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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Bucking the TV tendency Andrew C. Thompson, Jun 5, 2008
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson UMR Columnist
Screens, screens, screens. They stare back at us everywhere we go.
Once upon a time, the only screens we really devoted much attention to were the ones on the living room TV and in the movie theater. Now screens are ubiquitous, and we would have a hard time functioning without them.
In any given week, the average American might find himself taking cues not just from a TV screen, but also a computer screen, cell phone display or an iPod. And those are just the ones he probably owns and carries around with him.
There are scores of other screens that give us information, offer us advice and tell us what to do. There are electronic billboards, flat-screen displays in stores and offices, and all the digital screens that are a part of most of our appliances these days.
We are probably not even aware of how much we have been conditioned to take our cues from the information we get on screens. Sometimes it seems we interact with screens as much as we do with people.
There’s a TV tendency in this culture and it’s growing. We start to think that anything worth paying attention to gets communicated via an electronic screen. Our entertainment largely comes from screens. Our communication requires us to use screens. From ATMs to airline ticket counters, screens have taken the place of actual, flesh-and-blood people.
Think about it: Do you ever go even one single day without spending an hour or two of your life staring into a screen?
Like any other technological development, this TV tendency has some impact on the way we understand the church and our identity as Christians. And not all of it is good.
For one thing, the way we interact with screens is all one-sided. We set the rules, deciding when to pay attention to the screen’s information and when to just ignore it.
Need to know something? Wikipedia is a mouse click away. Want to reach someone? You can bet her cell phone is on. Tired of that TV program? There are 300 other channels available to us at the touch of a remote control.
Now consider how that translates into our attitudes about relationships in the world. When we are used to getting our information immediately and at the rate of a high-speed Internet connection, we are likely to be frustrated by the low-speed, all-too-human responses of other people.
Perhaps the most tragic quality of our technological infatuation is what it means for the depth of those loving relationships God calls us into: Why go through the hard work of loving your neighbor or giving yourself in ministry when you can get be the master of the digital domain you find in your screens?
Someone might raise the objection that it is just silly to confuse real human relationships with the relationship we have with our computers and cell phones. But the truth is we are shaped by our daily habits in a million different ways we never even think about. The low pain threshold we tend to have regarding both patience and commitment is absolutely related to the way technology influences us.
Bucking this TV tendency will not be easy. For one thing, technology isn’t going anywhere. It will only intersect our lives in greater and greater ways in the future. And its addictive and individualizing qualities aren’t going anywhere either.
Of course, the gadgets attached to the screens we use are only designed to make our lives easier. They do that. But in the process, they give us the illusion that we can control everything around us.
And the life of self-centered control is not the life Jesus has called us to live.
When Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” in Ephesians 5:21, he’s not just talking about husbands and wives. He’s talking about all Christians, and his words are designed to tell us something of the humility, love and face-to-face interaction needed to be a true part of the body of Christ.
Andrew C. Thompson
Think about it: Do you ever go even one single day without spending an hour or two of your life staring into a screen? 
