Exhortation to media authors to showcase virtues and interests

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Posted by Radishrain Radishrain
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Media has incredible power. A large part of this power is the power to stimulate interest in activities in both children and adults. For instance, if you watch a lot of shows where the characters dance, and admirably so, you might just get more interested in dancing youself. The same goes for pretty much any interest. Many of the children's shows out there do a really good job at inspiring interests (e.g. dancing, gymnastics, singing, playing, toys and similar, reading, imagination, rescuing animals, pets, horses, horse performances, being a hero, helping others, being a good person, fashion, designing things, socializing, parties, decorating, being a good friend, making friends, showing love, combat sports, being kind, sacrificing to help others, loyalty, art, computer programming, mechanics, engineering, troubleshooting, babysitting, environmentalism, cooking, gardening, acting, writing, healing / being a doctor, etc.)

I exhort media authors to use this to enrich the world, by inspiring new, good hobbies and interests in consumers of their content.

You'll notice that I listed several virtues in my examples above. However, not only do I exhort you to inspire virtues in consumers, I also exhort you to use virtues to improve the enjoyment, impact, and quality of the media, as well as to leave the consumer feeling good. For instance, shows with the virtue of love in them (from the characters) tend to be more interesting, heart-warming, emotional, impacting, and memorable than similar shows that don't. They also help to inspire these virtues in the listeners, given admirable traits in those who use them (granted, virtues are admirable traits in and of themselves).

Consider these virtues:
* Love
* Charity
* Service
* Willingness to learn
* Humility
* Skill
* Joy
* Happiness
* Calmness
* Peace
* Patience
* Faith
* Belief
* Work ethic
* Perseverance
* Persistance
* Care
* Loyalty
* Fidelity
* Romantic love (yes, I consider that a virtue, too, although in a young children's work, you may want to showcase it with the adults, such as parents, rather than the young characters; but this suggestion isn't particularly for children's things)
* Problem solving
* Puzzle solving
* Strategizing
* Cleanliness
* Lack of complaining
* Comedy
* Longsuffering
* Goal-achieving
* Beauty (beauty, as a virtue need not be physical, although it can be, in more ways than can be captured in a photograph)
* Teaching
* Learning / education
* Understanding (others, the planet, animals, nature, science, cuktures, organizations, etc.)
* Expressing virtue where you could have or would have used a vice
* Creativity
* Devotion
* Resourcefulness
* Using what people offer you (instead of habitually declining in search of something better; this is virtuous in that it allows others to be of service, shows love to them, helps them feel valued, and allows you to realize that the grass is green enough right where you are, and that searching for greener pastures sometimes just wastes time that you could be using to actually do something productive, even if you think you could come up with something better)
* Grace (helping others with love and care for them despite their weaknesses, and despite how undeserving they are)
* Forgiveness

… and so on.

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