I recently had a conversation with a writer who said that she needs to cut off Internet access to her office so she can finish a book project. Cruising the Web is eating up way too much of her time, she can’t meet her deadlines because of it, and she can’t make herself stop.
This jives with a new study showing that “spending too much time on media” is a struggle for 44 percent of Americans. Religion News Service reports:
The seven deadly sins have new partners in crime.
Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride still attract a lot of attention. But as the Internet and other media invade American life, our vices have also gone virtual, according to a new study.
Nearly half of Americans say they are tempted to idle the hours away on the Internet, video games and television, according to Barna Group, a California-based Christian research organization.
And more than one in four American men admit to struggling with Internet pornography or other sexually inappropriate material online. Millennials — Americans born between the early 1980s and 2000s — are most likely to seek forbidden fruits online, according to Barna.
The technological temptations reflect a shift in American morality, said David Kinnaman, Barna’s president.
Vice now “shadows many of the digital domains of contemporary life,” he said. “For faith leaders, this shift underscores the importance of including technology and media as part of a broader discussion of spirituality and stewardship.”
Read full story here.
How do we balance this with the call to embrace technology for the good of the church? And how does your own use of media affect your spiritual well-being?