jgc, some of your thoughts in this piece are worded badly, implying a (possibly subconcious) bias which I don't think you intended to be in there - though perhaps that was purposeful?
For example in paragraph three you have a list for virtual, and a list for real - "pleasure" appears in one of the lists only, and as it would be clearly incorrect to imply that virtual worlds cannot give pleasure, it was just left off that list, which is a subtle suggestion that pleasure is only found in the real world.
Books, I'm completely with you on that personally, I far prefer actual books to reading on an iPad or a Kindle, and I'm generally quite sentimental in most areas ("my dad's watch", etc.) But would losing that be a bad thing? It would for me personally, because that's how I think now, but if I was brought up not thinking of these things as sentimental for the object not just for the content, would I be worse off? Not sure.
Sex: A big leap to suggest that porn will become the default blah blah. And while I really have no idea what was in the heads of people 40, 100, 500 years ago, surely we have always been able to imagine pretty much any sexual scenario for pleasure anyway? And, porn is hardly new in the digital age (though much more easily accessible, certainly), and we haven't got there yet.
Making: My 9 year old nephew loves playing with his DS, his Xbox, he's always picked up technology (e.g. iphone use) fast, since he was young. But that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy being read to. Or reading himself. Or playing with lego. Or playing on the swings at the park. Or playing with our train set. Sure, some kids might never leave the computer screen, but some kids will also spend all their spare time reading, that doesn't prompt blogs about books being bad.
Children: I saw your link somewhere here to the flying story, and while some people may think like that, certainly not everyone.
And ultimately, sitting in front of a screen doesn't have to be bad. Everything in moderation, etc. Playing video games with friends online is (less so now, but still to an extent) considered geeky and lacking social skills, but is it really different from playing football in the park? (Ignoring the excercise aspect). Does playing with PHP help you improve your thinking skills more or less than playing with lego? Etc.
For example in paragraph three you have a list for virtual, and a list for real - "pleasure" appears in one of the lists only, and as it would be clearly incorrect to imply that virtual worlds cannot give pleasure, it was just left off that list, which is a subtle suggestion that pleasure is only found in the real world.
Books, I'm completely with you on that personally, I far prefer actual books to reading on an iPad or a Kindle, and I'm generally quite sentimental in most areas ("my dad's watch", etc.) But would losing that be a bad thing? It would for me personally, because that's how I think now, but if I was brought up not thinking of these things as sentimental for the object not just for the content, would I be worse off? Not sure.
Sex: A big leap to suggest that porn will become the default blah blah. And while I really have no idea what was in the heads of people 40, 100, 500 years ago, surely we have always been able to imagine pretty much any sexual scenario for pleasure anyway? And, porn is hardly new in the digital age (though much more easily accessible, certainly), and we haven't got there yet.
Making: My 9 year old nephew loves playing with his DS, his Xbox, he's always picked up technology (e.g. iphone use) fast, since he was young. But that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy being read to. Or reading himself. Or playing with lego. Or playing on the swings at the park. Or playing with our train set. Sure, some kids might never leave the computer screen, but some kids will also spend all their spare time reading, that doesn't prompt blogs about books being bad.
Children: I saw your link somewhere here to the flying story, and while some people may think like that, certainly not everyone.
And ultimately, sitting in front of a screen doesn't have to be bad. Everything in moderation, etc. Playing video games with friends online is (less so now, but still to an extent) considered geeky and lacking social skills, but is it really different from playing football in the park? (Ignoring the excercise aspect). Does playing with PHP help you improve your thinking skills more or less than playing with lego? Etc.