At this point, it is clear that we all need the Internet. It’s keeping many of our jobs and schools going, as well as keeping us connected to the people we love. Unfortunately, because we all need it, it is really slowing down in some places. Perhaps you aren’t noticing this if you live in a lower-density area, but those of us in apartments and townhouses are really, really feeling the pinch.
Obviously, we can’t just migrate off the internet entirely. In the last two decades, it has become a necessity. But is all of our internet usage equally important? By a complete coincidence, I gave up YouTube for Lent (a 40-day period of selective fasting in many Christian circles) before all of this happened. I thought this was a big sacrifice because I don’t have broadcast television, and YouTube was one of my few sources of continually updating content. It turned out not to be such a sacrifice, though, because getting my entertainment from old-school DVDs is a way less stressful experience than waiting for a video to buffer. I got to thinking more about how our culture has become so hooked on media streaming for all of its entertainment needs. We definitely need the internet for business, school, and long-distance relationships, but in order to free up the bandwidth for those things to be less frustrating, perhaps we need to break our dependence on streaming for entertainment. If all of us cut back at least a little on entertainment streaming, it would make the internet a much less frustrating place for those with legitimate business there right now. Your casual episode of LEGO Masters (one of the few things I’m still streaming) may be costing your neighbor the ability to figure out what’s going on in their zoom meeting for work or class. As Christians in the digital age, we need to be mindful of this impact. This is a great time to dust off all those old CD’s, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, iPods, physical books, board games, card games, crafting supplies, exercise equipment, radios, and if you somehow still have them--VHSs and cassettes. If you love videogames, Google Play has plenty of great offline or lower-bandwidth options available for free or cheap. If you just feel the need to scratch that streaming itch, or if MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) videogames are how you stay in touch with your friends, avoid the peak evening hours of 7-10 pm. Try watching or playing at non-peak times, like early Sunday morning. It may be custom to wind down at the end of the day with these things, but at least to me, there is truly nothing restful about watching the whirling circle of buffering death every 30 seconds. As a special bonus, it improves sleep to cut off screen usage an hour before bedtime. Parents, if you want to make this an especially teachable moment, and you still happen to have such ancient technology on hand, dust off your LPs and show your kids the hardships you had to experience to listen to your favorite music when you were their age. Remind them that you had to make actual phone calls and mail physical letters to your friends so that this generation will understand what a blessing the internet really is. If you really want to impress them with the glories of modern technology and you happen to have a typewriter on hand, have them try reproducing just one paragraph of text on that thing. The point of all of this is that we share the great information highway that is the internet, and like the physical one outside, we need to be mindful of traffic. So be a courteous driver and free up some bandwidth!
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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