Media Fatigue & The Sabbath

by: Lau Guzmán, Director of Communications ‘20-’21

Hey Fam. 

My, what a long year this week has been. A vice-presidential debate has happened and we found out that the president took steroids as a treatment for the coronavirus. 

And the week before that, we found out that the president had coronavirus, and that the New York Times released his tax returns, and then there was a presidential debate --although I’m not sure that debate is really the proper word I should use to describe it. 

And the week before that, Justice Ginsburg died, was laid in state in the capitol, and Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to take her place, even as California burned. 

And this is just American political news from the past month, it doesn’t include all the other concerns that fill our days. Thing is, American political life didn’t move at a manageable, healthy pace before, but now, doesn’t it seem like everything is accelerating? 

I’ve heard the phenomenon called media fatigue, but that just doesn’t feel a scary enough descriptor. To me, it feels a lot like driving a car really fast, as if we were all trying to drive faster and faster, intentionally narrowing our fields of vision so that we can only focus on the things right immediately front of us, losing peripheral vision and ignoring everything else around us.  This is dangerous driving, and it’s dangerous politics. We are loosing the attention spans that can be devoted to long-form nuanced conversations. We practice politics in tweets, and while brevity and concision are the virtues of a good journalist, they are not the best avenue for thoughtful, reflective dialogue.

Living like this is exhausting. I often feel like tossing my phone in the nearest river and forgetting about all of it, but unfortunately, that would mean I would just have to get a new phone. Disconnecting is hard during a pandemic, where we are encouraged to stay home as much as possible, so we find out about the world through the curatorial power of our phones. It’s even harder during an election, where the information we are consuming from the media will directly influence the outcome of an election. 

Thus, I think that now, more than ever, we need to learn how to practice the Sabbath. Even though it was meant for ancient agricultural workers in the Middle East, it still applies to modern people who are struggling to come to terms with the pace of the world.

A quick google search will tell you what different believers think about what counts or doesn’t count as Sabbath. They are amazing, and I suck at all of them. I feel the need to be current and informed all the time, and it is difficult for me to set down my phone and forget the world. It’s especially hard for me as a Journalism student, where my professor actually quizzes me on the week’s news, so I rationalize my obsession with the news as “doing Homework.”

Thus, in a heroic effort, I decided to rest from the media today. My friends and I left the city and had a picnic. I didn’t have access to the internet, and it was wonderful. The world did not burn, and the most interesting that happened today is that Fauci claims that Trump ran a campaign ad without Fauci’s consent, which seems pretty tame compared to everything else going on. 

All that to say, if I was able to disconnect for a day, I’m pretty sure anyone can. 

This week, I have a simple prayer to share:

Dear Jesus,  I know salvation does not come from the news cycle, but from you alone. I trust you. Please help me rest. Amen.