Last
week, I wrote an article on the benefits of hosting exchange students, or
teachers. Indeed, the joys of such an
experience will far outweigh any negatives that can be conceived. However, earlier this week, we took our
German guests to a pre-season basketball game.
What I witnessed by the presentation of a modern-day NBA game is likely
one of the worst experiences I have ever endured – certainly at a sporting
event. In the two or so hours that
comprised the game, I was inundated with a cacophony of noise and nonsense, the
likes to which I have seldom been subjected.
Admittedly not a basketball fan, as a sports fan, it is nearly
impossible to enjoy a modern basketball game.
As
it was a pre-season game, the amount of people who arrived early to check out
the ambiance was few and scattered. This
makes the first annoyance I felt all the more perplexing. Microphone in hand, a loud local radio
personality nearly screamed, wondering if people were ready for some
basketball. Before I had time to
overcome the audio assault and compose an answer in my head, he proceeded with a
litany of announcements, each of which required more “energy” and “enthusiasm.” In the minutes leading up to the game, the
handful of fans were given a club volume level of the latest popular
songs. Part of me felt that, “surely,
the noise will go away during the actual game and I need to endure it a tad bit
more.” Don’t get me wrong, I like new
popular music as much as the next person (“I just met you, this is crazy…”). Yet, at this point, I just wanted to get to
the game.
Once
the game began, the loud speakers shoe-horned in the latest, greatest club
music around every millisecond it could.
During the game, an unceasing amount of demands (pleas?) for participatory
chants from the fans prevented the slightest chance of hearing the actual game
taking place before me. While I’m not a
fan of the sport, like my good friend and sport aficionado is wont to say, I
like to hear the squeaking of the shoes and the calling and maneuvering of the
players. Yet, the production value was
relentless. Topping the shrill of the music
was the arena announcer who screamed at us to do this or that. I work for a living and my whole life, I’ve
never met a more demanding, demonstrative and screaming task master. Every time the sparse crowd attempted to
recover and enjoy some peace and quiet, the amps would pulsate with more “requests”
to cheer or stomp our feet and the fans, in a near Pavlovian reaction, responded.
Now,
I’m more than willing to admit that my reaction is due simply to the fact that
I’m getting old. However, I walked away
from the arena slightly deaf, fighting through some ringing in the ears and
wondering what it all meant. What does
it mean that people seem to need or find enjoyment in this constant level of
stimulation? What is this the result
of? Computers and various hand held
devices have rendered people so incapable to maintain any focus or interest
that it has turned basketball into an orgy of sound, chaos and frenetic
energy. The game is not enough and it
made me wonder what the fans were valuing.
Sadly,
it is even seen in churches. My wife and
I have visited so many and I get an immediate urge to flee when I see screens
over the pulpit. I have images of
PowerPoint presentations on the Gospels or the Prophets, complete with music
and video. Again, I’m drawn to the
question, is the core product no longer enough?
I’m often told, and it is not totally without merit, that we must appeal
to a new demographic who require new things in the presentation of education,
faith or something as unimportant but fun like sports. However, the church
and the school have traditionally served as a warning or barrier to the trends
in society. It might not be a bad idea for sports
I
left the arena that evening tired and disturbed. I worry what the impact is on my students and
their ability to learn. We are turning
our people into Pavlov’s warning and with the exception of some of my
colleagues, I worry that we are spitting into the wind. I worry that, ultimately, we will go so far
that it will be difficult to reverse the effects. Why can’t people just agree with me?
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