Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Family Unplugs For 6 Months?

A recent AP story revealed a story that has probably been at least a fantasy for many parents of the typical 21st century teenager. Only this one was for real!

Susan Maushart, the mother of kids aged 14, 15 and 18, found that her children had all sunken into a total world of media screens, electronic gadgets and toys. She stated, "They don't remember a time before e-mail, or instant messaging, or Google. They didn't just use media, but they literally "inhabited" media." She revealed on TV in an interview that she almost always saw only the back of her kids' heads because they were constantly buried in some form of screen or gadget.

So Mommy Maushart began an experiment that would be a drastic measure in most anyone’s play book. First she turned off their home’s electricity for 2 weeks forcing everyone to retool how they lived their everyday lives – perhaps adding some appreciation for some of life’s forgotten blessings. The perceived “mean” mom is a lifelong devotee of Thoreau's classic book "Walden," which described the author’s detailed journey into solitude, self-sufficiency, and a simplistic life that came by living in a small cabin on a pond in the mid-1800s.

Step number two was even more drastic and something she had hoped to set up with the self-imposed 2-week power outage. For the next six months, there would be no screens or modern communications media in the home. This she knew would be certainly adequate time for getting anyone unhooked from most anything. So exactly how did the new lifestyle and ridged restrictions work out?

As Maushart explains in her new book, "The Winter of Our Disconnect", she and her kids rediscovered small forgotten pleasures like board games, books, lazy Sundays, old photos, family meals, and listening to music together. This all came about when everyone slowly surfaced from years of being deeply submerged in their own individual screen-controlled worlds.

Her son Bill, a total video game and TV addict, filled his newfound spare time playing a saxophone. He again found his love of music and eventually and got serious enough to sell his computer game console and is now studying music in college!

Maushart's youngest daughter had the hardest time going off media life-support systems so mom compromised some and allowed her the use of the Internet and other electronics but only outside the home. She immediately took that option by taking her laptop and moving in with her dad - Maushart's ex-husband. This ‘escape’ lasted just six weeks of the proposed six months. Affter returning home, she did convert her screen communication time to spending hours on an old-fashioned landline phone as a substitute for texting and Facebook. The effect on her was also quite evident and positive as her school grades improved dramatically. Maushart wrote that her kids, "awoke slowly from the state of cognitus interrupts that had characterized many of their waking hours to become more focused logical thinkers."

Susan Maushart admitted that living off the electronic grid for six months is unrealistic for most people. But she does encourage families to scale down the influence of the numerous modern-day media habits if they have literally become the center of the family universe. She urged parents to ‘unplug’ at least periodically - including themselves if they are likewise guilty of some of the same excesses as she admitted to in her own book.

Few would have the courage to do something so drastic for the over-all well-being of their children and family. And the tragic truth is that very few Christian parents have the guts or foresight to take away, or prevent the use of, anything addictive and or harmful from their children or at least balance it with an adequate intake of solid spiritual and biblical truth. Perhaps families, churches, and even the nation would see a marked improvement across the board if more young minds were taking in more Scriptural truth and spending less precious time digesting meaningless cultural trivia - often coming in the form of spiritually damaging and inappropriate material.

We live in a culture where many fine Bible references can be easily attained through various forms of screen-oriented media like Kindle applications, software programs, web resources, and other like formats. And if Christian parents cannot imagine placing restraints on a generation whose lives seem to now include media and screens in their DNA, at least some compromise could be worked out. Perhaps there could be an allotted time when some of this sacred screen technology could be used for the express purpose of spending some regular time reading and studying God’s Word electronically.

An apostle from the first century, who could never dreamed of today’s communication advancements, wrote by hand and in Greek 2 Timothy 3:16-17. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” As one teacher explained it, the Bible informs us about what is right, what is wrong, how to get right, and how to stay right.

Finally, the Holy Spirit who initially authored every word from Genesis to Revelation never required that they be read, studied and applied through any particular format. But He did make it clear that God’s Word and will is the absolute priority for every believer’s life. Scripture is to be life’s primary force and what that leads to is an abundant and victorious Christian experience -irregardless of the format one may chose to digest it.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Bill Breckenridge

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