Does it take a small mind to work a computer?
People are always talking about making the most of their lives. How does one ‘make the most’ of their life? By travelling, seeing the world? By going to school and learning until their brain is swollen? By…… going on the computer?
Say the average lifespan is about 80 years. Maybe you start using a computer around…. 10 years of age. Averaging it out, maybe you spend 2 hours a day on the computer. There goes nearly 6 years of your life. 6 years of just BEING on the computer. What the heck did people do when it didnt exist? Play with their dogs maybe. Go to the park with their dads, play hockey in the middle of the street until you couldnt see the puck anymore. I remember when we didnt have a computer, and the only t.v we had was a crappy little box upstairs. We’d be forced to play outside, expand our imaginations by making up games involving trees or pretending the pavement was a ship and the grass was hot lava. Me and my brother would grab planks of wood and lay them out carefully until they reached the little rusty bathtub at the bottom of my yard. Sure, it wasn’t too long ago, but its been long enough for me to wonder when exactly my childhood imagination petered out.
I’d love to be amused with small things like playing house and pretending dirt was hamburger helper, or wanting to go to bed early because the ‘dream train’ was coming at quarter after and we had to make it to the train-stop and jump on or we’d have to wait for 45 more minutes…… Me and my sisters would literally wait for an hour in bed just to catch a certain train, oh yes, there were a bunch of them. For example, the beanstalk express(which was my personal favorite), or the moonlit waterfall.
I remember going to bed in the summer and hearing the ‘big kids’ who lived in all the houses on the street get together and play hockey, the chalk outline for their net is still there rainwashed and everything. I used to think someone drew a bum in a bathtub, which as you can imagine was pretty comical to a 6 year old, so I’d take out my chalk and freshen it up when I could.
Now I dont even know my neighbours. Maybe the teachers next door or the guy across the street who happens to be over at the moment playing Halo. The little kids dont really play outside anymore. Their eyes seem empty, I see them wandering around aimlessly and every-so-often delivering papers. Like they need the responsibility yet. They’re kids, they should be trying to dig to China in their backyard or staring mischieviously at the edge of the woods at the now-barren U-hill filled with bears and other dangerous things. Maybe its because spring has just begun and weathers not too favorable. Its still depressing.
What will the children of the future be doing?
heyyooo. the bum isn’t there anymore. i noticed it a few years ago actually. and why is it called petering out? did peter give up alot? and you should watch ‘The Last Mimzy’.. it’s soo good! it’s pretty scientific. it makes your brain work a little. do you know why you were so imaginative when you were younger? cause you used more of your brain, so it was harder for you to connect things in a logical way. thats why when you get older everything starts to make sense and you wonder why you were so stupid and naive. it’s like your brain hardwires itself. once you learn something, it’s like a path and your brain remembers it so it doesn’t take other paths and you use less and less of your brain as you become an adult. There’s probably a more scientific way of explaining it, but Mimzy definitely made me want to go back to school.