Frittering Our Lives Away

Michelle and I were discussing the fact that we don't have as many activities at church as we did when we were younger, and when we do have activities, attendance is generally not what it was in days gone by. We pondered the reasons for this. It doesn't just affect church attendance, after all. All across the spectrum of our society, people don't have time to get involved with activities. Membership in organizations like the Masons, the Elks, the Rotary Club and others has dropped precipitously in the last few decades. And the same goes for other groups. Part of the reason, we surmise, is the fact that people are just too busy these days. Our lives are filled up with so many activities as it is that no one seems to have time for any other activities. At least that's the reason that gets bandied about by the media. But is it the real reason? What about the media itself? Could it be the cause for so much lack of involvement in church, civic and social activities? After all, if you added up all the time that people spend sitting in front of the TV, you'd quickly see how much free time most people actually do have. For instance, I watch far less TV than the average American does - about 2 hours a day - yet that adds up to approximately 730 hours a year plopped in front of the TV. That's the equivalent of 18 weeks of work-time. Think of what I could get done in 730 hours. Think of how many books I could read. Think of how many I could write? Think of all of the other activities I could do in that 730 hours. And I'm a mild TV watcher. What about the people who spend 4 to 6 hours a day watching? How many hours are they wasting that they will never get back? To this, let's add the Internet and social media. Millions of people now have Facebook accounts or are active on some other social media site. These people spend hours everyday conversing with people who they never see, playing interactive video games, texting and chatting and tweeting and what have you. These same people complain that they just don't have the time to get involved with any clubs or organizations, that they don't have the time to attend activities, yet they fritter away thousands of hours a year, thousands of hours of their lives gone forever. See, here's the thing - how much good work is NOT getting done today because of the media, because of TV, the Internet, Facebook, YouTube, and all of the other aspects of technology? Is it not possible that while we - as a collective group - are pissing our lives away on stuff like this, that our culture, our society, and our nation itself is swirling around the drain, and we don't even see it because we're too caught up in the digital media? I know, you're all thinking that Ben's spouting out another jeremiad against modern technology. But I'm really not. I think technology is a great tool. The problem is, the tool has taken over the lives of millions of people. They don't know how to put the tool down. They're enthralled to the new media, and can't see what's happening in the world around them anymore. George Orwell got it wrong, and Aldous Huxley shot closer to the mark. We need no longer worry about Big Brother watching us; we're too busy watching ourselves on the new media to worry about what Big Brother may be doing.