Birth of the Remote Control

1st wireless remote (from the Detroit Free Press)

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts recently published a column entitled, "The remote control that revolutionized our ‘fat assets’," which was published under other titles by other papers, such as, "Leonard Pitts Jr.: TVs and sofas, never the same again," in the Detroit Free Press and, "A Tribute – By Remote Control" in the Yankton Press & Dakotan.  The man who invented the TV remote, Eugene  Polley, died at the age of 96 on May 20th, and Pitts column partly pays tribute to Polley and his invention and partly laments the fact that the TV remote was ever invented.  Pitts recalls the old days of the 1950s when TV watchers had to get up and go to the set to change channels—or send one of their kids to do it (children being the original TV remote).

 It is easy to see how the wireless remote, which is now used for all sorts of things, can be a metaphor for the benefits and evils of technological society.  It singlehandedly created generations of couch potatoes, thus contributing to the obesity epidemic sweeping the globe.  On the other hand, the TV remote is a key element in the TV revolution that to a degree has put the world at our fingertips.

The deeper lesson is equally easy to see.  We have an uncanny ability to turn the good things we invent and discover to unhappy purposes.  TV remotes are two-edged swords, and so is just about everything else that we consider good.

And the theological point is just about as obvious.  The central fact of our lives is that God's creation of us remains unfinished.  We are a "work in progress" and as such have a long way to go before we see the Kingdom.  The story line of the Bible is the way in which God (wearing the mask of the Spirit) wrestles with us, works on us, and seeks to herd us toward the future, a task that is far, far worse than trying to herd cats.

Actually, the TV remote is a good sermon illustration, one well worth using for that purpose.  Amen.

TV Will be the Death of Us

Current research in Australia supports and broadens the findings of previous research that watching TV is dangerous. The abstract of the Australian team's report states (here), "TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity."  The report estimates that the average Australian woman loses about 1.5 years of life and the average man about 1.8 years through watching TV.  The lead researcher, Dr. Lennert Veerman, is quoted in a recent article in the science news section of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website  as saying (here),  "If our estimates are correct, then TV viewing is in the same league as smoking and obesity."  While physical exercise is in and of itself beneficial, he also claims that increased exercise doesn't offset the ill effects of watching TV as other research has shown even those who exercise regularly are, according the the ABC article, "still at increased risk of premature death if they also watched high amounts of television."

The report's abstract and the ABC article don't clearly explain why TV watching is so harmful, but evidently the issue is one of sitting for long periods of time as well as physical inactivity.  We're physically built to stand a lot and move a lot, and when we don't there are negative consequences.  One wonders if a quiet hour spent in reading has the same affect.  What about the time people spend in meditation and prayer?  The ABC article also states that much more research needs to be done before all of this is better understood.  In the meantime, less TV is better—as is more time exercising.