One of the paradoxes of the digital age is that we see, hear, and read vast quantities of media every day, but our senses are actually becoming dulled. Our ability to retain and synthesize information is waning. We are becoming binge-eaters; constant snackers of information (a video here, a podcast there, rabbit trails from Tweets every hour on the hour); but little of it is being processed into nutrition. Meanwhile, media companies and their tailored-to-you ads and algorithms are becoming more sophisticated in making sure every gap in your attention is filled with some piece of content, intruding upon our “attentional commons” at every opportunity. I wrote about this with regard to Netflix recently.

How can Christians wisely navigate this world of increasing “visual noise” (among every other type of noise)? I loved A. Trevor Sutton’s recent exploration of this question for TGC. Building off the work of 20th-century German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, Sutton ponders the capacity to see well—not in the mere physiological sense of processing information that our eye takes in, but in the deeper spiritual sense of actually beholding reality for what it is. Recovering this way of seeing will be essential for living wisely in a world of noise.