Trapped into Amusing ourselves

The Church stands at a critical juncture in history. More and more persons are becoming dissatisfied with the experience of liberal culture and the Christian community could offer an alternative society. We must ... understand the nature of the technological milieu in which we live in order to grasp more fully the kind of alternative that is necessary ... a myriad of factors have caused persons to become more and more isolated from one another. Marva Dawn Truly The Community

Last week I read about Dr Arig Sigman's article in the Biologist, the journal of the British Institute of Biology, which claimed the lack of real-world social interaction could make you more susceptible to cancer, dementia, heart disease, diabetes, influenza, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus etc. I also read some responses noting the weaknesses in Sigman's research but not refuting it.

But this week Baroness and Professor Greenfield, who is the director of the Royal Institution, a great scientific organization, has voiced her concerns that internet-obsessed children are losing their ability to concentrate and communicate away from the screen. Effectively the children's brains are being rewired. Greenfield is a professor of neuroscience and not a half baked politician. The British newspaper the Telegraph notes that a study from last year has showed that internet use can improve brain functioning and speed up general decision-making but the cost is loss of empathy and the ability to think in abstract terms. Furthermore there are possible connections with autism to be investigate.

It is twenty years since Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. He argued deeper than Marshall McLuhan not merely that the medium is the message but media inherently reduces messages. Thus a particular medium can only sustain a particular level of ideas. Writing especially about television he comments that things are reduced down to entertainment. We have been reduced to the soundbyte.

I wonder about the internet. My posts are generally short. What am I exactly doing here? I'm trying not to be a blipvert. But the medium does reduce and limit. Rather I suppose I am wondering out loud and hoping someone might start or continue to think critically about the world around them.

Charles Colson, in Christianity Today in 2006 titled an article 'Soothing Ourselves to Death Should we give people what they want or what they need?' Poignant strong stuff.

I admit I prefer traditional hymns, buteven so, I'm convinced that much of the music being written for the church today reflects an unfortunate trend—slippingacross the line from worship to entertainment. Evangelicals are in danger of amusing ourselves to death, to borrow the title of the classic Neil Postman book. This trend is evident not just in theater-like churches.

I'm not sure if Colson is over-reacting but he is reacting to something which can be bad. self-indulgent emotionalism. I wrote about worshi-tainment when I started this blog and it still remains high on my radar. Tim Keller writes in the foreword to a book I've just finished (review to follow) that worship without the quality is intrinsically self indulgent because it excludes the stranger and the nonbeliever who have no relationship to those playing/leading nor to the God being worshipped. Whatever the medium, whether music, powerpoint, internet, etc, we need to understand what it is doing lest our ignorance and perhaps even our sins are visited on the next generation. Lest we become merely a reflection of our surrounding culture rather than an alternative.

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever! Psalm 111:10