Morals
The popularity of such shows as "Wife Swap" indicates the current quality of American social values: it has become alright to disrupt a child's life by substituting the mother for a perfect stranger, but it isn't alright for homosexuals to get married. Today's youth face moral conflicts and conundrums that are unique to our generation. Mass media programming sends distorted moral messages to which youth are especially susceptible. However, combating negative moral influences is not simply a matter of turning off the television, or even of listening to one's mentors, parents, or peers. Rather, for a young person to emerge from adolescence with solid moral foundations, he or she must cultivate sensitivity.
Because of the nature of television, film, and digital entertainment, young people today have become at least partially desensitized to human suffering. The solution to desensitization is not to refrain from playing Mortal Kombat or to shun the Fox network. On the other hand, cultivating sensitivity requires deep compassion. Deep compassion in turn derives from working with people who are ill or who are suffering. The best way to rekindle compassion for human beings is to recognize human suffering in all its forms and instead of walking away from it. When young people spend time with ailing relatives or volunteer in a homeless shelter, for instance, their sensitivity to suffering increases and with it they cultivate compassion.
To combat negative moral influences in our society, youth must first become re-sensitized to human suffering. Morality is not about going to Church or listening to adages from one's parents. In fact, lip service morality can be immensely hypocritical, as it is when people who denounce basic civil liberties like abortion rights pretend to live on a moral high ground. Cultivating good morals comes from within and includes developing an awareness of the needs of other people; being less self-centered and cultivating compassion for the enormous level of human suffering that we are desensitized to by the entertainment industry.
