Imagine you woke up and your only choice for food was between cotton candy or cod livers. One is all sugar and gives a brief and immediate happy feeling, the other an icky dose of supposedly good things. A steady diet of both will have ruinous consequences.
Yet isn’t much of what we take in through social media, podcasts, television and radio functionally similar to cotton candy or cod livers? The fluffy and banal content that people consume from posts and reels is about as healthy for our brains and souls as cotton candy is for our bodies. So-called hard news is like cod liver. That “news” might give us a small dose of “reality” that gets us thinking, but too much of it makes us wonky. No wonder people coined terms like “brain rot” and “doom scrolling” to describe the effects.
There’s no way to escape what the world dishes out. We can choose to allow small bites that might in some ways be useful, while also seeking out healthy information. The Bible’s book of Proverbs contains dozens of verses about the quality of communication content and style. “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4); “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). These words of wisdom remind us not everything out there is worth reading or listening to. We could benefit by being more choosy in our information diet.
Improving intake affects what we ourselves dish out. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). We want good inside us so good comes out: at work, in school, with neighbors, while driving(!), in the checkout line. Having an abundance of good offsets other stuff we take in, so that when we’re with those we love, we don’t unload all the bad. Paul said, “Whatsoever things are true, …honest, …just, …pure, …lovely, …of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8). We can only share something if we have it to share, and as Isaiah proclaimed, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings” (Isaiah 52:7).
Dr. Carl Grosse is an ordained pastor and the author of Faith Along the Way, a weekly reflection for KnoxTNToday that encourages readers to discover God’s presence in everyday life and share His love with others.
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