Some Screen Time for your Screen Time

I may not be a cock-eyed optimist. But something about So You Think You Can Dance makes me feel a little better about the world. Who doesn't love a show full of fun dance numbers? It's part talent show, part eye candy, and part artistic expression: a reality show that isn't about celebrity or idiocy but rather about talent and athleticism; stamina and creativity.

I was so excited for the season to really start, because I am not a fan of the audition weeks' Parade of Freaks, and was ready for the top twenty to show their stuff. Now, I am a seriously sleep-deprived mom, and prone to a bit of the curmudgeondry as of late. but the new set on the show was sending me through the roof. To the point where, fifteen minutes in, I was already badgering my husband with, "Do you see this set? Are you SEEING this? What is with this, Mark? Whaaaat?"

So that set. The oval shape is annoying. The weird florescent elephant-tusks on the sides are distracting. But what is with the jumbotron behind the dancers? It was playing scenes of glittery graphics or mutating stock photos throughout every dance number. Because, why? We can't possibly be expected to watch just dancing? Has our collective ADD gotten so bad that we have to watch something on a tv set behind what we are watching on the tv set?

As I tried to analyze why this jazzed-up set was so under my skin, it dawned on me that so many of us are trying to actually reduce our screen time . . . to spend less time in front of the computer screen or tv set. Granted, this is still a tv show, and a reality show at that, but there was always something about it that seemed a little elevated. Just two beautiful dancers, on a minimalist stage, expressing joy and beauty and frustration with their bodies.

AND NOW IN FRONT OF A GAZILLION-WATT SCREEN PLAYING A GIANT SCREEN-SAVER GRAPHIC. Just in case you were getting bored.

But as I waxed philosophical about why this was so bothersome for me, I had a vague memory of thinking the same thing about some worship experiences I've had recently. At some of the churches I've attended, or camps I've visited, it seems like the new trend is to have the song lyrics projected in front of a moving vignette of pictures on the big screen. Some of the ones I've seen include a rapid-shot sunset in front of a cross, a glass of water being filled, or a page being filled with water-color brushstrokes. I recall thinking that it seemed a bit strange - did we really need to watch moving scenery during our worship? Was just plain worship no longer enough?

It's a tricky business, this relationship we have with our "screens". I'm sure in both instances, the powers-that-be are assuming that a little extra visual stimulation is necessary to hold the attention of a generation hooked on screen-time. The whole phenomenon makes me wonder if this shift to hyper-media has become a way of being relevant, even in the church. What do you think? Is more screen time just fostering our corporate attention deficit? Or is it a matter of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?"