TV or not TV?
Turn the channel / turn it off / smash the picture tube / and pull the plug... -Ric Alba
You're sending nothing good enough to view - Phil Keaggy
Excellent podcast at Nuclearity this month about TV, computers, other media, and distraction. Show description:
August has been dubbed "Turn off the TV Month." Is this campaign necessary since TV viewing is already getting crowded out by newer forms of media? The answer to that question involves Fatboy Slim and dead sheep, at least in the mind of one dad.
posted by yakmidi at 10:26 AM
2 Comments:
I didn't understand this post, probably b/c my dial-up was too slow to download the link.
So tell me, what's your take on TV and other media distractions? I am wanting to get rid of ours, but it's hardly my decision to make. I know I would miss it, but not as much as other members of my household would.
On a spiritual level, I think so many images that do not lead us any closer to Christ (and may indeed actively distract us from our relationship with him) come into our minds and hearts through the movies we let ourselves watch. And even less than the overt imagery, there is just the numbing of consciences to violence, sexual immorality, etc., that is so much more subtle.
This has been on my mind, tell me what you think.
Here is my current take on it, and of course, this is only where I am right now:
Media are not inherently spiritually corrupt.
Media are also not inherently good.
Media are not necessarily the issue (or the message, but let's not talk Marshall McLuhan just now).
There is a danger, however, not necessarily in what we watch, but how we watch. We tend to use television and other media as distractions. By definition, distractions keep us from thinking. They amuse, literally. That's where the numbing of the conscience occurs, I think. That's where the violence and immorality become not only insidious, but they become normalized, which is offensive to our relationships with God.
We do get to choose, to an extent, what images flicker across the set. More so with DVDs than with TV programming.
Honestly, I don't think TV is the enemy. I think our enemies are the many varied things that keep us spiritually lazy. Watching TV can be good, and not just PBS, either. Relaxing is good, and we shouldn't have to feel like we can only watch TV if it is some kind of educational experience. But there is a difference between watching TV to relax and watching TV to be lazy.
None of this is to say you shouldn't smash the picture tube and pull the plug. That's a decision each family should make on its own.
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