“Eight-to-eighteen-year-olds spend more time with media than in any other activity besides (maybe) sleeping—an average of more than 7 1/2 hours a day, seven days a week.”Justin Taylor adds: "The report goes on to say that due to multi-tasking, the average kid actually consumes 11 hours of media in that 7.5 hour time frame."
Here's the typical Christian response: OH NO. I'M UNPLUGGING MY COMPUTER AND SMASHING LITTLE JOHNNY'S XBOX INTO TINY LITTLE PIECES SO HE CAN'T EVEN DREAM OF PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER. MEDIA IS EVIL AND I WILL NEVER ALLOW IT IN MY HOUSE! THAT YOUTH GROUP BETTER DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS! NOW!
But you know what, if this is true, there's really only one solution. Go play with your kid. This is not the media's fault, they're doing their job. This is your fault.
While we live in the busiest age, where people constantly complain about their full schedules, I believe we actually live in the laziest society in history. In all actuality, being super busy is really being lazy.
Think about it: if your schedule is filled every week with meeting after meeting and scheduled event after scheduled event, you're not really working too hard but you're just letting other people and events dictate your schedule. Then, you spend all of your time hopping from one person or event to the other without thinking about much. You can fill your time by just jumping from appointment to appointment. That doesn't sound like there's too much effort there.
But you come home after a "busy day" and playing with your kid is just "too much." You just watch the tube with him, or you go up and lay down while your kid is occupied with a screen.
I know for me, it is an easy week if the week before I just filled it up with meetings. I just look at my phone, and drive where I need to be and say what I need to say after that. It really isn't too challenging.
You know what's challenging? Leaving pockets of time (large pockets) for prayer or for spontaneous things to come up. For you to be free. For you to rest.
Man, if you're a parent, it could be for time with your kids. So then, when you come home from work, you don't just let your kid surf the internet or be entertained by the multiple mediums that are available to him/her, but instead you have time and you are rested. You can clean. You can help others who are too busy.
That's the type of people that other people need.
If you are a Christian, this is how you are different. Don't just be another busy person. People do not need another person with a hectic lifestyle, they are surrounded by those. People (and your kids especially) need people who are centered.
"For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies."
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