Reformed Forum had
an interesting discussion of Luther and media. The discussion of Luther and publishing leads to a discussion of blogging (shorter than books, expressing ideas in a few paragraphs) and Twitter (thoughts limited to 140 characters). Carl Trueman makes some good points on how the less space is given to a topic, the less meaningful the treatment becomes.
I'm finding blogging to be true to his pronouncement. Blogging has helped me advance my own thinking and clarifying my ideas especially with feedback. Yet, the short medium often disallows, and discourages thoughtful interaction. (for example, my short incomplete post on a frustration with a
disregard for the Old Testament led to unintelligible comments and
my post on how not to argue, which seems to be a symptom of how our thought has been shaped by shorter media.) Our ability to give time to consider a lengthy argument in modern media forms has nearly disappeared. This is why we do not track with 30-minute sermons, or understand the Bible in larger sections than a verse or two at a time.
