Last week I learned something horrible that I didn't know about peanut allergies. I had heard about "airborne peanut allergies" before, but I never realized just how debilitating this condition can be until I spoke to a mother whose child suffers from it. The other day she and her son entered a room where there was an open peanut butter container. He just simply walked by it. As a result, he had a reaction so severe a trip to the emergency room was necessary. He's okay now, but this is the kind of thing they literally have to plan their lives around.
Fortunately, the airborne factor affects less than 10% of people with peanut allergies. And, Wikipedia claims that only 0.06% of the US population is impacted by peanut allergies in general. This means that the vast majority of us never have to give peanut exposure any consideration at all. But, are there other things we are exposed to that we would be wise to be much more aware of?
When it comes to our diet, most of us would quickly agree there are some foods that are good for us and others we should avoid. But what about the things we see and listen to? Today's world bombards us with media. It comes at us from every direction. However, most of us do very little to filter the good from the bad. In fact, there's an abundance of content that's violent, disturbing, vulgar, and hate inspired that's slowly desensitizing our society.
In my blog “What’s Your Default Mindset”, we talked about how one of our negative emotions can mutate into a default mode. Often, the things we see and hear on a daily basis have a tremendous impact on this process. These things fuel our emotions. Are we choosing the right kind of fuel to feed our joy? Let's take a look at a few different types of media and consider the impact they have.
The daily news. The speed of information is staggering. If there's a shooting at a school, the entire modern world can hear about it long before the parents impacted are even notified. Anyone who spends several hours a day watching the news will be exposed to story after story about all that's wrong in the world. It's unavoidable because, unfortunately, those are the stories that sell. As a result, it won't take long for most people watching to fall into despair or become bitter, pessimistic, or intolerant. What news are you watching? What's the line between being informed and being disturbed? How often are you seeking out stories that offer hope and inspiration?
Blogs and podcasts. We all have a voice, but if you know what you’re doing, you can make your opinion and preferences known to a huge audience and make some good money in the process. Tools like YouTube have given us a platform to do wonderful and horrible things. Sadly, this new freedom has led to a lot of "fake news" and alarming content. Recently, YouTube implemented new rules to restrict how its users share content to minors. A great step in the right direction, but much more is needed. What do the stations you are following reveal about how you see the world and what you value?
Movies and television. The biggest change to this type of entertainment in recent years has been the types of screens you can watch it on. This has certainly multiplied the distraction TV and cinema can have on our actual lives, but for the purposes of this topic, I'm more concerned with the types of movies and TV shows we choose to watch. When I was growing up, I couldn't understand my friends' fascinations with horror movies. I watched a few, but all I ever got out of the experience were disturbing images in my head. I guess some people get a rush from the suspense and danger like they do when they ride a roller coaster. That's fine, but when do the volume and extremes of horror movies begin to have a destructive impact on the way we see the world around us? In addition, how are pornographic and violent forms of entertainment affecting our relationships?
Video games. I was a huge gamer growing up. There's no question that I spent an unhealthy amount of time enjoying the games that were available in my day. Today, emerging technology has made the dangers of gaming not just about how it's robbing our time, but also how it's altering our reality. Every year, the graphics become more real and VR equipment is pulling us further and further into the story. What worlds are your avatars spending their time in and what lessons are you bringing back to this world?
Every day we have the ability to choose the media that's going to fuel our mindset. If we'd put in half the effort of the mother who's protecting her child from a tiny peanut, we'd open ourselves up to a level of joy that we have never known.
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