Why Discernment Is Important
Some food for thought...
The inspiration for this post comes from a YouTube culture known as “family vlogging”. For those of you who don’t know about this, there are mom influencers who vlog about their families, in all aspects. The spectrum is broad, ranging from an educational standpoint {mom tips; product recommendations; pregnancy experiences; menu ideas} to the more sinister themes {using sensationalistic clickbait for views; divulging every detail of the childrens’ lives, often without their consent; continued exploitation, despite the awareness that pervy people are acessing their content}. The bottom line is, many of the people who are famous for exploiting their children are purposely doing it for the money.
There are YouTube channels who are dedicated to exposing these vloggers to protect the children and it’s working. These vloggers are actually losing subscribers by the thousands, and I hope it continues.
One of the most popular families in this realm of YouTubers has garnered plenty of attention by publishing exorbitant grocery hauls. I’m talking THOUSANDS of dollars spent every week, just buying basketfuls of stuff, to create enough of an outrage to bring people back for more views. It’s become a veritable “How much is she going to spend THIS time?” type thing. In today’s world, it’s insulting to watch someone who makes tons of money from YouTube views buy obscene amounts of food, while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet.
My reason for writing this post is to talk about discernment and enabling sinful behavior. I’ve written multiple articles about the importance of spiritual diet, and I believe that the gift of discernment is necessary to ensure we’re giving our attention to the right things.
I’m the first to admit that it’s easy to lose track of time while watching YouTube videos, but I’ve gotten into the habit of periodically “spring cleaning” my subscribed channel list, according to certain criteria. I continue subscribing to channels with content that:
strengthens my faith in God and/or inspires me to read the Bible/pray;
teaches me anything useful or inspires my creativity;
makes me smile/laugh enough to want to share with loved ones;
elicits an emotional response that will help me grow and learn about life from another perspective;
gives food for thought and pushes me to do more research on a certain topic;
gets me dancing and/or singing;
shows me an interesting process, like renovation, cooking, how machines work, etc.;
highlights bargains at stores I already shop at.
I unsubscribe from or avoid channels with content that:
continually features immoral, anti-Christian behavior;
uses click-bait for shock value;
boasts of wealth, possessions, status; features continuous “flexing”;
consists of pranks;
features “clean/organize-with-me” titles;
features physical or emotional pain for “entertainment”;
makes me feel as though the vlogger is out of touch with subscribers;
marginalizes or insults the beliefs/opinions of the audience.
Regarding the vlogger whose content centers around her exorbitant grocery shopping sprees, I just want to say this:
I think we need to look at the bigger picture here, and understand how the audience plays into her hands. When a YouTuber’s channel is monetized, their income comes from subscriptions, views {with bonus revenue from the sponsored ad, if there is one}, likes, shares, and commenting on each video. The job, as an influencer/vlogger, is to keep people engaging in their content, and, unfortunately, many YouTubers resort to creating increasingly more outrageous content. People continue to watch this vlogger’s excessive grocery sprees only to find out how much she spends. If she was spending as much as the average person, people wouldn’t tune in.
Vlogger creates outrageous content ➡️ Audience gives views/likes/comments ➡️ Vlogger gets paid, according to engagement ➡️ Vlogger creates more content ➡️ Audience continues to engage ➡️ Vlogger laughs all the way to the bank.
Spiritually:
Vlogger films her greed/gluttony ➡️ Audience enables and celebrates the vlogger’s sin ➡️ Vlogger continues to sin, teaching her children to do the same ➡️ Vlogger and audience are both accountable for their role in this sinful behavior.
It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. - Luke 17:2
What should happen is:
Vlogger publishes video ➡️ Audience unsubscribes, stops viewing, commenting, liking her video content ➡️ Vlogger stops publishing because she has no audience ➡️ Problem solved.
In closing, I would like to say that there are some amazingly talented people on YouTube, and across social media. Yes, anyone can publish content these days, which is why we must be vigilant when it comes to what we give our attention to. Why not watch or listen to someone who deserves an audience? We have the absolute power to decide who gets a platform and who doesn’t. Don’t cater to people who use sin and immorality to entertain; as long as you watch and enable them to continue, you’re contributing to their sin and yours.
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Well written and insightful! It will help many people and hopefully stop this awful behavior :)