Transitory Psychosis

I happened across a brief excerpt from musician John Mayer’s recent interview with Playboy magazine. (No, I didn’t see it in the magazine or get it from Playboy. I followed a link from a Christian ministry to get to it.) If you haven’t noticed, Mayer has dated and bragged about bedding some of the leading ladies of pop culture (actresses, singers, etc.) all of whom are very attractive. Oddly enough, none of these relationships has lasted.

WARNING: I’M GOING TO GET A LITTLE FRANK FROM HERE ON OUT, BUT THIS NEEDS TO BE SAID. I’LL BE AS DISCREET AS POSSIBLE.

In the interview, Mayer confesses to a fondness for porn. He states that with the magic of modern communication, he sometimes sees 300 pictures of naked women before he gets out of bed. He also acknowledges that he may be his own best lover.

Mayer recognizes that easy access to pornography has profoundly impacted his generation. He even admits that when he is with a real live woman, he replays his mental library of pornographic images. His conclusion seems to be that his fantasy world is better than any real world experience.

I couldn’t help but be saddened by it all. What Mayer describes is the inevitable destination to which pornography leads. Young men sometimes see porn as an enhancement to their sex lives. In reality, it is an insatiable leech. A little soon grows into a lot. It distorts the mind’s eye, turning every woman into little more than an object of momentary pleasure or disgust. Real women are measured by how they compare to the fantasy women on the page, screen, or in the mind.

It’s not something that can be easily turned off either; even when a man wants to do what is right. As many young men have discovered, marriage does not cure an addiction to pornography. And as many women can testify, no living breathing woman can measure up to the fantasy world of porn. Even after the addiction is broken, its shards work their way to the surface from time to time, bloodying relationships with fresh wounds.

The truth is, guys, if you walk this road it will take you where you don’t want to be. Porn promises to give you all, it just doesn’t tell you how bitter that all can be.

Beware, my young brothers! Proverbs 5 advises men to stay far away from the immoral woman and go nowhere near her house (verse 8). That advice rings true, even if she lives in a magazine, DVD, or website.

I read with interest an article regarding a Stanford University study on multitasking. (Read it here.) Like most people in my age bracket, I was taught early on to do one thing and complete it before moving on to the next. With the absence of cell phones, the Internet, Facebook, and a lot of other modern information streams that wasn’t too difficult–provided I had the self-discipline to turn off the radio and TV.

Fast forward a few years to the contemporary world. Today we are inundated with non-stop streams of information coming at us from all sides. The old saw about men and television is that men don’t want to know what is on TV, they want to know what else is on TV. In other words, men don’t just sit and watch one thing. They constantly click the remote to other channels (or games) to see if they are missing something that might be better. Of course, I’ve learned that men aren’t the only ones affected by that virus. Women do it too.

The problem is that as information streams multiply, the remote virus seems to spread. We seem to feel an irresistible urge to mentally “change the channel” every so often. We seem to feel a need to know what is going on in the world (Internet), in the lives of our friends (Facebook), and even in the lives of people we haven’t seen in years or wouldn’t pick up the phone to call. In fact, there is even an urge to know what is going on in the lives of people we’ve never even met (Twitter).
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I received another one this week . . . twice. It was an email complete with cheesy art and lame poetry. At the bottom is said if I loved Jesus and was not ashamed of Him, I would send it to 10 friends and the person who sent it to me. So . . . I deleted it.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do love Jesus. I even love the person who sent me the email. But if I forwarded it to 10 friends, I’m not sure they would love me.
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Newsflash! The Internet is not going away. It is merely going to become more pervasive than ever. The Net brings with it a whole host of opportunities for good. It also opens the door to a myriad of problems.

I won’t take time to rehearse either the good or bad. If you’re reading this, you probably already know. But, I do want to remind you of a truth we need to practice and teach to our teens–the power of telling ourselves no.
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Frankly, it makes me angry. A teen I know has been the victim of cyber-bullies. Using a cell phone camera, someone took a short film of him (without his knowledge or permission), inserted a few deceptive comments (lies), and posted it on YouTube. The film took an innocent moment, claimed it was something it was not, and left an impression about him that was patently false. In short order, it had been viewed hundreds of times by friends, enemies, and strangers.

Of course, my friend is neither the first nor last to receive such treatment. Many teens around the country have reported similar treatment. Some have simply suffered in silence.
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Which medium–Internet, newswpapers, radio, or television–is most essential to your life? According to a recent report from the Edison Media Research/Arbitron, the answer to that question depends on your age. (Get a pdf summary of the report here.)

Overall, when they asked people ages 12 and up that question, 36% chose television, a decline of 3% from when the study was previously done in 2002. Running a close second at 33% of those surveyed was the Internet–an increase of 13% from 2002.

However, when you break down responses by age group, people ages 12-17, 18-24, 25-34, and 35-44 all considered the Internet as the medium that is most essential to their lives. Only those 45-54, 55-64, and 66+ considered television most essential. What this means is that if current trends continue the Internet will soon be the “most essential” of all mediums.

For those of us who are interested in communication–particularly in communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ–an Internet presence is no longer a curiosity or optional extra. Instead, it should be considered fundamental to ministry in the 21st century.

This means we need to develop our own skills in this venue, recruit those with expertise to help, and challenge a new generation to take the message of Christ into the world of cyberspace in new and creative ways. To fail to do so is to marginalize the church in modern culture.

So, what’s your URL?