Abstract
“Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and engagement. Indeed, reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. By contrast, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and often require no more than passive participation. Even interactive electronic media such as video games and the Internet, foster shorter attention spans and accelerated gratification. To lose such intellectual capabilities—and the many sorts of human continuity it allows—would constitute a vast cultural impoverishment.” (http://www.nea.gov/pub/RaRExec.pdf).
Edward Jones was bored. He sat in a classroom he didn’t want to be in. He starred blankly at the back of his instructor’s greasy, semi-balled head. He yawned. He rummaged through his black, north face backpack, His fingers wrapped around the smoothly metallic, cold skin of his favorite ipod. One earbud. Then the other. Then, he was dead.
Doodles riddled his notebook. Blankness ravaged his brain. Looking down at his English textbook he evaporated. But it wasn’t the story behind the words. It wasn’t found in the pages in front of him. It was something else. He imagined himself in his cushy swivel chair, sitting in front of his top of the line, personal computer, monster in one hand, mouse in the other, ready to do battle. His mind convulsed with excitement. Aroused thoughts sparked his longing for the upgrade he was about to receive. His character grew in front of his eyes. He lived for upgrades. His lust for respect had brought him to this perfectly mundane life, living inside the experience machine. There he fought without painful repercussions. Rebirth was common there. Birth. Growing. Death. Rebirth. Growth. Everything inside there is arbitrary.
Data stream of consciousness. Constant ones and zeros.
His iphone vibrated. Edward woke up. Edward’s alarm always went off on these days. Time to go home. Edward thought everyone hated him. He would slink around barely behind the scenes. His attempts to socialize always ended in failure, or worse. As time past, his delinquency fast forwarded. He finally took refuge in the one place he felt at home. The mothering nurturer. The fountain of knowledge. The future of our deaths. Lost in some instantaneous stimulus in digital euphoria, he was god. When lost inside, he often liked to pretend his victims where actual, real individuals. The thought of their deaths brought Edward much happiness.
Knock!
Knock!
Edward returned from his cyber consciousness with dislike.
“What do you want?” He screeched.
“Edward! Have some respect! Its your father. Shut up and let me in.”
“No”
After a little pause, Edward thought better about the situation, reluctantly got up to open the door, and walked back to his computer, uninterested. His father sat down on his son’s bed, and played with his fingers.
“What are you doing there son”.
“Playing The Great Experience Machine”. Robotically responded Edward.
“That sounds fun”.
Edward became lost again and left his father with his fingers.
“I have something to give you. My father gave it to me when I was your age, so I thought it’d be appropriate to pass it on to you.
Edward’s father paused in attempt to conjure some sort of response.
Click, click click click click click
“I know how much you like those fantasy games so it thought it’d be perfect, because this is one of the greatest, epic adventures ever written.”
Click click click click click click click click.
No words
“I can see you’re busy. I’ll just leave this here for you. Enjoy.”
Edward’s father gingerly set his father’s book on Edward’s pillow, got up, left the room, and shut the door.
Edward twitched, stopped playing, and picked up his book.
Post Script
“…our faith in positive social and cultural change was not misplaced.”
“Cultural decline is not inevitable.” (http://www.arts.gov/research/ReadingonRise.pdf)
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Your Edward sounds like my 13 year old brother. Its the video game epidemic. Takes you away from social and intellectual lifestyles, but its an escape for those adolescent kids struggling to fit in, feeling accepted and actually being good at something. Unfortunately it becomes an obsession and turns into a habit that hinders so many other possibilities. Of course this is not always the case, but in my personal experience, more often than not this seems to be the trend in young kids today. Going out side to play, or the library to read is a foreign concept to my 13 year old brother and his friends.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Tahreem that this seems to be mostly "an epidemic" of younger kids, who have grown up with all sorts of electronics. I guess it is important to have a good understanding of all things digital from a young age, but it is said when it hinders personal relationships. What's with all these people who go out with their friends, and then spend the whole time texting other people?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I want to know what happens next! Does he read the book? What book is it? :)
It pains me to know that no matter what i want to say, your situation here is all to true and repeats itself a thousand times over across america. I wish i could spread reading over world, perhaps one day i will. Anyways, i was speaking to a friend of mine over breakfast one morning and i asked him what kinds of books he reads, he says he doesn't. Oh, did that just crush my initial view of him. He's a thirty year old father, with two kids, and he doesnt read. Has it truly begun already, things like reading are getting lost in the family unit? I sudder to think of it....
ReplyDeleteI am not making any assumptions about anyone's parents or about those of you who are parents, but generally speaking, parents don't know how to be parents anymore. I have friends that have kids and I'm shocked at how many children I encounter that run the very household they are being brought up in. Children, just like adults, are creatures of habit. Parents have to expose children to habits at an appropriate age and reinforce these habits until they become routine. Parents who want their kids to be readers must not allow television to be what I like to call a "babysitter" to their children. Look, I'm not saying kids should not be allowed to have any fun with video games and other technology rather those privileges should be monitored and controlled. I was almost 21 years old when my youngest brother was born and I practically watched him grow up. My younger siblings may get away with a lot more and have more technology afforded to them than I did growing up, but it is understood that education comes before anything else. Complacency is not an option, not for child or parent or at least it is not supposed to be. When I was a kid, the education I received in my parent’s house superceded and superimposed any education I received anywhere else except maybe that of the classroom's. Even then, both educations complemented each other. Parents must not be afraid of telling their kids "NO" because it is part of their education. Disappointment and not doing whatever it is you feel like doing is part of life. I get the sense that a lot of parents now more than ever try to appease their kids for one reason or another and that is a great disservice to them. Ian, I really enjoyed your little story but that would never fly in my parents' house. I try imagining myself being in Edward's shoes and ignoring my dad like that and I find that very amusing. One, because I would never think to do that and second, because that book would have flew across the room and hit me upside the head so fast that it would have dummied me up really fast. Parenting doesn't always have to be a democracy. After all, who is the adult and who is the child.
ReplyDeleteHey at least he picked up the book. I'm surprised he even half-listened to his dad. I guess whatever works for him... I like how Tahreem comments that video games may be a way for kids who don't fit in to find a place where they do fit in. I'll bet a long time ago, books may have functioned in the same way. Isolation, quietness, fantasy worlds, all of these are found in reading as well as being present in today's video games. Our electronic world has created a new avenue for those who "don't fit in" to escape, as I'm sure books used to do.
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