The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion

by Tim Challies

YouTube is another symptom of this disease of exhibitionism, a place where all of us are free to post videos of ourselves that are often, by any measure, distasteful and embarrassing. We love to see people fail (epically!) and, for our own amusement, watch other people get injured.

hilarious.

We do well to ask ourselves if we are living to please God, to receive his “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21), or whether we are living to receive the attention of others, to find a moment or two of joy in their short-lived enthusiasm. Are we happy with who and what God has made us to be, or are we seeking to be something else, especially to those who know about us only because of what we choose to reveal through our technology?

But where is the respect for one another when we mock those who experience tragedy, when their suffering becomes our entertainment? When we embrace the reality-show and YouTube forms of entertainment, we create a kind of lightness about life, with an emphasis not on what is weighty and eternal but on what is fleetingly entertaining. Our love for this type of entertainment spreads so that all of life becomes marked by disrespect, by lack of sobriety. We become what we love.

Our Christian theology tells us that we cannot separate who we are from what we do—that our actions betray the state of our hearts. Therefore we are our digital detritus; the trails of data we leave behind us tell the stories of our lives, showing where we have been, what we have done, and who we truly are. They do not tell the whole story, but they certainly do tell part of it.

Develop character. In a culture that demands and is defined by entertainment, it can be difficult to emphasize character. And yet Christians need to be marked by godly character—by the humility and respect that seem so foreign to the entertainment we so love. Examine your entertainment, and examine your character. You may well find that there is a correlation between them, and that in order to grow in character, you will need to reform your entertainment, letting go of those things that are exhibitionist or exploitive and taking up those things that develop character rather than mar it.

really good.

If you find that you are constantly worrying about what you are doing through your digital devices, if you are continually trying to clean up the trail you’ve left behind, it may be a good time to examine your motives. Are you concerned with privacy, or are you concerned with protecting yourself from the potential fallout of sinful decisions or addictions?

hmmmm. fascinating question.