Jonathan Krogh Jonathan Krogh

Defining Your World

Dear Curated Consumers:

I was talking the other day with Tom Stapleton about comedy videos. I mentioned that it seemed comics were becoming smuttier, evoking nervous laughter rather than real humor. Tom didn’t seem to be aware of the trend, saying most of the comics he was finding were thoughtful, not derogatory and, for the most part, clean. Perplexed, and perhaps a little embarrassed, I realized the difference between my experience and his could be understood by the impact of social media. Tom is not a big consumer of algorithmic feeds; most of the stuff he gets is from friends who send him clips through text messages. They know Tom’s taste leans towards drunk Irishmen stories, which may be a tad bawdy but seldom sexually offensive. On the other hand, I rely more heavily on sources curated by Meta, which means every time I listen to a comic to be appalled by their lewd content, my feed queues up a dozen more

Dear Curated Consumers:

I was talking the other day with Tom Stapleton about comedy videos. I mentioned that it seemed comics were becoming smuttier, evoking nervous laughter rather than real humor. Tom didn’t seem to be aware of the trend, saying most of the comics he was finding were thoughtful, not derogatory and, for the most part, clean. Perplexed, and perhaps a little embarrassed, I realized the difference between my experience and his could be understood by the impact of social media. Tom is not a big consumer of algorithmic feeds; most of the stuff he gets is from friends who send him clips through text messages. They know Tom’s taste leans towards drunk Irishmen stories, which may be a tad bawdy but seldom sexually offensive. On the other hand, I rely more heavily on sources curated by Meta, which means every time I listen to a comic to be appalled by their lewd content, my feed queues up a dozen more just like it. You sip from a stagnant pond; they’ll blast you the whole sewer.

Yesterday, both Chris Hein in his children’s sermon and I in the Time for Adults referenced the “you shall reap what you sow” words from the Apostle Paul. Never has this been truer than in the age of social media, where what you watch and read ricochets back to you in record time and in bumper crop quantity. It seems if I even think about buying new pants, my online feeds are flooded with slacks that flatter 'dad bods'. Even creepier, Facebook seems to know I am a widower, as I am for the first time receiving invitations to senior dating sites and listings for Eastern European women seeking good American husbands, just in case I’m feeling presidential.

What saddens me now is my inability to offer any objective observation about society or culture. All I know is the amplification of the culture I’ve created. My love of woodworking makes me certain I need an industrial-grade lathe, my joy of cooking has unleashed a torrent of counter-space-hogging specialized equipment must-haves, and my doom scrolling is serving up complete confirmation of the pending political apocalypse. Worse than that, I now know why I am unable to talk to other people about values and current events. The issues of my day have been custom served to my preferences, as your issues have been delivered to you. Now we are not only failing to read the same material, but we’re also having completely different experiences of the world as we know it. My world has become a pathetic house of mirrors with “me” in every direction. And when I think about the experience of others, it’s like I felt as a kid when I realized Christmas in Australia happened in the middle of summer; except those living in a different hemisphere happen to be right next door.

In yesterday’s passage from Galatians 6, Paul also encouraged the Galatian Christians to “bear one another’s burdens” (verse 2), but now part of the burden is recognizing the variances in our perceptions. In a world of automated niche marketing, true listening has become a disappearing art. This explains one of the reasons for our Spirits & Spirituality series. It’s not time to presume; it’s a chance to both listen and be heard. We’ll gather to connect, unmediated by programmed preferences. You may even have a chance to learn a good clean Irish joke. I’ll have to ask Tom for some recommendations, because my comedy feed is full of smut.

Looking forward to seeing you, hearing you, while you’re being you, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor    

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