Internet Cutting into Family Time

A new survey has found that Internet usage is eroding the time that family members spend together. The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future reported that 28 percent of Americans interviewed in 2008 said they spend less time with members of their household, which is triple the number that said that in 2006 (“Family Time Eroding,” Breitbart.com, June 15, 2009). People are spending more time on cell phones and social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center, rightly observed: “It can’t be a good thing that families are spending less face-to-face time together. Ultimately it leads to less cohesive and less communicative families.” He said that “the Internet is so engrossing, and demands so much more attention than other technologies, that it can disrupt personal boundaries in ways other technologies wouldn’t have.”

Christian families must resist the onslaught of communication and entertainment technology by controlling it in a wise manner rather than allowing themselves to be controlled by it. Who said that children need their own cell phones, televisions, computers, and iPods? The world says that, but God’s Word warns that “evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33), and Christian parents must do everything within their power to disconnect their children from the ungodly pop culture and to win their hearts for Christ.

(Friday Church News Notes, June 26, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)