Media Consumption

From books to music to television to the internet, to mobile phones that offer all of the above, media can be all-consuming. How can we stay in touch with our true selves when we spend all day staring at glowing rectangles?

• Seek what lasts. It’s easy to get caught up in media that, like a bubble floating by, distracts you for a moment and bursts. Bubbly music and light-hearted literature can do wonders for us; as Solomon wrote, “A merry heart does good, like medicine” (Prov. 17:22). If all the media we consume is only a momentary amusement, though, it will leave us feeling empty. Solomon also wrote, “I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless. ‘Laughter,’ I said, ‘is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish? . . . I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. . . Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun’” (Eccles. 2:1-2, 10-11, NIV).
• Evaluate. Paul’s advice about spiritual matters works for all manner of media as well. Paul wrote, “test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5:21-22, NRSV). Does it tell the truth? Does it exhibit excellence? Does it encourage justice and commitment? If something does not build you up, carefully consider whether you should keep consuming it.
• Focus on the eternal. How it helps prepare us for God’s kingdom is the measure by which we should weigh all media. Jesus invites us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV) says, “Blessed is the one . . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” As we focus on God’s gifts, God will help us both see the world from His perspective, and grow closer to Him.