The following Chuck Colson comments offer a valuable “Digital Age” perspective of Neil Postmman’s 1985 assertion that we were “entertaining ourselves to death.” To help people get beyond where they are, to find their way back to God, more of the same is of little value. We must meet culture where they are – but with a lifestyle that is counterculture.
Here are Chuck’s comments:
The University of Minnesota School of Health recently published a study documenting how teenagers who have a television in their bedroom are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles: from poor eating habits, to bad grades, to less time spent with the family. The results of the study are by no means surprising. Increasingly we live in an entertainment-saturated culture, and teens live in the forefront of societal shifts. Thanks to television, movies, text-messaging, virtual gaming, chat rooms, and websites like Facebook, entertainment and diversion are always just a click away. And while teens do need some “down time” to escape the pressures of school or even work, something is wrong when “down time” becomes “all the time.”
While entertainment is not necessarily a bad thing, it is by its very nature something that draws our attention from one thing to another.
Unfortunately, most of the entertainment teens are exposed to today does
not divert them from the frivolous to the noble, but the other way around.And here is what should really concern Christian parents, as author Dick
Staub of The Culturally Savvy Christian points out: “When diversion becomes
a way of life, we avoid the very issues to which we should be most
attentive. We are diverted from the grim, unpleasant truth that our lives
lack meaning without God . . .”
And have no doubt: Teens are looking for
meaning. Probe a little while, and you will see.
The culture is telling them that entertainment and self-gratification are ends in and of themselves. That is why it is so important for parents, grandparents, Sunday-school
teachers, and adult friends to help teens wrestle with the important questions in life and point them to where they can find the right answers.
Even more importantly, perhaps, Christian adults need to model a lifestyle that is countercultural. Do our entertainment habits sink to the lowest common denominator of mindless entertainment, or are they tempered, molded, and informed by our Christian worldview? Do we live to serve others, or do we live to serve ourselves and our own appetites?
Remember: Our teens are watching us. And remember, also, that character is not taught; it is learned when we see good role models to follow.
This past week I visited my high school for the first time since I graduated. I was there for my niece’s graduation – my niece that was born when I attended that high school. Walking into the school I caught eyes with my former basketball coach – excited to connect, he asked what I was doing there. I shared who I was there to see and that she was born while I was on his basketball team…….he smiled and laughed, then said, “Oh, you’re there now….” – “Yep, I’m there now…..” You can imagine the moment.
I’m crazy blessed, God has allowed me to have some really great impact on the next generation in my family, despite the miles that might seperate us now. Being back ‘home’ – I was reminded of all I learned and didn’t learn growing up. Which made me really consider what I am and am not teaching my children. We absolutely must be INTENTIONAL about our time and investments when it comes our children, wheter biological or serogate (which might just be a mentoring situation).
I believe that many young people turn on the TV and other devices because too many people have unfairly written them off. We must be INTENTIONAL with our time, our conversations, our opportunities, and our responsibilities to the next generation(s). TRUTH IS – they would rather be spending time talking with adults than staring at a TV – yeah, I said it. They won’t say that, but I promise it is true.