will simply write about the thoughts and ideas I think would benefit from conversation.

I welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions. I just ask that if you comment you keep with the spirit of growing and learning through conversation. Thanks for giving me five minutes of your time. You can subscribe to my blog using the RSS icon in the right side of the address bar.