Since nobody else has directly brought this up so far: our perceptions are strongly distorted by our environment. If you tend to spend a lot of time at the computer, you will tend to think that everyone else spends a lot of time at the computer.
I live in a semi-rural area (Grass Valley, CA; local population approximately 25,000). Here, the neighborhood kids get together on my street and play outside. On the weekends in the Summer, the local highways have boats on trailers, headed out to the various local lakes for the day. The locals that don't have a boat all congregate at one of the various local rivers during the Summer, and hang out with their dogs off their leashes and chat with each-other and jump off of cliffs into questionable landing areas.
I needed to get away for a bit last weekend, so some friends and I went hiking deep in the mountains and bagged some 8,000-foot buttes while we were there. Along the way, we met a bunch of other people out having fun too, including a small, but full, campground of folks. Here, there are farmers' markets somewhere almost every day, and big street events downtown. There seems to be a kind of informal local contest to see who can put on the biggest events. Last weekend, while I was out hiking, we had the brew fest (which is usually a pretty big attraction), and the "Miner's Picnic", which also gets a good draw.
I have a couple of tickets to go and see a local production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". I'm trying to improve my juggling skills, so I hang out with some locals for a "circus jam" in one of the local parks every Sunday afternoon. On Tuesdays and Fridays I get together with some older friends and we play Go for a few hours at one of the various cafes. My girlfriend goes out to various places throughout the week and sets up her massage chair and offers $1/minute massage to interested people.
Yes, there are people here who spend a lot of time behind computers. I'm one of them. There are kids who spend a lot of time playing video games. I've met some of them. But, that's not the whole picture, and I know it's not, because I go out and participate in and experience everything else that's going on here.
I've also seen these dichotomies-of-community in lots of other places, too: San Diego, the East Bay, Seattle.
If you feel like other people are spending too much time in the virtual world, or that the virtual world is overtaking the physical one, or that experiences are being cheapened somehow, or that there's too much fear among people ... you need to get out more. :-)
So you're saying that kids aren't outside less than they were a generation ago? That people don't interact with the physical world less, opting instead to interact with their phones?
> Yes, there are people here who spend a lot of time behind computers. I'm one of them. There are kids who spend a lot of time playing video games. I've met some of them. But, that's not the whole picture...
I live in a semi-rural area (Grass Valley, CA; local population approximately 25,000). Here, the neighborhood kids get together on my street and play outside. On the weekends in the Summer, the local highways have boats on trailers, headed out to the various local lakes for the day. The locals that don't have a boat all congregate at one of the various local rivers during the Summer, and hang out with their dogs off their leashes and chat with each-other and jump off of cliffs into questionable landing areas.
I needed to get away for a bit last weekend, so some friends and I went hiking deep in the mountains and bagged some 8,000-foot buttes while we were there. Along the way, we met a bunch of other people out having fun too, including a small, but full, campground of folks. Here, there are farmers' markets somewhere almost every day, and big street events downtown. There seems to be a kind of informal local contest to see who can put on the biggest events. Last weekend, while I was out hiking, we had the brew fest (which is usually a pretty big attraction), and the "Miner's Picnic", which also gets a good draw.
I have a couple of tickets to go and see a local production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". I'm trying to improve my juggling skills, so I hang out with some locals for a "circus jam" in one of the local parks every Sunday afternoon. On Tuesdays and Fridays I get together with some older friends and we play Go for a few hours at one of the various cafes. My girlfriend goes out to various places throughout the week and sets up her massage chair and offers $1/minute massage to interested people.
Yes, there are people here who spend a lot of time behind computers. I'm one of them. There are kids who spend a lot of time playing video games. I've met some of them. But, that's not the whole picture, and I know it's not, because I go out and participate in and experience everything else that's going on here.
I've also seen these dichotomies-of-community in lots of other places, too: San Diego, the East Bay, Seattle.
If you feel like other people are spending too much time in the virtual world, or that the virtual world is overtaking the physical one, or that experiences are being cheapened somehow, or that there's too much fear among people ... you need to get out more. :-)