The Noise Around Us

It often feels like there is a constant commotion going on around us. Our attention is being sought by every kind of influence and marketers of every product and service. The internet feels like walking through a carnival with someone shouting as they hawk their product or game on every side. Some people no doubt enjoy all the action but for me it is mostly noise and distraction. I have learned that if I want to hear God’s voice I must turn down the volume of the noise!

So I don’t really do much social media and I do not even listen to the news most of the time. That might be shocking for some but I found something while living as a missionary in Ethiopia. We would visit the U.S. for a few weeks at a time and then return to our work in Africa. While in the U.S. I would listen to the news and catch up on the latest. I found that when we would return after a year or more and I would tune in again to the American news shows it seemed like I had nbot missed much of anything. They were still talking about the same things just different details or another place. The topics were prettyt much always the same and for a while I would check the news once or twice a year to see what was happening but then I just let it go all together.

There are some major events for sure, but I learned that the news is primarily an income generating business before it is a source of information. The goal seems to be to form an audience that will remain faithful to a particular news source and to enlarge that audience as much as possible with sensational headlines and juicy tidbits. Then use that audience to generate income. How much does your news source use photos and stories that appeal to sexual matters and celebrities, or both? Is that news? How much click bait do you need to wade through in order to find the story you are looking for? For me, that is all noise and I have chosen to turn it off.