What You Learn from Social Media

Anita Delene Manthe
Nov 27, 2016
3 min read

Julie:

So far, A Surprise has been a space where we shared cool and random topics, but we decided to focus these several weeks on a biblical review and assessment of a popular Japanese drama called, “Hanayori Dango” (Details will be announced in following articles). We plan to do various reviews on different forms of Japanese social media such as books, music and movies. Below, Anita has written an introductory post for our new project.

Anita:

Society – culture and tradition shapes relationships, how we relate and respond to them and in them. We then interact with others according to accepted societal norms – they are distinctive to our family, communities, regions, and the country we live in. Entertainment, television, and movies generally mimic life. They need to do so to capture an audience and to keep their audience captive – to keep on watching – to keep coming back for involvement with characters they can identify with.

When viewing a television program, or a movie, we generally accept the actions and responses of the actors when they accurately portray life. We can identify with the characters, their struggles, suffering, hopes, dreams, and the changes they can and do make. Often they portray roles we can understand – they tell our story, or they tell a story we would like to be our reality. They supply a visual role model – a means of instructing us on what it looks like to be brave, have courage, or the opposite - how to be bad and mean.

Visual media carries a powerful message. We can learn from it as we examine characters, how the writers develop a character, and how it reflects our society – our very relationships. What changes should be made, and how to make them. Often we hide behind our favorite characters, or we hide in them. We hide behind them when they act bravely, or in them when memories are triggered – we bury ourselves in our past.

When we critically consider our favorite television or movie character, what is the grid through which we examine who and what they are telling us through their words and actions? This challenge is not only true of visual media, it is true of the books we read, the pages and sites we follow on the internet too. And it is true of our everyday interactions – of those we encounter on a daily basis – friends, family, and foe.

Does being exposed to character weaknesses cause you to want to change, or does it cause you to hide – you simply do not deal with it. You don’t like to talk about your weakness – you do not acknowledge them and see no hope of change. Furthermore, there is nowhere to go to examine your reality in safety. But is this true? I don’t think so. There is an option. We have a choice. Answers can be found – a greater script has been written, and a life altering saga is portrayed in its pages (The Bible).

As A Surprise develops our future posts will focus on various aspects of relationship struggles as we know them in our own lives, how they are revealed in media – television, movies, books. We invite you to contact us with questions and comments you may have, or simply visit our site and read. We would like you to grow with us as we consider the Biblical response to the relational struggles we all experience in different seasons of life.