Student Devo's Week 2(March)

Day 1

Enticing Images

The movie Fireproof (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2008) told
the story of a marriage falling apart. Caleb, the husband, had developed a problem with Internet pornography, and that became a part of their marriage problem. The story didn’t really begin to change until Caleb, in exasperation, smashed his computer with a baseball bat.

The flirtation with pornography begins for many when they are teenagers. For some it becomes a lifelong struggle.

Why do you think the lure of pornography is so great for teenagers and adults? ©ISTOCKPHOTO

The problem is not just Internet pornography. Many movies are full of images designed to stimulate sexual arousal. Romance novels depict sexually specific scenes that could burn the corneas off your eyes. Television, magazines—the media is full of enticing images.

Read Ephesians 5:1-5. Paul said sexual immorality “should not even be heard of among you.”

Is it possible for a person to live in America without a hint of sexual immorality in their lives?

Determining what you view in the media may have a huge impact on your life. Don’t allow yourself to watch things you know are wrong. Turn off the computer, switch

the channel, choose a different book. Media will seek to entice you with sexual images. Set personal standards for what you will and will not watch.

My Prayer

Father, help me to guard my eyes from things that

Day 2

Wild Ideas

When you were little, did you ever race around the house like Superman or Wonder Woman, acting out things you had seen on cartoons? Children are often influenced by things they see on television.

Can you think of ways your ideas today have been influenced by media?

As you get older the influence of media gets more subtle. You may have seen Thor (Paramount, 2011) , but you probably didn’t buy a plastic hammer and chase your brother around the house. (OK, maybe you did.) Regardless, media can play a role in shaping your attitude toward everything from politics to your identity.

Read Ephesians 5:6-10. Paul warned us to stay away from ideas that distract from a walk with Christ.

What examples of “empty arguments” can you think of?

How can a person know an argument is “empty”?

Christians have to be careful about the way we consume media. We should not passively accept whatever is offered. We have to question what we see: What is this movie trying to say? Is this book trying to change my attitude about something? How does this message square with the truth of God? Carefully evaluate the messages you hear and weigh their truth claims against the truth of God.

Day 3

Wasted Time

Have you ever been playing a video game and totally lost track of time? Do you know what it’s like to waste a weekend watching television? The media can give us a lot of great things, but they can also rob us of one thing we can never get

back: TIME!

Read Ephesians 5:15-17. What does it mean to make the most of the time you have?

How do you determine what God’s will is for you? How does God’s will affect the way you use your time?

A healthy life includes times of
rest and times of work. Both are important. Relationships with family and friends have great value. God gave you gifts and abilities to be used to make a difference for other people; using those gifts is important. Playing video games,

chatting on Facebook, and watching “The Amazing Race” on television may have some value, but many
in our world have such a media addiction that their lives get unbalanced.

Evaluate your media usage. Are you using media in ways that help your life? Or has media become too much of a negative influence?

My Prayer

Lord Jesus, my time is Yours. Help me to use it in ways that benefit Your kingdom.

Student Devo's (March)

Week 1

Devo 1

Your Value

Next time you’re at the bookstore, look through the covers of the magazines. Almost every title, from Rolling Stone to Teen, features a cover image of someone with sculpted abs, clear skin, and perfect hair. Of course, the photographs on magazine covers aren’t reality. Photographers use imaging software to remove anything that would be unflattering—a blemish, a shadow, a soft line. They are able to present an image of perfection.

What messages do you think the media sends about what makes a person valuable?

How do you feel about that message?

What really makes a person valuable?

One of the subtle lies in the media is that beauty, wealth, and power are what make people valuable. Many people buy this lie and spend their lives disappointed because they can never attain what the media presents as valuable.

Read Psalm 139:13-16. How is this picture of the value of a person di erent from the picture often presented in the media?

How and why does God find you valuable?

When you watch a movie, thumb
through a magazine, or flip on
the television, remember that
true value is determined by God.
Don’t judge yourself by the false images in
the media, and don’t judge anyone else by them either.

Devo 2

My Prayer

Father, You said I am “remarkably and wonderfully made.” Don’t let me forget it.

Real Love

Boy meets girl. Boy sleeps with girl. Boy moves in with girl. Boy and girl buy a house. Boy marries girl. It is a messed up version of romance, but you’ve seen it played out again and again in movies, novels, or television shows. Right? The picture of romance presented in the media is

a lie.

Where do you think most students get their ideas about what a romantic relationship should look like?

Is this a problem? Why or why not?

Read Matthew 19:4-6. What is Jesus saying here?

In these verses Jesus was addressing a question about divorce. Instead of giving the kind of answer

My Prayer

Father, I commit all of my relationships to You. Help me to honor You in the way I explore romance.

they expected, Jesus talked about what God intended marriage to be.

Why do you think Jesus emphasized the two becoming “one flesh”?

Jesus was teaching that a man/woman relationship
is about more than warm feelings or a ection. God intended sexual expression to help cement two lives together to begin a new family. Much of our media treats deep things like love and sexuality as if they are recreational. Sex actually has such significance that it should only be shared with someone to whom you are bonded for life.

Watch the media portrayal of romance cautiously. Allow your values concerning romance to be shaped by the Word of God, not by the images of the media.

Devo 3

Who Is God?

Sometimes God is presented as a Santa Claus for adults. If you’re good, He’ll give you what you want. Sometimes God is presented as a disinterested deity who glances into the lives of the people on planet earth with hesitating disinterest. Sometimes God is presented as an impersonal spirit, a force that is present throughout the universe. From news stories to amusement park presentations, the idea of God is debated from many angles.

What pictures of God have you seen in the media recently?

How accurate do you think these portrayals are?

Perhaps it is di cult to understand completely who God is. After all, the same God who rained down fire on the city of Sodom in the Old Testament also allowed His Son to die for the sins of humanity. God is both serious about righteousness and absolutely merciful.God can be hard to wrap your mind around.

Read Colossians 2:8-10. What do you think it means for “the entire fullness of God’s nature” to exist in Jesus?

Many people want to define God in their own terms. The media certainly paint strange pictures of God. But, if you want to truly understand God, look at Jesus. Jesus is the perfect picture of the nature of God.

My Prayer

God, help me to know You as You are.

THRIVE: Guide For Parents (March-Media)

Guide For Parents

Media is defined as: the main means of mass communication (esp. television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet) regarded collectively. Depending on who you talk to, people might say media has more of an influence on kids today then parents or friends.

Lets face it today media is all over the place. We can try to keep our kids away from the bad parts of media but it still is very easy to access. More important what happens when they are all grown up? There are also many good parts of media. So there is a balance. But are they ready for the media mania on their own?

This month we will be talking about media:

The good

The bad

Discern

Self-Control

Where is God in all of this?

Use the following information and questions to reinforce the truths of this month of Bible study at home. Use one or two of the discussion starters to begin a conversation. Look for teachable moments—at home, in the car, or at a game. Pray and ask God to provide you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with your teenager(s).

Ephesians 5:6-14

THE QUESTION

What is the danger in media?

THE POINT

The world is full of deceptive messages.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

> What forms of media are the most powerful to you?
> What is your favorite form of media? Why?
> What are some of the lies you hear in the media?
> What media messages can cause believers to be led astray in their relationship with Christ?

> How did Paul say we are to live as believers? Why is that important when it comes to media?
> Why are the messages portrayed in the media an indication that we are in a spiritual battle?

> How should we look at these messages?

Long but interesting read for future.

My attention span was a little tired after reading this but I stuck through it so anybody could.

Marketing shift seen for Millennial generation

Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, August 22, 2011

In a recent survey of incoming college freshmen, 87 percent favored watching TV and movies online instead of subscribing to a cable service, while 76 percent spent more than an hour a day on Facebook.

Also, 75 percent sent more than 20 text messages per day and 58 percent used Twitter "all the time," yet only 5 percent planned to buy a PC.

Those students, who are starting their college life as soon as today, are the youngest of a tech-infused millennial generation who - in sharp contrast to Baby Boomers and other previous generations - no longer view a driver's license as a rite of passage into adulthood.

"For millennials, if you were to think about the thing that enables freedom and independence, it's your first cell phone, and it not happening when you're in your late teens or early 20s," said Ford Motor Co. futurist Sheryl Connelly. "It's probably happening in your preteen years,"

Connelly, the automaker's manager of global trends and futuring, headed a panel discussion last week at Twitter Inc. headquarters in San Francisco on how Ford was designing cars and marketing to appeal to the 16-to-32 age group known as the millennial generation.

At the same time, Mr Youth, a New York marketing services agency that specializes in studying the youth market, released results of a separate survey of 5,000 incoming college students who represent the graduating class of 2015.

Both Ford and Mr Youth presented similar insights into how technology - especially those produced by Bay Area companies like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Pandora Media and Apple - are causing a cultural shift in the attitudes of the millennial generation.

To be sure, that generation has also been reshaped by nontech events. The class of 2015, for example, is an "innocence lost" generation forever changed by the sobering terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the economic recession at the end of the decade, said Matt Britton, Mr Youth founder and chief executive officer.

"This has conditioned them to not take anything for granted and appreciate the good things in life," the report said. They also view their parents as role models and are not as rebellious or antiestablishment as Boomers were.

They also believe that the technology at their fingertips gives them the ability to make a difference in the world and "empowered them with a sense that anything is possible if you are willing to work hard," the study said.

"This generation has grown up watching (Facebook co-founder) Mark Zuckerberg build one of the world's most valuable companies through social media. They have seen the influence that organized groups and individuals alike are able to steer via social communities and they are more than capable of wielding this power themselves."

Half the students have more than 300 friends on Facebook and 59 percent visited the social network during class. "Facebook is like a dial tone for this audience," Britton said.

One surprise result showed the effects of online video such as YouTube and Netflix. Only 13 percent of the students planned to subscribe to a cable TV service, a sign of a coming "seismic shift of consumer media consumption habits," Britton said. Right now, "the lion's share" of ad dollars still goes to traditional TV channels, but that may have to change, he said.

Owning less important

Companies like online movie and TV rental service Netflix and video game retailer GameStop, which offers a used-game trading service, have changed the concept of ownership, said Ford's Connelly. That's another shift from the "conspicuous consumption" mantra of Baby Boomers, who "signaled to the world that they were successful through fancy cars, expensive jewelry and very large homes."

"Netflix has really taught us that it doesn't matter if you own a movie as long as you have access to it," she said. "With companies like GameStop, you don't hold onto a game for life, you master the game, you trade it in and you get something else. So the idea of owning is not important to them. There's no stigma about saying, 'I rented this, I borrowed this.' "

And social networking and smart phones are replacing the need to go drive somewhere to connect with friends.

"The average millennial would rather lose their wallet than their cell phone because their cell phone contains much more valuable information and resources," Connelly said. "Through these virtual connections, they actually are transcending time and space, so that they don't need a car as much as they did."

Those changes pose problems for a company used to marketing cars like the luxury Lincoln brand as symbols of life status, a message that wasn't resonating with the millennial generation. Moreover, statistics show that for a variety of reasons, younger people are delaying getting their licenses and are driving less than older generations.

So Ford has begun designing and marketing cars for their ability to keep the owner connected to their world, not for productivity or business reasons cited by Baby Boomers, but for social reasons. That means the ability to connect cars with smart phones is standard equipment.

Video gauge

Also, for a generation bred on video games, Ford has designed a video gauge for electric and hybrid vehicles that turns achieving the best fuel efficiency into a game.

Since one study shows 60 percent of the millennial generation have at least one tattoo, and 40 percent of that group have multiple tattoos, Ford offers a graphics program that lets customers customize their cars. The company also looks at different colors and fabrics that are more expressive, including an Apple-inspired high-gloss finish.

"We belive that this customization is the millennials' way of adding meaning to something that would otherwise be meaningless to them," Connelly said.