And that sounds like another good book for my list.

Crimson Wife, I tend to agree. My sample size is decidedly limited, and I know both types exist in both environments, but the same seems true here.

“…we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision there was another — slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World…Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision…people will come to love their oppression, to adore technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. Huxley feared there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. huxley feared those who would give us do much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy…This book is about the possibility that Huxley, and not Orwell, was right.”

Oh, and what is it about that “packing up and going on a journey” motif? My children play that too, sometimes for days on end. There was rice…RICE!…all over the bathroom floor…MY bathroom floor!… because they got into the pantry and got some to take on their journey…which apparently took them through the bathroom. (They play all the scenarios you listed, but the journey thing has been big lately.)

e-mom, that is no surprise. And my husband falls into that. He could watch YouTube all day, but fortunately, he knows better!

Shawna, I do not really “play” that much either. I am a more quiet reflective typr. (Bet you’d never guess that!) Anyway, I think you can also replace play with whatever you pursue in your free time. Do you knit or watch videos? Read or listen to MP3s? Nothing is inherently wrong with any of it, but a do think that the dominant place passive entertainment has taken does not bode well for our future.

I don’t play well. I never have. I never did…not even as a child. I played with my dolls and Barbies or I read and wrote. I simply was not into playing…and I still do not play well.

Does that say I am too serious? LOL I have no idea, but I would love to learn to play! I wished I could play as I child, but I wasn’t comfortable with it…I’m not always comfortable with it now.

Recently, I read a stat that today’s young people watch more YouTube than TV. So passive media consumption is moving to the computer. No surprise!

Your entry today reminds me of a book I recently read and keep meaning to review in my blog… but

Anyway, have you read The Vanishing Word by Arthur W. Hunt III? It is excellent and perhaps my favorite part of the book was the beginning when the author reviewed the cultural impact of technology on our society ~

It surprises me how many people view television as good for young children because it is labeled “educational.” Kids actually watch half the television once they start school! i am not completely against television, but I cannot imagine setting a toddler down in front of it for four hours per day.