Well it happened again. Another failed attempt at humour as I jokingly tried to say, during my sermon this past Sunday, that books had become obsolete. To which people (probably due to the heat) were unable to pick up on my brilliant sarcasm :-) In any case, there is some truth to this statement, at least in the eyes of the late Aldous Huxley, author of the book Brave New World.

Huxley, along with his contemporary George Orwell (author of 1984) saw and wrote about the possible dangers of the coming of the technological age. They feared, as Tim Challies put it during our men's retreat, that through these new technologies we will inadvertently introduce problems far greater than the ones we seek to solve. Here is how Niel Postman explains the different ways these two men expressed their concerns in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death:

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distraction." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."

Now with this in mind, I want you to consider what Dr. Albert Mohler wrote a couple of years ago in an article entitled "Continuous Media Snacking — Bite Size Entertainment for an Attention-Deficit Age":

Just a few decades ago, educators and other observers were warning that the American attention span was growing dangerously short. Serious political debate had been sacrificed in favor of “sound bites.” Educators reported that students had difficulty maintaining focus on a subject — even for just a few minutes.

Well, it now looks like those minutes my be turning into seconds. WIRED magazine reports that younger Americans now constitute a culture of media “snacking” and “bite size” entertainment. Apple Computer’s iTunes service sells music by the song — not just the album. YouTube and similar Internet sites offer films and movies that often last a minute or less.

As WIRED reports:

"Music, television, games, movies, fashion: We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips - in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed. This is snack culture - and boy, is it tasty (not to mention addictive). Today, media snacking is a way of life. In the morning, we check news and tap out emails on our laptops. At work, we graze all day on videos and blogs. Back home, the giant HDTV is for 10-course feasting - say, an entire season of 24. In between are the morsels that fill those whenever minutes, as your mobile phone carrier calls them: a 30-second game on your Nintendo DS, a 60-second webisode on your cell, a three-minute podcast on your MP3 player. Like Homer Simpson at the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, we are capable of devouring whatever is in front of us - down to the plastic crustaceans - and still go fishing for Colbert clips at 3 am. (Mmm… truthiness.) But not all munchies are created equal. This 12-page menu lists the tastiest - and tiniest - offerings."

Several factors have been blamed for the shortened attention spans. Many blame television for the problem, noting that the pace of television programming and the structure of eight-minute segments between commercials trains the mind to expect shorter attention demands.

But, if television shortened the national attention span starting decades ago, the Internet and its massive media expansion seems to be producing an even shorter attention span.

All this may be great for the marketers, but it spells further challenge for educators, parents, and preachers. How will people be able to listen to a serious biblical sermon if their minds are set to pay attention only for a few minutes — or even less?