Media Madness

Photo by Rhett Noonan on Unsplash

How much media do you consume per day?  A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average student (ages 8 to 18) spends practically every waking minute — excluding time for school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device and that doesn’t include texting or talking on cellphones.  Adults are not much better with one report finding that we spend about 45% of our time using a proliferation of technology.  Most of us are overwhelmed by the abundance of information at our fingertips and can get easily bogged down by the magnitude of knowledge we can acquire.  What impact does all of this media have on us and our children?  Our society has changed dramatically over the past half century, even the past decade.  Although technology was touted as a way to create more down time, the reverse has occurred.  Technology is addictive, people are consumed by it, and  we are more disconnected today than ever before.

Unfortunately, we have higher expectations of technology and each other, and have lost patience for life.  We have become a culture of multi-taskers trying to fit everything in a short window of time.  People today have less face time and more screen time which results in less connectedness and poorer communications.  We also lose our creativity, critical thinking, and become lazy.  Today people can exist seldom leaving their homes and many do just that.  We are becoming more and more isolated as a society. But we do have control over our consumption of technology and how we relate to each other.  Next week I will discuss media fasting and ways to bring balance to your life.