Entertainment. You may recall that in reference to most forms of visual media my dads response has been "Well, if you want to fill your head with garbage..." As I get older I'm becoming more aware that entertainment is garbage, it's worthless!
Last night I realized that the point of that comment was that I am filling my own head with garbage. My parents did not fill it for me. They left my head pretty darn free of garbage and I started filling it up on my own until its so full of garbage that "sin sensors" are undeniably dull. I've been watching The Adventures of Merlin lately and on an episode I watched recently one character, Morgana, was the cause of a lot of trouble, ie, the king dying. In order to stop the trouble, Merlin had to kill her. And he did, he poisoned a bag of water with Hemlock and tricked her into drinking it. He used his good reputation, the trust that Morgana had for himself to murder someone. And I was rooting for him! She had to die for the conflict to resolve, obviously it was the only solution! Murder. Merlin stood there and watched Morgana's breathing begin to fail. This is one of the most family friendly shows I know. I glossed over it until I forced myself to ponder his actions.
Unfortunately for the entertainment industry, it's not friendly enough for my family. Recent studies have shown that children have a difficult time differentiating between fact and fiction until a certain age. Am I really going to teach Anastasia that it is okay to murder someone if the situation calls for it? (To be clear, I WILL teach her that self defense is acceptable.) Of course not! So why would I allow a TV show to teach her that while she is young and her mind is defenseless?
It is not my right to fill Ana's head with garbage. I shudder to think of standing before my Lord and confessing that I allowed Anastasia to be taught by the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry that murder, lying, stealing, using God's name in vain, and any other number of sins are "okay". What a terrifying thought.
All these musing last night led me to the fact that entertainment is worthless. And better yet, entertainment is boring! We are so entertained that entertainment isn't enough anymore! A friend of mine plays video games with his laptop right next to him, playing Netflix, and his phone in his hand for texting or YouTube or whatever else can amuse him between game loads.
So here I sit, night after night, mindlessly watching TV while I simultaneously check Facebook on my phone and my house is in disarray. I feed my husband sandwiches for lunch instead of preparing a meal the night before, because I obviously didn't have time to do it while filling my head with garbage.
As of today, I'm going on an entertainment fast. I will be blogging still and emailing, so feel free to contact me at emilyskilesfields@gmail.com or just keep up here!
I plan to be doing much more meaningful things in the coming days.
Amen Sister! And thanks for spoiling Merlin for me :(
ReplyDeleteI have to say I very much disagree with the basic premise. One definition I found of entertainment is an activity that holds the attention of an audience or gives pleasure or delight. I see those things as valuable, especially if they are developed as skills. I see much value in being able to entertain oneself and others. I also see value in being entertained. We'll need to be able to laugh, even in a zombie apocalypse. Maybe even especially in a zombie apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteI think my problem with this is the word "entertainment" is much too broad. Everything from writing in a diary to watching TV to going to church could be classed as entertainment. Also, while your dad may consider basically all stuff watched on a screen "garbage" I am reminded of the maxim "one mans trash is another mans treasure". I think this is true even with entertainment. A painting that gives one person great pleasure to see another person may find worthless.
Now I do think you make some good points. We do need to use our time judiciously and be selective in our choices of entertainment. We should be careful what we expose our children to and be mindful of how they are interpreting those things and how it effects them.
Entertainment is something all people need. The question is, as you ask, is it beneficial, does it better our lives. With much entertainment the answer is yes. Sometimes the things we do that entertain us can lead to very beneficial things. My husbands hobby that he's been doing for fun, designing and programming games for the classic NES system, gave him the self-taught skills he needed to get the job he has now. So it was entertaining for him to play video games and create them, but it's motivated him to learn skills that have proven very valuable for him.
So I get what you're aiming for but I think you're very wrong that you assert as a fact that entertainment is worthless.
Tommy &I were just having a discussion about this a few weeks ago! I agree completely with what you're saying! I think about a story I heard once about a guy who came home from mission work in several countries where they had their idols front & center in their homes. This man was so befuddled&sad for these people that they would make these idols the center of their lives. when he got home he sat down in his living room and turned on the TV. He then realized that in his home, and mostly every other American home, all his furniture was arranged so that everyone could see the tv and enjoy it. Interesting thought huh?
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