Screens fade, families endure, faith lives on

Greetings, all. Here are a few articles that caught my eye this week, each with something to say about how we live in relation to what we value.

First, in an article from World News Group, titled “Final Season? TV streaming platforms reconsider their model for success amid the endless fight for viewers’ attention,” Abi Dunning goes over the rise and fall of the “peak TV” era and speculates as to whether streaming services can secure their place as the predominant entertainment media in years to come.

Dunning notes that streaming services like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix have gradually killed off cable TV: “When streaming TV took off in 2013, it revolutionized the industry. Dubbed the ‘peak TV’ era, it was marked by the incredible growth of original, scripted content on subscription video-on-demand giants like Netflix… As streaming shows became more popular, they slowly but surely poached subscribers from cable TV. At the start of peak TV, more than 80% of U.S. homes had a cable subscription. Today, less than 40% do. Now 80% subscribe to at least one streaming service. Younger generations, millennials and Gen Zers, average five paid streaming services per household.”

However, in the past few years streaming services have faced challenges, including increased competition. In 2022, Netflix announced its first-ever quarter with a net subscriber loss. The 2023 screenwriter’s strike led to delayed or cancelled shows. Also, consumers are looking for ways to cut back. The average household pays $69 a month for streaming services, which 47% of consumers say is too much.

“Streamers aren’t just competing with other TV providers for attention and advertising revenue. Social media, filled with a seemingly limitless reservoir of easy-to-produce, free content, is challenging the TV business model,” Dunning writes.

More than half of Gen Zers feel that social media is more relevant to them than TV shows or movies. They spend about 50 more minutes on social media than the average consumer.

So what does all this mean for the average consumer? Well, I hope it means that streaming services will expand their selection of shows or offer special deals to hold onto subscribers. The preference for social media also means that our attention spans are shortening, which is not a good thing. Between Snapchat and Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok Reels, tech companies have put an emphasis on short-form content that doesn’t require sustained attention. Even when a video has something valuable to say, it’s often forgotten minutes later — at least that’s been my experience. One of the ways to avoid this intentional dumbing down or attention span shortening is to routinely set aside time to unplug and do an activity that requires sustained, long-term focus. Screens can too easily eat up too much of our time, speaking from experience.

- Another article from World News Group highlights the value of marriage and motherhood.

“Every so often, a study comes along that ‘discovers’ something that we should have never doubted,” David Mitzenmacher writes. “A recent survey of American women run by the Institute for Family Studies and YouGov is one of those. The study’s conclusion? Married women are happier than unmarried women, and married mothers are the happiest of all. The study concluded that marriage and children are both good things.

“In other news, water is wet.”

Mitzenmacher may have a point that it should not be earth-shattering to say these things; however, it is still important to say them because we live in a culture that frequently dismisses the value of the family. Manypopularauthors,podcasters,orjournalists encourage women to focus on self-love and self-empowerment, to not settle down too quickly, and to build their career and leave marriage as an afterthought, maybe. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing a career and certainly not everyone is called to marriage. But, we should not miss the forest for the trees: marriage and family remain profound blessings.

- Finally, the reports are in and Charlie Kirk’s life continues to have a humongous impact. It is estimated that between 90,000 to 100,000 people attended Charlie’s memorial service on Sunday. Approximately 70,000 of those filled the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to capacity. Another 10,000 people gathered at the nearby Desert DiamondArena,adesignatedoverflow venue, and 10,000 more watched the service from nearby viewing areas.

I wrote earlier about the decline in TV viewership, but an event like this certainly served as an exception to the rule. There were at least 20 million viewers when combining cable and online streaming services. Verified figures from YouTube and X show 7.49 million views on Kirk’s own channel, 3.8 million impressions on his account on X, 2.43 million views on Fox News’ YouTube livestream, and 1.26 million on the Associated Press’ YouTube feed as of Monday. An additional 5.4 million Americans tuned in on cable.

The service was described as a “revival” service by one commentator, which sounds about right. One of the most powerful moments occurred when Charlie’s widow, full of emotion, declared that she forgave the murderer. Empowered by Christ’s forgiveness, she could forgive even the man that took the earthly life of her husband. The stadium broke into resounding applause. If every person in the U.S. took Erika’s example and forgave one person this week, just think how different the world would be.

The change continues. Turning Point USA has received more than 55,000 requests to start new chapters. There have been countless people who have said they decided to start going to church or turn back to God because of Charlie. I think that’s what Charlie would have wanted.

Despite man’s intentions, God’s purposes cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2).