I found an interesting article in The Telegraph about how the attentions span have dropped since the year 2000 (around the time the mobile revolution began), and here is a short quote from the article:
Researchers surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms. The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to 8 seconds. Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of 9 seconds.
This made me think about how this probably have affected the average Christians devotional life; and when our devotional life crumbles our spiritual life suffers.
As long as I remember I have heard that the key to revival is prayer; and I believe that is true. However, it’s funny (or maybe sad) to see Christian leaders still talk about how prayer is the key to both church growth and revival. Why is this funny (or sad)? Because still so many Christians would rather spend hours on FaceBook than in prayer.
Yes, of course we look at inspirational things, but in-between all the inspirational stuff there are Facebook post about gossip, immorality, profanity, and so on. So we mix in all kinds of thoughts as we seek inspiration.
I am writing just as much to my self, because the last year I have more and more started to have a conscious attitude to how much time and how I use social media. I feel God is calling His people back to a simple devotion to Him; a devotion where all the noise is filtered out.
The challenge is that when peoples attention span is reduced to that of a Goldfish, it becomes hard to filter out the noise. It just feels so strange to just sit and be with God. Not needing to have music in the background. Not needing to check your Facebook or Twitter account. Putting away your phone and just spend some quality time with your Heavenly Father.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2). Don’t let the devil use modern technology to destroy your ability to have quality time with God. After all, quality time is all about giving someone your undivided attention.