Streaming and ScriptureSample

Do not binge watch! 

Sure enough, streaming services offer a world of convenience: you can now watch your favorite show whenever you want to and in a screen the size of which can range from a phone-screen to a giant OLED TV Screen. I recently watched a Nat Geo show featuring the Peregrine Falcon on Hotstar with my 11-year old daughter!

The June 30-July 6, 2018 issue of The Economist magazine had this statistic: The 125 million households Netflix serves, is twice as many as it had in 2014 watch Netflix for more than two hours day on average, eating up a fifth of the world’s downstream internet bandwidth. Netflix is truly becoming international: it makes TV shows in 21 countries” (The Economist, June 30-July 6, page 9).    

What should believers keep in mind when it comes to watching shows via internet entertainment services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and the like - shows which can be watched anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen?

DO NOT BINGE WATCH: The temptation to binge watch – keep watching show after show, from each season after season – via streaming devices may be strong. But we must beat that temptation. The Bible teaches, “Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days” (Eph. 5:16). The same truth is put in the Old Testament in another way: “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.” (Prov. 25:16). The same truth is repeated in Proverbs 25:27. When we binge watch even a totally clean streaming service show, day after day, it is as if we are mastered by the same – something that the Apostle Paul warned us against (I Cor. 6:12).

I am sure that are more important things to do in life – like spending time with family, like getting to know God more by reading His Word and praying, like winning souls - than to indulge in binge watching via streaming devices !