The Hidden Cost of Electronic Media

Have you noticed that the art of conversation is on the decline? Also, when is the last time you received (or sent) a well-written letter? Both penmanship and letter-writing are becoming lost arts. A good measure of our humanity is dying along with these inter-personal skills. The price paid for the convenience and lure of electronic media can be seen in the last nation on earth to introduce television.

For decades the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan resisted the lure of modern media. But after many inhabitants complained that they could not watch the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament, the government introduced television in 1999. Now people can view 40 channels and are already addicted to Hollywood movies and Indian soap operas, says a report from Bhutan. Instead of sitting together singing and talking as they used to, families gather to watch TV. One woman laments having little time for anything else anymore—including prayer. “Even though I spin my prayer wheel,” she said, “my mind is always on the TV,” reported the Qatar daily The Peninsula. “But what many fear is the rabid consumerism of much of the outside world. ‘Television and advertisements create desires [that] may not be satisfied given the economic situation of the people.’”

Does that sound familiar?