I'm camping out on entertainment because I keep seeing television commercials from cable and satellite companies who claim that they make your life better. They improve your life by allowing you to watch a crime drama during a wedding reception or watch a ball game during backyard family time. Really? Life is better when you can be distracted anywhere? That's like putting a refrigerator in every room in the house. And in your car, and in the backyard.
What is entertainment? One way to define it is: Passively consuming or engaging with content for fun. This would include video games, binge watching, Facebook, Twitter, internet, cable TV, hand-held devices, smart phones, books, movies, magazines, etc.
There can be great value in entertainment. It can provide encouragement, education, relaxation, catharsis, fellowship, laughter, relaxation, diversion.
There are also great dangers in entertainment, including addiction, loss of time, isolation, obsession with narrow topic. Sometimes it reduces stillness; threatens time with family, self, and God; damages relationships. And the content can be harmful to your soul—ungodly world views, porn, celebration of evil.
Like any powerful tool, entertainment can be used for great good or great destruction. Like fire, it must be handled very carefully.
