Bitesize

We like our news and information to be bitesize. Not too deep, and something we can read in 10 seconds flat. This fairly new phenomenon is borne out in popular social networking sites, like twitter and facebook. You get most attention if you can keep your witty and personal twitter comments to less than 140 characters. Anything more than that and your readers go all glazed, and the attention wavers and you have lost them. This medium is mostly (but not exclusively) used by our youth.

I suppose bitesize comments and thoughts are good, and have their place, but I wonder if this shields us from a greater reality? Are we in the process of losing our ability to read an article? Newspapers are losing their readership in vast numbers, especially the broadsheets which deal in news reporting. The newspapers which seem to be doing better rely on lots of photos, and salacious celebrity gossip, both dished up in spades. The information we are served up here, is not edifying.

This leaves me with a thought. As Christian believers, are we at risk of falling into the trap of relying on the Gospel as long as it is given in bitesize chunks, or do we make an effort to read bigger chapters of good books, and especially the best ‘good book’, the Bible? We will only scratch the surface if all we get are small, convenient pieces of the Good News, but we have a much better chance of growing in our faith when we take time (more than 10 seconds) to read God’s Word, and inspiring books. If you have reached this point in the Blog, you have done well, because this is much more than 140 characters long. Could that be because you are over 25?