I think I’ve figured it out.  I think I’ve finally been able to put my finger on what it is that makes our current culture tick.  Are you ready? [Pause] Facebook.  Yup.  That’s it.  Actually, it’s not Facebook per se, but all that it stands for: the desire to be known.

If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the landscape of current pop-culture to prove it.  Pop-culture has always been the place where those who shape culture the most (15-25 year-olds with expendible income) go to express their values and have fun with what they feel is important.  Therefore, it’s really the best place to do a little self relflection.

Social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, etc) have been insanely popular for almost 4 years now.  They thrive on the idea of gathering friends, sharing information, and making as many connnections as possible.  You also have the entire genre of reality television, which has expanded to literally hundreds of shows and thousands of opportunities for one to grab their 15 minutes of fame.  It’s no wonder that so many teens equate success with celebrity.

Enter YouTube, and the fact that in our current culture one can post a grainy home movie one minute and find themselves on CNN the next.  Lonely kids who make weird videos about Britney Spears in their bedrooms suddenly find themselves invited to award shows.  Seriously.  Then you have the new media, namely blogs.  Here you have a forum whereby anyone under the sun can register a domain name and sit at home in their underwear and share their unfiltered, unadulterated thoughts with the world; all fueled by the idea that their opinion not only matters but needs to be, must be heard.  That hits close to home.

But do you see the point?  The engines of our current, pop-culture landscape all focus on one thing: being known.  Now, I’m not saying this is all bad.  But it is something to take note of.

By the way, it also stands in contrast to the Biblical path to fulfilment.  While current culture seems to be saying that all people have an inherent “fabulousness” that needs to be known, the Bible tells us that real fulfillment comes from knowing that we are hopeless and jacked up apart from the grace of God, and that real joy, real wholeness come not from ebing known by the world but by knowing the one who died and rose for the world: Jesus.

But then again, all of this is coming from a guy with 80 Facebook friends and a blog.