Quick Attention TV

On the way home from work today I was listening to the news announcer talk about the ending of the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I must confess that I have never seen the show, but it has been running for a total of nine years. The announcer was emphasizing that in today’s world television shows just don’t last that long. He said that the average run of a show is about 2 years and Raymond’s nine years was the exception. He attributed such a poor run time of most TV shows to what he labeled “quick attention TV.”

I had to laugh! Quick Attention TV. This is what he meant: in today’s world most shows do not last long because the viewing audience so often craves something new and fresh. Ever since I have read Neil Postman’s excellent work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, I have realized the sad and destructive effects of television. Postman’s thesis could be summed up very simply – TV makes us dumb.

Quick Attention TV disorder, I will call it, is just one of the side effects from television watching. Because everything is so fast paced on TV we have been conditioned by the television to expect things at a faster rate. Things just become faster and faster. The Internet is not exempt from this condemnation. Just ask yourself this question: would you be satisfied with 33.6K dial-up? I am still stuck on 56K and I often think it is too slow. We want things faster. We want change at a more rapid pace and when things slow down we struggle to pay attention and often are lost in our longings for speed.

Interestingly, this has not been kept out of the church. After all, do not the majority of churchgoers watch TV? Now 20-minute sermons are too long. The old Hymns of the faith are to slow. People need a commercial break. The congregation needs an exciting car chase. We need to see bullets flying and bodies falling. We have the need for speed and the church and the culture of the church are just too slow.

Instead of seeing the church as a break and quiet respite where we can come before the throne of the Almighty we are unsettled and often fidgety at about the 10-15 minute mark of the sermon – sometimes even the service. TV and the Internet have truly conditioned us. Yet, we need the church, we need the time before God engaging in worship with him. We need to slow down and at least for a while abandon our quick attention TV. To stand in the presence of Almighty God is no matter which can be accomplished in a 30 second commercial break. We don’t need sound bites; we need contemplation, prayer and careful thought of the Christ who so loved the world that he surrendered himself to the cross. As the church we must abandon the need for speed, we must reject the quick attention TV disorder and we must embrace Christ and him alone in all his glory in the sweet serenity of slowness.