The student must then post 1 reply of at least 250 words. Each reply must incor

The student must then post 1 reply of at least 250 words. Each reply must incorporate at least 2 new scholarly citations in APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include journal articles, theoretical texts (you are required to incorporate/cite the textbook, the Bible). Discussions are encouraged to be written in third person.
There is a peer-reviewed/scholarly resource – The Journal of Biblical Integration in Business – that provides students with that integration. https://cbfa-jbib.org/index.php/jbib/issue/archive.
What do you believe is the single most influential force in today’s society that sets the tone for an individual’s personal values and why? Does this force affect Christians positively or negatively? What is your advice regarding this influential force? Explain and document your reasoning using scholarly and peer reviewed journal articles and/or texts.
Abigail Rozanas
Influence. It is one of the single greatest forces in existence today. It has the ability to change the narrative or opinion about any topic and change people’s perspectives in a way that nothing else can. However, what is the most influential force in society today? Is it a single person, or country, or something larger than that? When one looks at the world and studies what people are most consumed and influenced by, it appears that media in general and social platform influencers have the strongest force currently since they tend to set the tone for individual’s personal values and how they live their lives. People are advised all their lives that those who they spend the most time with is who they will become. This is because those who spend a large amount of time together influence each other without even realizing it. Just look at families or national geographies, a person’s surroundings affect who they are as a person and what they value most. Therefore, the information and narratives that a person consumes digitally will influence them in the same way. For instance, if an individual decides to listen to only one news outlet, they are going to believe and take up the opinions that they hear from it. For this reason, they are eventually going to value and believe the same things as that media outlet does. This is the same, no matter the age. In fact, “since most media consumed by children [today] is screen based, it has become an influential force in contributing to children’s knowledge of” the world (Douglas et al., 2022, p. 249). However, this type of media influence has only continued to expand and is now held in the hands of full-time social media influencers. Right in their title it says what they do. They influence people. Whether it be with fashion, food, shopping, or complete lifestyle. They are now paid to influence how people live and conduct their lives. While this may not necessarily be wrong, it can be quite excessive, when people are exposed to it relentlessly. Even though followers may not know these influencers personally, they can become such a part of their lives, that they will adopt anything they say just because they desire their life to be like the influencer’s. In fact, “social media influencer marketing is enjoying rapid growth, with more than sixty percent of companies today experimenting with this new form of marketing” (Ouvrein et al., 2021, p. 1313). Not only this, but their influence does not seem to be lessening in the least, with “some expect[ing] social media influencers to become the primary type of marketing in the near future” (Ouvrein et al., 2021, p. 1313). For this reason, they continue to be one of the main forces of influence in society today.
With great influence also comes great responsibility. This is because those in influential positions are not simply affecting their own lives, but possibly hundreds, thousands, or millions of others. For this reason, one may ask, how does this type of media and social influencer impact born-again believers? The simple answer is it depends. If a Christian views media and influencers as a lost cause and something that they should be in involved in, then those of the world are going to dominate these spaces and be the only ones influencing people thoughts, opinions, and values. However, if Christians decide to join in, they themselves have the opportunity to influence people’s lives for good and can even share biblical principles. This does not always have to be as obvious as a scriipture verse, but can also be done in subtle ways, so that individuals do not even realize at first that they are being influenced to accept biblical practices and standards. In fact, influencing and sharing with others is actually a biblical principle. This is because Mark 16:15 says to “go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone” in all places (New Living Translation, 1996/2015). As a result, the effect that media and influencers have on born-again believers can be quite diverse, depending on their relationship with the sectors.
Influence is quite a powerful tool to possess. Some people have it without even realizing it, while others work hard all their life to attain it. This type of influence can even be referred to as a certain reward power since it describes “a person’s ability to influence the behavior of others by offering them something desirable” (Ferrell et al., 2017, p. 198). Most people desire something better or nicer than that they already have, therefore, it is for this reason, that influencer culture has taken such control of key influential positions in people’s lives. While it may be addictive, individuals need to be sure that they are not simply accepting another person’s beliefs, ideas, and values just because they have an attractive lifestyle. The same is true for media in general. Just because something may be pushed excessively by the media, does not mean that it is factually true and something that should be adopted. As a result, while people need to be aware of these two different influential forces, blindly accepting everything a person of influence supports is an unwise idea.

References
Douglas, S., Tang, L., & Rice, C. (2022). Gender performativity and postfeminist parenting in children’s television shows. Sex Roles, 86(3/4), 249–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01268-9
Links to an external site.
Ferrell, O.C, Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2017). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
New Living Translation. (2015). New Living Translation. (Original work published 1996)
Ouvrein, G., Pabian, S., Giles, D., Hudders, L., & De Backer, C. (2021). The web of influencers. A marketing-audience classification of (potential) social media influencers. Journal of Marketing Management, 37(13/14), 1313–1342. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2021.1912142