Stunted Characters On-Screen (and Off)

There’s a reason we like coming-of-age stories. Something inside of us just loves watching the process of a character growing up before our eyes. Even more than our culture’s obsession with youth, I think this is the reason why the protagonists of so many films these days are teenagers. I must admit that I’m a sucker for these films as well. Some of my all-time favorite movies (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, even Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) fall into this category.

Another popular coming-of-age story: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This one’s a little bit different because the main character is middle-aged, but the movie makes very clear from its first few moments that he has a lot of growing up to do. Walter has great ambitions and a vivid imagination, but he’s so afraid of the world around him that he avoids any sort of risk at all, to the point that it significantly inhibits his ability to live his life. I disliked the movie upon first watching it because I found the character of Walter to be so emotionally stunted that I just couldn’t relate to him.

But the more I paid attention to character development in both movies and TV shows, the more I noticed that almost every story’s protagonist is portrayed as significantly stunted in one way or another. Even characters who seem well-rounded and likeable at first turn out to be incredibly immature in a single area or trait, as if that part of their psyche suddenly stopped developing one day during childhood while the rest continued to grow normally. It’s easy to miss because we’ve grown so accustomed to it, but all you have to do is consider your favorite movie or TV show. How does the main character grow throughout the story? How far behind is he or she in those areas at the beginning of the story? If my experience with on-screen storytelling is any indication, the character probably starts well behind what would be considered normal for someone of his or her age.

But one has to wonder how realistic these portrayals really are. After all, we root for these characters because we relate to them. Nobody’s perfect, and we each have areas of our personalities and approaches to the world that we need to work on. It might even be accurate to say that we are each stunted in certain ways by negative experiences we endure growing up.

But do you know anyone who’s really as afraid of tasking risks as Walter Mitty, who at the beginning of the story is too scared to even fill out an online dating profile for fear of being rejected? Onscreen, it may seem endearing and even relatable, but in real life, someone with that level of fear would probably be considered mentally ill. In order to make Walter’s traits clear, the creators of the film have used exaggeration in his portrayal.

This exaggeration stems from a basic rule of storytelling: Show, don’t tell. If the narrator of the film simply told us that Walter was afraid of the world around him, we may not understand the depths of his struggle, and we certainly wouldn’t be as interested in his story. This exaggeration very clearly states what his problem is, making it all the more clear and satisfying as we watch him overcome these issues throughout the film.

Exaggeration is a necessary part of storytelling, but it’s a double-edged sword. Storytellers can rely on the tool too much and become lazy. Instead of showing us the story of a flawed person becoming extraordinary, they show us the story of an abnormally stunted person becoming normal, hoping that we’ll be impressed despite the low bar that they have set for their character. It’s not their fault, really. It’s become an accepted part of telling stories these days. But I think that this kind of storytelling can become dangerous when viewers are exposed to it over and over uncritically.

And this becomes even more of an issue with television shows. I’ve recently been binge-watching the Ryan Murphy dramedy Glee, which ran on Fox a few years back. The show centers on a high school show choir and the so-called educators who influence them. I can’t really call them “teachers” because it often feels like the adults on the show are less mature than the students, using the kids to fulfill their own lost dreams and to manipulate one another, often to the detriment of the students’ educations. They’re actually quite abhorrent people.

Until the season finale, of course, when everyone learns their lesson and emerges from their struggles having become a better person for them. This is typical of the storytelling style I’ve outlined above. But the problem with TV shows (and, to a lesser degree, with movie sequels) is that if a story resonates with a lot of people, the storytellers are expected to use the same characters to tell a similarly compelling story again. This means that the same characters the audience has watched grow over the past season must now start over in a new area of growth (or potentially fall back into the same old, bad habits from when the audience first meets them) and start the process all over again.

This cycle of going from stuntedness to growth back to stuntedness over and over might have the effect of further normalizing immaturity and selfishness beyond even the storytelling trope of exaggeration, and this could be a huge problem. We are affected, informed, and even formed by the media we consume. We aspire to be like our favorite TV and movie characters, and if we spend years watching them act in ways that are completely unacceptable and abnormal, we may eventually accept this sort of stuntedness as a normal aspect of life, which leads us dangerously close to simply accepting any stuntedness, immaturity, or selfishness we may recognize in ourselves.

Maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Maybe I’m thinking way too much about this, and it really isn’t as much of an issue as I fear. But as a massive consumer of media myself, I know that I’ve personally felt the effects of this phenomenon, and I don’t need any extra forces in my life pushing me towards complacency. Ultimately, the stories we tell and the stories we listen to form the people that we become, and I want to seek out stories that enrich my life and encourage me to be all that I can be, or at least learn to cut through the misused exaggeration and interpret stories in that way. I’d encourage you to do the same if you, like me, are concerned about the way that storytelling’s power is being used in media today.

What I'm Watching This Summer

If you’ve been following me on social media or reading this blog for very long, you know that I love consuming media and talking about content that makes me smile. And I watch a lot of stuff. After getting excited for fall premieres and watching regular TV through the spring, I’m usually eager for summer, when I can get a break from the constant barrage of new episodes and slow down for a bit. This summer is no different. But even though most of my TV shows are off the air for now, summer blockbuster season is just getting started, and there are still a few shows releasing new stuff in the summer months. So here’s a selection of the shows and movies I’m watching this summer and why I’m excited to see each of them.

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movies

Baby Driver

This is the first movie that I’ll be going into blind for a very long time. I haven’t seen a trailer for Baby Driver or even really any posters. What little I know about it has come from word-of-mouth, and it’s got me very excited. The film is directed by Edgar Wright, who previously directed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and spent years developing Ant-Man before leaving the project during production. I’m really excited to see something new from him, and he’s put together an epic cast as well. I guess the movie is about a stunt driver or something? I don’t know. But I trust Wright and look forward to seeing the cast he’s assembled on-screen soon.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Hands-down, Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. I grew up watching Tobey McGuire play Peter Parker, and I related to his story so much. I even stuck through the Andrew Garfield days, when Spider-Man was a skateboarding punk. And now, after years of patience, Spidey fans are finally getting the film adaptation we deserve. We got a taste of Tom Holland’s version of the hero in last year’s Captain America: Civil War, and that preview combined with early reviews of Homecoming indicate that this is going to be the best Spider-Man film to date. I’m really happy that the character is finally under the creative control of Marvel Studios, giving him the ability to interact with the world of the Avengers and his mentor, Tony Stark, who features prominently in the film. Spider-Man: Homecoming releases on July 7, but I’ll already have seen it by then because I’ll definitely be attending a Thursday night premiere.

Despicable Me 3

Summer movies aren’t just for grown-ups. The kids have to get some love, too. And since my nephew is a huge Minions fan, I have an excuse to go see the newest Despicable Me sequel in theaters. The first film was a huge hit, and I thought the follow-up and spin-off were equally entertaining, if not quite as endearing. The threequel is set to feature a look into Gru’s backstory and family dynamics after he finds out about his long-lost twin brother, who happens to be a villain. Will Gru choose to return to his former life of evil, undermining the growth we’ve seen in him over the past two films? Or will he choose to stay true to his newfound family and the sense of fulfillment they give him? Either way, we’re going to see Minions running a prison gang, which on its own makes this movie worth seeing when it comes out this weekend.

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TV

Planet of the Apps

This show is Apple’s first attempt at creating original television content, and it’s only available to Apple Music subscribers. I was already a subscriber to the service for its music streaming services, so I decided to give the show a shot. It’s got a Shark Tank vibe, but with Apple’s own techy spin. I think they’re still trying to nail down exactly what the format will be, but I’m enjoying the show a few episodes in. Some of the featured apps are really compelling, and it’s fun to see the advisors teach app developers how to pitch their products to investors. Plus, the failed pitches can be pretty funny, too. It’s unclear how many episodes Apple plans on releasing this summer, but for now, I’m enjoying my weekly dose of Planet of the Apps on Apple Music.

Suits

Props to USA Network for taking a premise that sounds like it should only last a season or two and making it work year after year. Suits is a drama about a young man who decides to impersonate an attorney at an upscale New York law firm and the complacent, overachieving senior partner who decides to give him a shot. Over the years, Suits has focused a lot more on the relationships between the characters than on the show’s premise, but that central conflict has always weaved its way in and out of the story in creative ways. Season seven premieres July 12, and I’m happy that I don’t have a lot of shows to keep up with this summer so that I can really pay attention to the intricacies of one. It offers enough depth and complexity to keep me occupied all summer long.

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bonus

summer binge: Glee

This show first came out as I was graduating high school, so it has a special place in my heart. I spent my first summer post-high school binging season one and listening to the soundtrack in my car. Even though I didn’t stick with Glee through its initial run, I’ve always meant to go back and experience it start-to-finish, if for no other reason than to see what happened to my favorite characters. I’m almost through season one, and I’ve had a lot of fun re-experiencing the show all these years later. Plus, the music makes for great motivation at the gym. I don’t know that I’ll power through all six seasons this summer, but I’m committed to binging Glee until I finish it this time around.

podcasts

One other medium I’ve recently gotten really into is podcasts. I find the format to be much more intimate than movies or TV shows, and it’s a lot easier to fit into my schedule since I can listen while I’m driving or performing certain tasks at work. I listen to podcasts non-stop, and I’ll continue to do so over the summer. I’m subscribed to so many that, even though a few of my favorites are taking a summer break, I’ll still have plenty to listen to. I’m particularly excited to keep listening to Red Couch from Relevant Magazine and to check out the upcoming collaboration between Microsoft and Gimlet, .future. If you haen’t given podcasts a try, why not do it now, while you’re not totally distracted by new TV shows? Those two podcasts would be a great place to start.

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So that’s what I’m watching (and listening to) this summer. Now I want to hear from you. What’s on your list of things you’re looking forward to seeing this summer? Have any suggestions for podcasts I’m missing out on? I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading, friends, and I’ll see you next week!

My Thoughts on WWDC 2017

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developer Conference a couple of weeks ago and made some huge announcements about the future of their software and hardware (though, predictably, not the iPhone). I won’t go into all of the announcements here. If you’d like a roundup of those, check out my other site, Prosumable, where I summarized all of them. However, more important than the individual announcements themselves is what Apple’s changes as a whole indicate about the direction the company is moving in. And that’s what I want to get into today.

WWDC is a chance not only to get a preview of what’s to come for all of our favorite devices but also an opportunity to peer behind the veil into the mind of Apple: their process for iteratively adding value to each of their devices, their priorities in creating new devices, and their vision for what the future of technology should look like. This year was particularly insightful, I think, because it represents the culmination of a few moves that Apple’s been working on for a while but kept under wraps. Here are my big-picture takeaways from this year’s keynote and what I think they mean for Apple’s future:

The iPad can actually be your computer now. With iOS 11, Apple is giving the iPad a proper file management system, significantly more powerful multitasking and window management, and a platform-wide drag-and-drop feature that couldn’t be more intuitive. All of this results in a user experience that is truly desktop-class. Apple’s been trying to market the iPad as a laptop replacement for a long time by highlighting what you can do with the powerful apps that developers have created for the platform, but now those apps are supplemented by a full-fledged operating system that pushes the iPad to new limits and makes it a true laptop alternative. Since I started using iOS 11 on my new iPad Pro, my MacBook Pro has been sitting unused on my desk, and I don’t miss it. For casual users, the iPad has been a viable option for an everyday computer for years; now, it’s an option for everyone.

The iMac can actually be your pro computer now. Over the past year or so, there has been an increasing amount of outcry against Apple for allegedly ignoring its professional users. Scandalous tell-alls written by pros who’ve ditched the Mac for Windows have gone viral and been used as evidence that the company has given up on power users. Apple recently invited select members of the press to an event on their campus where executives fessed up to making major blunders with the Mac Pro and promised that Macs for professionals were on the way, but this didn’t convince everyone. Now, with the announcement of more powerful iMacs and the all-new iMac Pro, the company is putting to rest any doubt that pros may have had that they are still a priority in the eyes of Apple. As I’ve argued before, Apple cares deeply for their professional users; pros are Apple’s past and future. And they made that very clear with their Mac hardware announcements at WWDC.

Privacy is more important than convenience, but innovation is possible. In a world where Google and Facebook are hungrier than ever for user data, Apple has emerged as the technology company that prioritizes the privacy of its users, going so far as to protect consumers‘ data even from the company itself. This has earned the trust of the public, but it has also created some serious hurdles in software design and innovation. It turns out that sacrificing users’ privacy makes way for shortcuts in the development of new technologies and applications (especially when it comes to artificial intelligence), so it often looks like Apple is falling behind the competition in these areas. At several points during the WWDC keynote, Apple executives discussed their commitment to protecting user data and how they’re staying innovative and competitive despite the limitations that come along with that commitment. Developing a more powerful, proactive Siri assistant that recognizes a user across his or her various devices without violating that user’s privacy is no simple feat, but they’ve accomplished it. Privacy and innovation can go hand-in-hand. In fact, Apple argues that their way ultimately results in better technology, and I would have to agree with them.

Augmented reality is all fun and games for now, but its future is much bigger. Tim Cook has been hinting at Apple’s augmented reality ambitions for years, but we’ve never seen anything come of it until this year’s WWDC. At the event, the company displayed a very basic application of its new ARKit, a set of development tools that will make augmented reality accessible to anyone who makes apps for iOS devices. For now, the technology is being used to create games that can be virtually placed and played on surfaces in the real world, which is cool but not all that practical or mind-blowing. But with ARKit, Apple has suddenly made every iOS device an AR portal and made every iOS developer an AR developer. It’s only a matter of time before the collective genius of the iOS developer community creates applications for augmented reality that completely change the way we interact with our devices and go about our day-to-day lives. I have no idea what the applications will be, but I’m excited to see what the future holds for AR.

Apple is listening. Throughout its history, there has always been this narrative that Apple doesn’t ask consumers what they want and then give it to them; rather, Apple creates something and then tells consumers, “This is what you want.” The company is known for always being on the cutting-edge of where technology is going and how people want to use it. This story rang true for a very long time, I’d say for as long as Steve Jobs led the company. But Steve’s final Apple project, the company’s new Apple Park campus, is complete, and they have a new leader in Tim Cook. He has a different approach to leading Apple, and that showed more than ever at this year’s WWDC. Announcements like a file system on the iPad and the new iMac Pro may seem sudden to consumers, but these are things that have taken Apple years to develop and implement, all while consumers have been requesting them and lamenting that “Apple doesn’t listen to us” when they aren’t delivered. The truth is that Apple is listening to their customers and taking their concerns very seriously, and we are beginning to see the amazing things that the company is creating to fulfill their customers’ wants and needs.

These are just a few of my key takeaways from watching the event and reflecting on it over the past couple of weeks. While the announcements themselves are exiting, and I’m really enjoying trying several of them out myself, I’m even more excited about what these announcements say about Apple’s mindset and where the company is going. There will always be haters and skeptics out there, but I think that if there’s WWDC is any indication, the future of Apple is bright. And with the announcement of the tenth-anniversary iPhone right around the corner, I for one can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Thanks for checking out my thoughts on this year’s WWDC. Have an opinion about the event or my analysis of it that you’d like to share? I’d love to discuss it with you! Let’s talk on Twitter, via email, or in the comments section of this post. I’m always happy to talk tech. Thanks for reading, friends. I hope you have a great week!

Executing Grace

I recently graduated from seminary, bringing my career as a student to a close (at least, for now). This has brought about a flurry of changes, and I’m still trying to figure out exactly what life looks like post-education. But all of it has been positive. I’m really excited about the ways in which my life is different now than it was when I was in school, and one of my favorite changes might surprise you. I’m really happy that I now get to choose the books I read instead of having them assigned to me.

I’ve had a pile of books on my shelf for ages that I’ve been meaning to read, and that pile has gotten larger and larger with time. But always at the top was Shane Claiborne’s latest book Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us. Shane has been a powerful voice in my life for years, ever since I read his first book The Irresistible Revolution, and when I heard that he was writing a book on the death penalty, I couldn’t wait to read it. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been soaking in Shane’s words on the issue, and I think I’m now to a point where I can process and write about them coherently. This is my review of Shane’s book, as well as some of my own thoughts about the controversial topic that the book tackles.

The book begins with a basic premise: Regardless of one’s views on the death penalty, whether they be based in politics, religion, morality, or something else, we can all admit that the idea of someone dying under any circumstance just feels wrong. No amount of logic or reasoning can change the fact that our hearts sink when we hear that a human life has been taken. We may try to rationalize certain types of death (such as state-sanctioned executions or war casualties), but in the end, our hearts will never be completely overruled by our heads. Shane’s book begins with a call to reconcile the two, and this is the call the reader must live up to as he or she continues through the book.

Executing Grace proceeds to cover a multitude of issues that crop up around the death penalty: the victims’ points-of-view, the Bible’s statements about the issue and how they’ve been used (and misused) throughout history, the effects of the death penalty on those forced to carry it out, the role that race has played in the history of the death penalty, and the inevitable fact that the entire Christian faith is centered around the most famous execution of all time: Jesus’ crucifixion and death at the hands of the Roman government. In each chapter, Shane takes an honest look at these issues from multiple angles, slowly building a wholistic, Christ-centered view of this heavy topic. Along the way, Shane is informative, heartfelt, and brutally honest about the reality of the death penalty and its effects.

No one who picks up the book is going to be surprised by where Shane lands on the issue. He makes it pretty clear from the start that he is adamantly anti-death. But that doesn’t mean that the view put forth in the book isn’t nuanced, well-supported, and ultimately an attempt at constructing a Christian response to the questions raised by the death penalty. The book is meant to be read by anyone who is willing to approach it with an open mind, even if the reader has a different view than Shane does. He’s not interested in being heavy-handed or disrespectful towards anyone, only to make his case, something he does very well. I think that Shane’s take on the death penalty as put forth in Executing Grace is more faithful to the Bible and to the teachings of Jesus than any other I’ve encountered, and his message has certainly convicted me, influencing my view on the issue in the process .

But just as compelling as Shane’s argument is his deep sense of concern and urgency. Throughout the book, he weaves in stories of people who have been affected by death and the death penalty in one way or another. You can tell from Shane’s words that these are people and stories that he’s spent a great deal of time with. These stories have affected him and the way he views the death penalty. These have been transformative stories for him, and he presents them in such a way that they can be transformative for the reader as well if one is only open to it.

Ultimately, Executed Grace is not so much a logical argument as it as a call to action. On an issue as important as the death penalty, it is not enough for us to form our opinions and simply agree to disagree. It is not enough to hear these amazing stories and go on with our lives as usual. This book calls us to take a stance, to stand firm in it, and to allow it to affect how we live our lives day-to-day. It is a call to care. It is a call to act. It is a call to resist death in Jesus’ name, and that’s a call that I want to answer.

Giving Back to Content Creators

The sheer amount of content that we have access to online is staggering, and much of it is available free-of-charge. Social media platforms. News articles. Podcasts. YouTube videos (for the most part). Blog posts. And so much more. They’re all out there on the web, just waiting for anyone and everyone to consume them without paying a dime.

This is something we’ve come to expect and maybe even to take for granted. But what too many of us fail to recognize is that all of these things that we enjoy are being created by people who devote their time, energy, and resources to making the best content that they can for others to enjoy. Creators pour themselves into making content that is valuable to their audiences, and creating that value is costly. Sure, it may be free for us, the end users, but it isn’t free for those who make it.

The way that the internet has traditionally dealt with this imbalance is by enabling creators to place advertisements in and around their content. Advertisers recognize that quality content attracts attention, and they’re willing to pay money in order to piggyback on that quality and potentially attract some attention from consumers for themselves.

But the ad-supported model that the internet has relied on so heavily for the entirety of its existence has some serious flaws, and those flaws are only becoming more apparent. How much should content creators be compensated? Should advertisers have any control over the content that their brands are associated with? How do those (like YouTube) who bridge the gap between creators and advertisers navigate the differing—and often even conflicting—priorities of the parties involved?

These are difficult questions, and the current system is proving itself inadequate for addressing them. Thus, many creators are seeking alternative forms of funding their projects that rely less on traditional models and more on the people creators care about most: their audiences. Plunging advertising rates and increased content “guidelines” are forcing those who make content online to re-think their strategies and come up with new, creative ways to make a living.

Naturally, the vast majority of internet users are going to be resistant to this sort of change. After all, why would you want to pay money for something that you usually get for free? But the truth is that you are paying every time you access ad-supported content, through the time you spend engaging with advertisements and the data that advertisers gather about you as you browse the web. Online consumers have always paid for their content in this way; now we’re being offered alternatives that protect our privacy and more directly support the creators that we enjoy.

I must admit that as an online content creator myself, I am a little biased. I know the amount of time, effort, money, anguish, sacrifice, and more that goes into the process of making content for the internet, and I’m nowhere near the level of professional content creators who do this sort of thing for a living. (Note: I currently do not monetize any of my online content through ads or any other means.) But as I look over the landscape of the amazing content offered online today from some incredible creators, I can’t help but feel a sense of duty to support those who make the content that enriches my life.

Educational videos that help me understand the world in new ways. Podcasts that amplify voices I would have never heard otherwise. Articles that inform me about events taking place in the world right now. Not to mention software and platforms that allow me to connect with others and conduct my life in deeper, more meaningful ways. All of these things have tangible, real-world value. Who am I to passively consume all of this content and never expect to give anything back?

As I said above, I understand that this is an emerging idea that many will approach with skepticism at best. To be honest, my thoughts on this issue have developed over time and only recently come to any sort of actionable conclusion. But I’ve come to understand that supporting content creators is an important responsibility that I can no longer neglect. What exactly that support looks like will vary drastically at different times and with different people, but I’d like to conclude with just a few ways that you can support online content creators if, like me, you feel convicted to do so:

• consume | On the most basic level, experiencing a creator’s content is the easiest way to support them. Whether it’s reading a blog post, watching a video, listening to a podcast, or whatever else, simply being a part of the audience does help creators in big ways, especially if they still rely on the ad-supported model.
• engage | You know how annoying it is when a YouTuber asks you to like and comment on their video or a podcaster pleads with you to “review us on Apple Podcasts” at the end of each episode? Well, they’re asking you to do that because it really does make a difference. Engagement is a key way for creators to increase discoverability. It’s a way for them to demonstrate that their content has appeal and value. Plus, it’s a fun, easy, and free way to help out someone who’s given you something you really enjoy, and it gives you a chance to offer feedback and constructive criticism, potentially leaving an impact on future content.
• share | Whether you realize it or not, you have a platform. You have influence. There are people within your networks (both online and offline) who value your opinion and are are willing to check out content that you endorse. So if you find something on the internet that really speaks to you or that you find of particular value, tell someone about it. Tweet about it. Text the link to a friend. If it comes up in conversation, let people know where you got your information and how much you enjoy the creator who provided you with it. Your stamp of approval is valuable, and if you love something, why wouldn’t you want others to experience it as well?
• contribute | This is by far the biggest and most difficult step in supporting content creators, but it’s also the one that helps them out the most. Whether it’s pledging to give monthly on Patreon, subscribing to YouTube Red, buying merchandise, or some other means of giving, contributing money to fund a content creator is a profound and impactful way of telling them how much you love their content and giving them the ability to make more of it. It requires a bit of sacrifice on your part, but that sacrifice means the world to the one who receives it, someone who themselves has sacrificed a lot in order to bring you something worthwhile.

Am I saying that you owe money to every person you watch, read, or listen to online? Of course not. Very few people have that kind of means. But most of us have enough to give at least a small amount to the content creators who enrich our lives the most, and I believe that if we want to keep the internet full of interesting, engaging, enriching content, it’s on us to make it possible.