Jay Walker-Smith is the president of a marketing firm. He told CBS News that in the 1970s, the average American was exposed to about 500 ads every day. Today, he says it may be as high as 5,000. We are bombarded by messages and images designed to make us discontent and envious. Some worry that an ad-saturated culture will make us materialistic—more focused on things than on God or people. That is certainly a concern, but there’s another aspect of advertisements we don’t often think about.
In some way or another, most ads are about image—either the image of a company or the image of the consumer being targeted. While there is nothing inherently evil about marketing, living in a culture saturated with image-focused ads can lead us to believe that our external image is all-important and that what lies beneath the surface and beyond the superficial culture’s perception is irrelevant. Simply put, ads make us think it’s what’s on the outside that counts.
The arrival of social media has thrown kerosene on the problem. Many researchers have documented how exposure to image-based social media platforms like Instagram negatively impacts teens and young adults. For example, referring to the tendency of girls to put value and unrealistic expectations on their appearance, Jonathan Haidt has said on social media, “You’re not comparing yourself to the 20 other girls in your class. You’re comparing yourself to literally millions… selected… for having the most perfect lives.” This image-based culture has led to skyrocketing depression, anxiety, and debilitating mental health disorders for millions of young people.
Although our technology has changed, human insecurities have not. Even in the ancient world of Jesus’ culture, there was a tendency to over-emphasize image and neglect the deeper, unseen qualities of a person. In ancient Judea, many were very focused on the external practices of religion—their piety was displayed for others to see and praise. Yet throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dismisses the external to emphasize the internal. In God’s kingdom, outward piety without inward purity is the definition of hypocrisy. This is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart;” he is most concerned with our internal posture toward God. If the heart is pure, what we produce on the outside will be good as well. If our heart is wicked, however, no amount of image management can make us right with God.
Daily Scripture
Matthew 5:3–12
Luke 11:37–52
Weekly Prayer
From From the Liturgy of St. Basil (329 -379)
Remember, O Lord,
those who are poor and in need,
the widows, the orphans, the strangers,
those in captivity and those in exile,
the sick and the suffering.
Remember, O Lord, those who love us
and those who hate us;
those who have asked us to pray for them,
and those whom we have not remembered through ignorance.
Remember all Your people, O Lord,
and pour out Your rich mercy upon all.
Amen.
