One of our routines is that after supper around 6:30 or 7 we watch a couple of TV shows together. It is usually the only time the TV is on in our house because I have a love-hate relationship with the box. I enjoy watching certain TV shows, but I hate how that box can paralyse people from doing anything but staring. So, our happy (for me, not the kids) compromise is to watch a couple shows on Netflix.
So, we've not had to watch many commercials.
Last Friday I told the kids we would watch America's Got Talent via my computer hooked up to the TV (more and more shows can be watched in their entirety online). Boy, Pete and Megan were excited. I was too. We've watched AGT as a family for quite a few years.
It ended up being a two hour show and we had to watch the commercials. We watched an hour and a half and I had had enough. It felt like a wasted 90 minutes. I planned on watching the entire season with the kids this summer of AGT, but I don't think it's going to happen. Pete and Megan hate that I'm a TV/Screen Dictator at home, but it is what works for us.
When you take a break from the advertising for 10 months and then you are bombarded with it, it really hits the senses hard -- and not in a good way. We Americans are exposed to so much via media that we don't even choose to be exposed to. It's dulling the senses to right and wrong. I can't say there is a huge conspiracy taking over our minds, but bit by bit we have become dull in thought.
Have you ever seen that Batman movie where Jim Carrey plays the Riddler? He getes these mind control boxes in every family's home.
I didn't mean to get on a soapbox here. And I'm not bashing TV at all. Like I mentioned I enjoy certain TV shows. Every adult needs to make a conscious decision as to what he or she will allow in the home via media. I think years ago when TV was first around people could just let it enter the home because everything on it was pretty innocent. And so that acceptance was passed down to each new generation, but along the way TV quit being innocent. There's a lot of great stuff on it. But there's a lot of bad stuff too. And we need to be very decisive on what we watch and what we allow others in our homes to watch. It takes time. It takes effort. We gotta be vigilant.
And as parents we get tired of having to be on guard with the world system. But we have too -- we don't need to be over-protective but the world's system wants our kids and wants our minds. We need to be aware of that. There is truly an attack happening. As long as we are aware of it and are smart about it, that attack won't be successful.
Jesus said we are to be in the world but not of the world. He didn't want us to live isolated from the world. If we isolate ourselves how can He use us to bring His love and forgiveness and message to those who haven't heard?
But we can be smart. We can be wise. We can choose rightly.