“Mag dit online?”: UGent kijkt met momfluencers en kinderen naar ...

 

 

The Tower of Babel, the physical tower vain men imagined they could build to reach into the sky to ascend to God’s level may have become eroded and no more, but the source that began building the Tower of Babel, vain, foolish, evil in their nature people were merely dispersed. Sent out to cover the earth. To become every tongue and culture.

The Tower of Babel has merely grown mightily over the face of the earth — especially in Western cultures and at an unprecedented rate with the advent of the computer, the Internet, and this evil that has been labeled social media, which more accurately ought to be called Look at me world, ain’t I somethin’!?

With the addendum for those with offspring — basically whoring themselves and their children to the world in their hyper vanity, their hyper self-centeredness.

What constitutes the overwhelming majority of what is said, written, and done by people on earth today is babel. All related to the Tower of Babel and the disbursement of self-absorbed, vain, foolish, lost self-righteous human beings imagining they were somehow on God’s level, or they could work their way there, build their way there.

Which is just a continuance of the reverberating lie told the first man and woman that they could be like God, if only they would become more selfish and trust the father of lies rather than God.

And we now have the world we do.

Which only increases in sin, in vanity, in rebelling against God.

Which will do so to the point of God needing to send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to destroy the nations, subdue the sinful, full of self, full of evil people that have utterly turned from God and have been given over to their wicked, selfish, lost, unrighteous, reprobate evil minds.

So it was. So it is. So it will be.

Nothing has ever changed on this earth in human nature since Adam and Eve determined to disobey the one and only commandment given by God at the time to seek their own way, to put self before God. To listen and obey Satan, the father of lies.

And the babel only was ignited, grew, and consumed the world as human beings grew in numbers. And were dispersed due to their evil natures. To the four corners of this earth.

Take a selfie of today and other than the attire nothing has really changed from the day not so long ago, really, men conspired to imagine they could become on par with God and meet Him in the sky rather than humbling themselves and storing the Lord in their hearts, their feet and minds firmly grounded. Their eyes firmly focused upon the Lord.

Rather than themselves.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Thursday, April 27th, 2023

 

The Viral Kids Are Not OK

Recently, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt launched a Substack newsletter called After Babel to explore the cultural effects of social media which, he says, reminds him of the biblical account of the tower of Babel.

 

04/25/2023

By John Stonestreet & Maria Baer

Reprinted from BREAKPOINT

AUDIO

 

Recently, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt launched a Substack newsletter called After Babel to explore the cultural effects of social media which, he says, reminds him of the biblical account of the tower of Babel. Recorded in Genesis, the project seemed like a good idea at first but, in the end, “everything you built together has crumbled, and you can’t even talk together or work together to restore it.”  

Haidt is convinced, as are others, that social media has fueled the exploding mental health crisis among teenagers, especially among adolescent girls. However, if social media is to be consumed, it must first be created. A recent essay at the culture magazine Aeon grapples with how the creation of social media is affecting children on the other side of the iPhone.  

The article, entitled “Honey I Sold the Kids,” asks a reasonable question: “We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who monetise their lives online?” The author, a British journalist named Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, explores the phenomenon of so-called “momfluencers,” or moms (and sometimes dads) who have become social media stars by broadcasting photos, videos, and essays about their personal family lives to ballooning public audiences. Posting intimate YouTube and Instagram videos to millions of followers, showing kids playing, eating, fighting, crying, even being born, is big business. Big brands pay “momfluencers” to use their products in their posts and videos. In 2021, the influencer industry was estimated to be worth 13.8 billion dollars.  

On one hand, this kind of content, showing happy families living happy lives, appeals to a lot of people and is an improvement in a culture that often treats marriage, kids, and family life like obstacles to “real” happiness. On the other hand, “momfluencer” culture can be exploitative of kids and the audience who are led to believe that hundred-thousand-dollar staged tableaus are actually candid family moments to which we should aspire. 

According to Karen North, a professor in digital media at the University of Southern California, kids who grow up in “momfluencer” families often suffer from social and emotional problems later in life, in ways reminiscent of child actors. In fact, North says,  

We’re seeing the problems of child actors amplified because the shows are available on demand, and because it’s not a kid portraying a character, it’s a kid’s actual life and vulnerabilities being exposed for other people’s entertainment. 

Kids who are widely visible online are also at higher risk of online predators. An owner of an online marketing firm told Aeon that, “when mothers put little girls at the centre of their feeds … I get uncomfortable. … there is a slightly higher amount of male followers.” 

The whole phenomenon is especially strange in a culture that claims to prioritize consent. Can children really agree to have their lives broadcast to millions of strangers? Can kids really grasp what it means to be famous, used to make the moms and dads of other kids jealous? If parents are responsible to respect and protect their kids’ personhood, privacy, and innocence when it comes to what they consume online, shouldn’t they also bear responsibility when it comes to what is produced?   

So far, the answer has been some version of an excuse often repeated today, in an age in which what adults want is placed ahead of the rights and wellbeing of children: “Oh, the kids will be fine.” Though this mantra is objectively not true, it has successfully advanced everything from no-fault divorce to same-sex parenting to artificial reproductive technologies to the hyper-sexualization of children. Though it may seem a stretch to place family-based social media influencers in the same list as these ethically fraught challenges, it is not. 

In each case, kids are treated as objects, as means to an end, whether that end is adult desire or adult dollars. People are not means to any of these ends, only to what is the ultimate end of all creation: to glorify God. Any time a price tag is placed on a person, it cheapens them. Children are cheapened constantly in a culture that denies who they are and forgets Whom they are for. 

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Maria Baer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org. 

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