It's not that Simple
But Media don't do Nuance
“Do you need the world to be simple, or are you willing to let it be complex?”
I pose this question to my college students every time I teach media literacy as we look at the various cognitive routines people develop or nurture while engaging media messages.
One of the key psychological concepts here is tolerance for ambiguity, what Science Direct defines as:
“propensity to perceive ambiguous situations as desirable, often characterized by a tolerance of disorder and an attraction to complexity. It is associated with traits such as flexibility, openness to experience, and risk-taking.”
The point, if it’s all still too ambiguous, is whether your like your world to make sense according to a set of pre-determined scripts in your head or you are willing to sometimes let the mediated world not be so black and white.
Before you give the answer you think the comm prof wants to hear, consider this.
Most of us need most of our world to be simple most of the time.
Imagine waking up and having to process what you will do for the first 30 minutes every day. (some of us of a certain age might be getting there)
We make breakfast, shower, put on clothes, and drive to work all while following learned mental routines. Our actions are also governed by certain assumptions such as - the shower water will be warm, there’s food in the fridge, and it takes about 15 minutes to get to the office.
Let just one of those assumptions go wrong - like with a power outage, or a traffic accident blocking the route and our routine is disrupted. We have to think how to alter our script to keep on schedule.
Routines and scripts are necessary, but what about when mental shortcuts actually short-circuit deeper thought? When does jumping into a script become jumping to conclusions - too soon, too fast, too simple.
Here’s where media deserve blame.
Media are the GREAT SIMPLIFIERS of modern life.
In order to gain and hold attention, most media creators learn what one crusty news director once said of my TV scripts:
KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid
As harsh as that may sound, it’s a principle I’ve tried to teach in 30+ years in academia (which isn’t always known for simplicity)
Simple is good in writing and speaking. Simple is clear. Simple communicates.
But simple…is not simplistic.
Webster’s defines simplistic as:
“excessively simple or simplified : treating a problem or subject with false simplicity by omitting or ignoring complicating factors or details.”
And that explains our media culture today, particularly social media with its memes, hot takes, toxic comments and influencer reels.
Ambiguity doesn’t meme. Nuance is just noise. Reasoning’s got no reason to live.
Just look at the slogans that meme their way into our threads:
Trump Derangement Syndrome
Go Woke, Go Broke
Act Green, Live Clean
What about Biden?
Lock Her Up
Bush Lied, People Died
Okay, that last one is an oldie (not goodie) but it shows we had a problem long before the socials ran our lives. In another age we’d call it bumper-sticker philosophy, but for today’s consumers I will brand it the Meme-ing of Merca (see, I’m trying to trend, too)
Memes and takes are cheap, lazy and sharable.
Thinking…is hard.
Simplistic scripts have been in the water of mass media from the beginning - the movie with clear heroes and villains, the “fair and balanced” news story with “both sides” represented by 8 second soundbites, or the sitcom resolving teenage angst with 20 minutes of talking.. and a hug.
But nothing reduced complexity more efficiently than 20th-century advertising.
This showed up fictionally but brilliantly in the pilot episode of Mad Men, as our creative heroes wrestled with the ambiguity of selling a product that could literally kill its customers.
By reducing their message to say nothing, the “media” in the show were free to “say anything.” So, commercials could associate cigarettes with the good life (It’s toasted.)
And as Don Draper said:
“(happiness) is a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.”
Don’t fear. Don’t think. Just smoke.
Life is complex, but on television it will all be okay, as screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky opined through his mad prophet/newscaster in Network:
(Language Warning)
Media are, indeed, in the boredom-killing business and today’s endless scroll is just another chapter in the reductive illusion.
But just because we have the ability and the mediated encouragement to over simplify - well, everything - doesn’t mean we should do so.
In fact, I think God created our minds for both simplicity and ambiguity.
I’ve seen highly intelligent people make the simple things in life complex:
Faith - Jesus said to come to accept Him humbly:
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 18:3-4
Honor - respect for the other - made in God’s image - is not optional:
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.” - James 3:9
Commitment - it’s not “complicated” - in marriage, in work, in giving your word - live up to your promise:
“This is what the Lord commands: When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” - Numbers 3:2
Conversely, even the most intelligent folks can make the complex too simple:
Politics - Republicans - good, Democrats - evil.
(Searching here for a scripture that picks a political party…still searching)
Sexuality - “love is love” - if only scripture, Judeo-Christian tradition and biology agreed:
“The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” - Genesis 2:23-24
Immigration - welcome the stranger or send them back?
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” - Leviticus 19:33
Actually, the weight of scripture seems to be on the side of welcoming, but I’m not writing this to engage in a policy debate - except to say, it’s never as simple as left or right-leaning partisans or media make it out to be.
And we could go on. The issues of our day get recycled and re-memed because - of course they do. That’s what we do. And that’s what we watch.
Reductive, generalized, polarized, trivialized - if you’re looking for logical fallacies, our media and political environments are target-rich.
How can a Christ-follower resist reductionism and become more media literate?
Let simple be simple, not simplistic.
Jesus said come to Him with the faith of a child, but this doesn’t mean we stay child-like as we grow in His grace. If we were to stay in a simplistic faith, I don’t think we would need the whole of scripture and teaching to inform and deepen our understanding of God and His kingdom:
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” - 1 Corinthians 13:11
Seek truth to, indeed, set you free. (John 8:31-32)
This also isn’t as simple as it sounds because truth in media is elusive and sometimes deeper than the simplistic narratives we consume. It takes discernment and a sanctified imagination to connect the dots. But if you seek Him, you will find Him.
Allow ambiguity - A discerning follower recognizes sometimes God speaks and sometimes He is silent. There is mystery and ambiguity, even in the warm embrace of certain faith.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. - Isaiah 55:8
Engage complexity - In your media consumption - fictional and real - seek stories that make you think, news that balances perspectives and entertainment that enlightens as well as inspires.
Don’t Rush from Simplicity to Judgment - Our media culture encourages the quick, simple and hot. Passing it forward is even easier than posting and takes less thought. It’s one thing to engage it - quite another to believe it to the point of prejudice.
TURN IT OFF is dedicated to doing less, thinking more and applying truth to the media we consume. Since media is so much a part of how we engage and interpret our world, we should never ignore the mental scripts it has shaped and energized.
Yet once recognized, we are not bound to follow these scripts where wisdom, timeless truth and spiritual discernment say otherwise.
Just because “everyone on the Internet thinks…..” does not mean the Christ-follower must go along.
Our media will continue to sell simplicity. The real world is more complex and ambiguous. Let them both be.
We have clarity in Christ.
“Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being relevant.
Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom.
What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture, He exposes the hype of the hipsters. The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls.”