Katlin VoigtCOM 624 | Week 6 | Paper #5

In a world obsessed with love, intimacy and marriage, there is a shockingly high rate of divorce.

According to the CDC’s National Family Growth statistics, 50% of marriages will end in divorce (January 2017,

CDC). The facts show that every decade the divorce rate has continued to increase and if trends follow

history, they will only continue in that direction. In response to this climb in divorce, a counterculture has

developed in the form of a community designed to beat this statistic. Beating 50 Percent is a community

created to come alongside engaged and married couples and provide resources to strengthen their

relationships. Founders Jeremy and Audrey Roloff started Beating 50 Percent shortly after they got engaged

and quickly realized how discouraging people were about lasting marriages and relationships in general. They

also discovered little resources to help ground their marriage and create a strong foundation for a future.

This paper will examine the online representation of the Beating 50 Percent community, how it has evolved,

and how those in the community have contributed to the identity and mission of the counterculture

movement.

Beating 50 Percent began as a marriage blog and quickly grew into a community. The Roloff’s state

“our mission is to inspire covenant marriages to beat average, to encourage husbands and wives to give more

than 50% to their spouse, and to revive marriages that are indispensible- marked by fixing instead of

throwing away” (Beating 50 Percent, 2017). As the community started in a virtual setting, they represent

themselves almost entirely in an online setting. The Beating 50 Percent community represents themselves

through a blog, an Instagram page, and most recently a journal and devotional. The Roloff’s created the blog

medium to share videos and posts from themselves and other mentors on relationship advice. The blog has

created a community of couples who are committed to working on their marriages and rise above being

another statistic. It is a virtual community that encourages questions, bringing the real bits of life to the table,

sharing their struggles and offering encouragement to other couples. On Instagram the community operates

through a handle of @Beating50 and the hashtag #Beating50Percent. Members of the community are able to

use the #Beating50Percent to respond to find one another, respond to posts, and share their own hearts.

Katlin VoigtCOM 624 | Week 6 | Paper #5

Though the Beating 50 Percent community largely lives in a virtual space, there is also representation

in the physical world through the devotional and guide Navigator’s Council. Written by the Roloff’s,

Navigator’s Council is “both a weekly journal and a weekly rhythm for your marriage. The foundation of the

journal is six questions that you will ask each other, and record your answers to, once a week. We use one

journal and take turns writing week by week. Each week also includes a short devotional and a weeklong

calendar to help foster good conversation and make sure you and your spouse are on the same page”

(Beating 50 Percent, 2017). The community is able to connect and share together by using

#NavigatorsCouncil and #Beating50Percent to post about their struggles and success. For example, here is a

screenshot of some of the community using these hashtags to connect and build the community:

Katlin VoigtCOM 624 | Week 6 | Paper #5

The community is encompassed by engaged couples and married couples from all over the world of

different races, socioeconomic status and seasons of marriage. The overall theme of everyone involved in the

community is effort; the community wants to make the effort to make their marriages strong and cultivate a

covenant of marriage with one another. This mentality contributes to the identity of the Beating 50 Percent

community. As the Roloff’s state, “we hope that our readers, viewers and listeners would be relentlessly

compelled to give more, serve more, learn more, play more, seek more, and love more. Always more”

(Beating 50 Percent, 2017). Due to the fact that this community is centered on relationships, and specifically

marriage, the fact that the community members are either engaged or married build up the identity of

Beating 50 Percent as a marital resource. As Reed (2014) states, “individual identities have always been

socially constructed and managed” (p.56). Each member’s individual identity (married, engaged, husband,

wife etc.) contributes to the culture of the group. We construct our identities which give ourselves purpose

and value within a community.

After a quick survey of those using the blog and Instagram to share about their stories and support of

the resources provided by this ministry, it’s evident that the community members are made up of both newly

married as well-practiced couples. The tools, resources and tips presented by Beating 50 Percent are both

applicable for someone freshly married and to someone who has been married for 50 years. Beating 50

Percent is an organization built on openness and commitment in a marriage and the members take on these

same personality traits within the community. These members support that identity by being transparent

with their spouses and the community as well as supportive of the cause and promoting the benefits of this

group. As Reed (2014) observes, the online world is a reflection of the offline world (p.21). How the

community of couples represents themselves online through Instagram and the blog is a representation of

their offline selves as evident by their transparency and realness through posts. As Miller (2011) mentions,

self-disclosure and self-representation become “increasingly important as a means to gain trust and achieve

authentic relationships with others” (p.170). The participants in the community share the ups and downs of

marriage, the good and the bad, not just the picture-perfect scenes of Instagram.

Katlin VoigtCOM 624 | Week 6 | Paper #5

While analyzing the Beating 50 Percent community, I wanted to compare their community and

identity to a similar counterculture. After a bit of research I found another community called “Pinky Promise”,

which is an annual conference for married and single women. The conference was started by author, speaker

and preacher Heather Lindsay who has a passion for helping women understand their identity in Christ and

not in a man. Whereas the Beating 50 Percent community is couples, Pinky Promise’s community is women.

Another difference in these two cultures is that Pinky Promise was started by preachers’ Heather Lindsay and

her husband Cornelius Lindsay, so the tone they established in the community is one of faith-based lessons,

empowerment of women, and individual growth. As previously discussed, Beating 50 Percent’s mission is to

inspire couples to grow together as a couple and strengthen their covenant of marriage through weekly

designated time with one another to nurture a faith-based marriage.

Both of these communities were established in response to the increase of divorce in our culture.

Even though a majority of couples may not belong to either of these countercultures, their very existence

contributes to the identity of Beating 50 Percent. The fact that 1 out of 2 couples will end in divorce has

created these cultures where people want more for their relationships and more for their marriage. The

more marriages that end in divorce will continue to add to the counterculture movement; the more people

that move away from covenant marriage will continue to grow the counterculture movement.

As the culture of divorce increases, countercultures like Beating 50 Percent will continue to be born

and grow. Beating 50 Percent started a movement that values commitment, covenant and an always-more

mentality. Even those who are not in the culture contribute to the identity of Beating 50 Percent. The very

culture of America, and the world in general, encourages the growth of countercultures that stand up for

marriages. Beating 50 Percent’s community is encompassed of couples willing to fight for marriage, and in my

opinion the community will continue as long as there is a need for strong faith-based marriages to succeed in

our culture.

Katlin VoigtCOM 624 | Week 6 | Paper #5

Resources

Beating 50 Percent. August 2017. http://beating50percent.com/meet-jeremy-audrey/

Center of Disease Control. January 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr049.pdf

Miller, V. (2011). Understanding digital culture. SAGE Publications: London.

Pinky Promise. August 2017. http://pinkypromiseconfernce.com/

Reed, T.V. (2014). Digitized lives: Culture, power and social change in the internet era. Routledge.