Are you old enough to recognize the picture of the television in the shot above?
We live in such a media saturated society today, that it is almost impossible to imagine life without audio-video. Take a look at the following estimates from film-maker Paul Schrader on the consumption of it in society:
- The average 30 year-old media savvy person today has consumed around 35,000 hours of audio-video that includes YouTube clips, cartoons, soap operas, and more.
- At the same age, this person's father would have consumed around 20,000 hours.
- At the same age, this person's grandfather would have consumed around 10,000 hours.
- At the same age, this person's great-grandfather would have consumed around 2500 hours.
When Rolling Stone polled its readers, it discovered that they spend an average of 11.5 hours listening to music, 7.9 hours of watching television, 4.4 hours of social networking, and 2.8 hours of playing video games in every 7 day period. That's 26.6 hours immersed in pop culture...more than one day every
week.*
Is it any wonder that biblical illiteracy is so high? Does it surprise us that there are so many people out there who say they don't believe in God?
What would happen if Christians everywhere made a conscious effort to shut off the media for just a half an hour a day and studied a real, paper-page-filled Bible? What would happen if they were to pull out that ancient book and study the contents with a real desire in their hearts to know the One who inspired the writing of
it?
I'd be interested to find out, wouldn't you?
