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Have you ever wished Facebook would add a “Nobody Cares” or “Stop Whining” button for statuses? I think we all have. At least once a day we see one of “those” statuses that just makes us shake our head, roll our eyes, and utter something like “not again.” Although everyone is entitled to their own opinions and freedom of speech, there are 8 Facebook statuses that need to disappear:

1. The Passive-Aggressive Status
This is one of the most popular and most annoying statuses on Facebook, and I’ve seen people from 13 to 50 use this. It’s always directed at a certain unnamed person, and apparently that person knows who he or she is, because the status says so. It usually reads something like this:

So u wanna talk junk about me huh. Well u will get whats comin to you. You think u can hurt me but you’ll never be happy without me. You know who u are!

I apologize if my grammar was too proper.

2. The TMI Status
There are certain things the rest of the world just doesn’t need to know. If you’ve got a nasty infection, don’t tell us about the blood and pus. By no means should you post a picture of it. If you have a prayer request, it’s okay to be vague about disgusting specifics. If you’re about to have a baby or just had a baby and feel like sharing details that many of us are still ignorant about, please don’t. Protect our sanity and our stomachs and keep some things to yourself.

3. The “Are Those Song Lyrics?” Status
There is nothing wrong with someone posting song lyrics as a status. It doesn’t take a lot of creativity, but it’s not too much different from posting a quote. But it seems a lot of people forget 3 important aspects of quotations: 1) Quotation marks; 2) A reference; 3) Proper grammar and spelling. If you want to quote OneRepublic, fine. Go for it. But when you give us a status like…

me and my gang
out ridin on a saturday night
ain’t comin home til the rooster crows

…we’re not sure if you’re (poorly) quoting a Kenny Chesney song or out riding ATVs on in your parents’ backyard. (FYI…for all you Kenny Chesney fans, ATV’s are what you call 4-wheelers.)

4. The “I’m Connected to Twitter but Don’t Know How to Use Twitter” Status
Unless your status is really supposed to say “Haha, I know right? lol” then you’ve probably got a problem you need to fix. Quick tip: don’t multitask with technology if you don’t understand technology.

5. The Constant FourSquare Status
You’re at a hockey game? Cool. You’re seeing a great band in concert? Awesome. You’re sitting on your couch or in the Taco Bell drive-thru? Put the phone away, shut the laptop, and realize…we really don’t care.

6. The “Can’t Sleep” Status
I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this. I’ve infected Twitter and Facebook with 3 AM statements of “Ugh. Can’t sleep.” But have you noticed how the “Can’t sleep” statuses always get the least amount of “likes” or comments? Wanna know why? Because the rest of world is asleep and will never see the status. Here’s a bit of logic I’ve learned over the past few years: If you’re posting on Facebook that you can’t sleep, you probably can’t sleep because you’re on Facebook.

7. The Misspelled Status
We’re all guilty of clicking “Share” before we’ve proofread our statuses. It happens. It’s no big deal, right? That depends. When it happens occasionally, it’s understandable. When it happens every time you post a status, there’s a problem. Sure, you can blame your phone’s Auto Correct feature, but when there’s no mobile icon next to your status, we’ll probably think you’re lying. And by the way, if you have the fortitude to call out foreigners in our country who don’t speak English, you look really foolish when your status shows you don’t know how to speak it or write it either .

8. The Acronym Status
By now, most of the population is familiar with LOL, BRB, TTYL, and CYA. But a status full of acronyms is just plain annoying. It also doesn’t take long to type out the acronym you made up. Sorry if we don’t know that “WIRTTWUWY” actually means “Wow, I’m really tired today. What’s up with you?” Keep it simple…just not that simple.

[Photo source: facebook.com]

Do certain Facebook statuses annoy you? I’m sure I’ve posted my share of statuses that have caused people to “Hide” or “de-friend” me. The statuses that really make me shake my head are the ones that obviously mean something else. Luckily, I think have cracked the code, and here is a Facebook Status Translator:

“These lyrics really speak to me” = That song sounds cool, even if I have no idea what it’s really about

“Go ahead and spread rumors about me! See if I care!” = I do care

[Cuss word cuss word cuss word cuss word] = I have a limited vocabulary

“Some people have no integrity! Yeah, you know who you are.” = I got dumped and I’m bitter

“[Insert name] is at Target” = [Insert name] is probably at Target

“[Insert name] is shopping at Banana Republic” = [Insert name] is shopping at the Banana Republic Outlet

“…is bored” = Will someone please text me, talk to me on Facebook Chat, or call me to hang out? Please!

“I can’t believe what she did in this video” = Whoops! Clicked on a Spam link!

“Some people need to grow up!” = I need to grow up

“I hate [the opposite sex]! = That certain guy/girl I like doesn’t like me back

“I <3 Justin Bieber = Unfriend me

[Bible verse/spiritual statement at 10:47 am on a Sunday morning that has nothing to do with your pastor's sermon] = Slept in and didn’t go to church today

By now you’ve probably heard the new darling of pop culture, “Friday” by Rebecca Black. If you haven’t, just wait until tomorrow. Facebook and Twitter will be filled with clever statuses and tweets signifying that it truly is Friday. The song, which was uploaded February 10, has already garnered over 43 million views on YouTube. To let you know how viral this thing has gone: the video has added nearly a million views in just the last 4 hours. I’d be shocked if the video isn’t over 50 million views by tomorrow…which of course, is Friday.

What’s ironic about the song is that despite having over 43 million views and being stuck in the head of people across the globe, the song isn’t what you would call “popular.” In fact, most are calling it “annoying,” “the worst song I’ve ever heard,” and “completely awful,” signifying their “hate” for the song.

Those are some very strong words (and once you read the comments on the YouTube you’ll realize they escalate to things much, much worse!) targeted at a 13 year old girl whose parents paid money to allow their daughter to record a song. Taking into account what people are saying, I’ll be the first to admit that the song is no Grammy award winner. In fact, when looking at the scale of excellence, it’s probably closer to Antoine Dodson’s “Bed Intruder Song” than it is to U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” But yet there’s something about it that keeps making people go back for seconds, thirds, and fourths. There’s something about it that has caused people to create parody videos, fill out their statuses with lyrics, and even caused Tim Tebow to quote the lyrics on Twitter.

What is that “something?” I think that “something” is that many of us secretly like it.

If we’re being objective, we’d admit that it’s no masterpiece and it makes us laugh more than anything. But we keep talking about it, we keep singing it, and we keep falling in love with it over and over head.

Our culture has an affinity for things that are “awesomely bad.” We claim those things are annoying and that we hate them, but there’s something inside of us that just can’t get enough of them (i.e. see 80s music).

The truth is we avoid things we hate. I hate onions, so I don’t put them on my pizza or hamburgers. I hate turtlenecks, so I never wear them. I hate country music, so I don’t blast it in my car or on my computer.

We avoid things we truly hate. We go back to the things we secretly love.

So while Rebecca Black may never be the next Celine Dion and “Friday” may never take home “Song of the Year,” we’ll keep going back to the well for more because there’s something about it we just can’t get enough.

Maybe mockery really is the highest form of flattering.

Either way, prepare yourself…because tomorrow is Friday.

Does today’s church believe in absolute truth? Does today’s church even know what absolute truth is?

There’s no doubt that the culture around us is on a downward spiral as far as morality is concerned. What worries me is that many within the church today can’t discern truth well enough to know where and if that downward spiral is taking place. The problem with deception is that it usually starts out small. Anyone can spot a blatant lie from a long ways away, at least you would hope so. However, when truth becomes blurry and lies begin to blend with truth, the result is a concoction that appears desirable yet actually is deadly.

In order to see this, all you have to do is look at modern media. Eat Pray Love, a movie starring Julia Roberts, is currently at the box office. Here’s what a reviewer at PluggedInOnline.com had to say about the movie and the main character, Liz:

Like so many before her, Liz has turned her back on a godly religious conviction and morality, and sought a less challenging spiritual system instead. A system that requires only vaguely sending “light and love” to others rather than buckling down and fighting for a covenant relationship’s survival and growth when things are emotionally difficult. A system that encourages sweetly masked self-indulgence over real self-sacrifice, and salvation without real repentance. Instead of God and His majesty, Ms. Gilbert wants cheap grace to help her get through her needlessly miserable days.

While people may be quick to discount this as only a “movie” or “mere entertainment,” the reality is many women have taken her advice and have attempted to find “themselves” through the same means as the character in the book/film. While there may be elements to the story that are uplifting, encouraging, and positive, there are also elements to the story that are self-indulgent and potentially dangerous. Is today’s society, especially today’s church, able to filter the good from the bad?

While some have blended elements of truth with elements other sources, many have attempted to ignore truth altogether and present sinful behavior as desirable. Take a TV show like Pretty Little Liars for example. The show has been rising in fame, most notable among teenage girls. It actually won the 2010 Teen Choice Award for “Choice Summer TV Show.” Teen show. Award winner. On ABC Family. Should be an acceptable show for teenage girls to watch, right? Not quite. The show has included storylines involving the main female characters “experimenting” with lesbianism. While some may say that they’re just portraying life how it actually is, I would beg to differ. I don’t believe that’s where we are yet. (Sadly, the keyword might be “yet”) Rather, I think that is where the producers and writers want to take our culture. They know they have influence. They know they have ratings. They know they can spread their agenda and people will listen.

Sadly, talk to any youth pastor in this country and there’s a good chance he’ll tell you that many of his teens are influenced by shows and movies like the ones I mentioned above. They get hooked in with the drama, scandals, sex, and provocativeness, and they sit through the agendas, propaganda, and blatant messages that the writers attempt to get across. Before too long, they believe THAT is reality and see nothing wrong with the sinful acts presented on TV because they look quite desirable and fun. To be honest, I think young adults fall into this same trap too.

What influence do these shows, movies, books, music, etc have on us? The truth is we can’t solely watch only for entertainment value because what we watch becomes part of us. It begins to shape our worldview. Don’t believe me? Then why do we get defensive when someone badmouths a show we watch or even objectively disagrees with what the show promotes and endorses?

To be honest, it almost seems like we’ll defend our favorite (trashy) TV show before we’ll defend the truth of Scripture. Sometimes we’ll defend our favorite TV show OVER the truth of Scripture.

My concern is that either we don’t know how to discern truth, or we’re refusing to because it would force us to change our guilty pleasures.

Sadly, I think truth is dying in many churches today. We may say we believe in the truth of Scripture, but in no way do we allow that same Scripture to direct our lives and shape who we are.

It used to be that we had teenagers in the church who had no sense of right or wrong. Now those teenagers have become parents and their skewed view of truth is what is helping shape the lives of their children.

When we don’t have a firm understanding of truth and what we believe and why we believe it, we will be influenced by anything and everything. Every new idea, fad, lifestyle, and “religious idea” will intrigue us. When discernment takes a backseat to intrigue and entertainment, we turn our backs on the truth in which we claim to believe.

Last week I posted some statistics about adults that texted while driving. Well new numbers have come out from the LG Text Ed Survey. You can find the results by click here. Here are some of the things that stood out most from the research:

• 44 percent of parents admitted to texting and driving.
• 28 percent of parents admit to engaging in some form of “sexting”
• 42 percent of parents admit to texting someone while at the dinner table; whereas 69 percent of teens admit to texting at the dinner table.

• 45 percent of teens admit to texting and driving. And only 4 percent of parents believe their teens ever text while driving.
• 41 percent of teens admit to sending, receiving, or forwarding a text that said something sexual, while only 11 percent of parents thought their teens had ever sexted.

• 90 percent of texting parents felt closer to their teen as a result of the medium.
• 58 percent of teens said being able to text their parents made them feel closer.
• 83 percent of teens prefer their parents check in with them via text.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-text-98497159.html

I’m always intrigued by awards shows that cater to teenagers and kids. Seeing the nominees and winners gives you some sort of an idea of where their culture is and where it is headed (or maybe the direction in which corporate American wants their culture to go).

The nominees have been listed for the 2010 Teen Choice Awards, which takes place on August 9. Here are a few things that caught my eye. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about the state of teen culture:

- Eclipse led the way with 17 nominations. 11 of those nominations were for Taylor Lautner

- Katy Perry of “I Kissed a Girl” fame is hosting the Teen Choice Awards

- Here are the shows nominated for Best Teen Drama:
90210
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
House
The Secret Life of the American Teenager

- Nominees for Choice TV Show: Comedy include primetime network shows (The Big Bang Theory, Glee, Modern Family) as well as Disney Channel Shows (Sonny With a Chance, Wizards of Waverly Place)

- Here are the nominees for Choice TV: Animated Show: (Looks like the days of SpongeBob SquarePants are long gone)
American Dad
The Cleveland Show
Family Guy
South Park
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

- The awards show includes the following categories:
Choice TV: Reality Show
Choice TV: Reality Competition Show
Choice TV: Male Reality/Variety Star
Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star

- Miley Cyrus is nominated for 13 awards

- Presenters include Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian

- Salt has been nominated for Choice Summer Movie, even though it doesn’t release until July 23 and voting is already underway

- 3 of the 5 nominations for Choice Movie: Comedy carry an R-rating, meaning teenagers 13-16 can’t even see them on their own. 4 of the 5 nominees for Choice Movie: Horror/Thriller carry R-ratings.

- Marmaduke was nominated for Choice Movie: Animated, although it can be argued that it’s not even an animated movie (There’s no point to this statement…other than it looks like the panel had to stretch hard to get 5 nominees)

- Nominees for Choice: Music Rap Artist:
Drake
Eminem
Jay-Z
Ludacris
Pit Bull

Just some things I found interesting. Like I said, whether this depicts teen culture or only the organizations that have the most money within teen culture…I don’t know. But regardless I think we can learn a lot about today’s youth culture thru these award shows.

Have you seen this Silly Bandz things? I’m not quite sure what they are or what they’re supposed to do, but evidently they’re extremely popular. From what I can tell, they just look like colorful rubber bands that are shaped like ducks, sharks, or some Disney character, and they’re worn around the wrist. They’re also relatively cheap, which probably helps the fad. Regardless of whether you think they’re awesome or cheap and overrated, there’s no denying the love that kids seem to have for them.

Silly Bandz is bringing in over $200 million a year right now, and that number is climbing. The bands are so popular that some schools have even had to ban them because they’re a distraction for students.

While I really don’t have much interest in Silly Bandz, their popularity got me thinking about some of the best/crazies toys or “trends” from the last 25 years. Here’s what I came up with. What do you think should be added to the list?

Furbies

Beanie Babies

Tickle Me Elmo

Pogs

Wii

Pokemon

Tamagotchi/Nano pets

TMNT

It seems like all of the PSAs, ads, commercials, etc. about driving and texting are focused at teenagers. From the sound of it, you would think 99% of teens text and drive, and all other demographics are innocent. Well, all you have to do is lift up your head from your phone to realize there’s a bigger problem at hand.

According to research from InformationWeek, adults text while driving more than teens. The study shows that nearly half of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message on their phone while driving, compared to about one-third of teenagers.

Neither group is excusable, and this doesn’t give teenagers a reason to point the finger and pretend to be innocent.

Information from the rest of the study can be found at InformationWeek‘s website. You can find it by clicking here.

However, I don’t know if we can expect teenagers to abide by the law if their parents aren’t following it themselves.

Parents, set the example. Your teen is watching. If you don’t want your teen to text behind the wheel, set the standard by putting the phone away while you drive. Whatever it is you need to send or read can wait. It might save your life, as well as the lives of many others.

Via: Online MBA

The following is an excerpt from Shannon Primicerio’s article “Bold Is Beautiful: Learning to Stand Out in a Fit-In World” from the Fall 2010 editions of Horizon and Direction magazines:

Choosing Your Celebrity Friends Wisely

I used to believe that what I watched wasn’t a big deal, but most of us could probably quote more movie lines than Bible verses, a talent that doesn’t exactly come in handy in the middle of temptation.

When I was in college my friends and I were into a popular sitcom. Every week we piled into one dorm room just in time to watch the unfolding events in the lives of our favorite characters. From the very beginning my friend Jen was opposed to the show. She thought the characters led immoral lives. Many times she chose to sit out in the hall and do homework while we used her roommate’s TV.

Over time, Jen lost her willpower and began watching the show with us. When some of the storylines got old to the rest of us, Jen found them fascinating because they were new to her. She was hooked. About a year later she started making poor choices. It was like she became a different person.

Our friend Jill decided to talk to her about the drastic change. Immediately Jen was defensive. “Wait a second,” she said. “For years you watched the characters on our show do things like this and you didn’t have a problem with it. So, don’t tell me you have a problem when I do it.”

Although Jen’s actions weren’t justified, she had a point. Inviting similar behaviors into our dorm rooms each week (via our favorite show) was hypocritical. If we wouldn’t live like those characters, we shouldn’t have been willing to watch them make poor choices week after week.

First Corinthians 15:33 tells us evil company corrupts good habits. That’s just as true with the company we keep through our television sets and movie screens. Choose the TV shows and movies you watch the same way you choose your friends—wisely and with godly discernment. They really do matter more than you think.

Check out the rest of the article in the Fall 2010 editions of Horizon and Direction magazines.