Voice and Audience Piece:

When we examine pop culture, certain things come to mind, movies and television, music, and the media. No one can escape the effect that they have on our society, other than if one were to bury their head in the sand and block out any outside forces, as humans, this is impossible. Plato wrote about it in his work called, “The Cave,” when he relates how people look up and notice things around them, which in turn causes them to move out of the cave, and become a part of the world, to not do so is to die to oneself. But what we choose to take notice of can have a damaging affect on how we live our lives.

In my piece, “How Pop Culture is Eroding the Long Held Traditions of Faith,” I explore just one avenue of the affect it is having on our youth. Naturally, given that I have a deep love for these very precious young lives, my notice goes to them. In doing so, I used one of the best books out there in addressing the negative effects on how pop culture is hurting our youth, “The Marketing of Evil.” David Kupelian, who wrote the book, does an extraordinary job in laying out a case for the deceptive marketing ploys advertisers use to lure young people into believing cleverly despective messages by using techniques as devious as sending out young adults pretending to be teens in order to infiltrate and propagate these suggestive proposals to them.

I used this book to further the ideas in Catherine Latterall’s book, “Remix,” to show how insidious the pop culture can actually be to those children who are struggling to maintain their faith traditions in a culture that has abandoned everything they believe in.

After I planned on using this piece, I received feedback that I needed to broaden my scope, but in previous attempts, I have been told to narrow it. That is what I have done with this piece, and so I stand by its logical conclusion as I explore how pop culture challenges faith traditions.