DC_Ch. 1_All_Amusing Ourselves

One of my worries about video games, mass media and cyberdrama is that they are so time consuming and really unrewarding. I can play "The Sims" for hours, feel good about making my character a better person, but am I becoming a better person? I don't get the promotions my dude gets. Granted, watching TV won't make you feel better, either. In fact, it should make you feel worse because there's a good chance you lost the potential for increasing your intelligence by watching it. Though it does feel good. This is the basis of Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death." If you read one book outside of class, this is the one it should be. We as a society don't understand anything and it's because we get everything through a fractured lense. Context gets shortchanged in the visual medium. The interactive medium everyone seems to be striving for is dangerously close to Huxley's warning of the "feelies" in "Brave New World." (Ben) Snoop Dogg makes a lot more sense when we're burning up our minds away anyhow. We as graduate students and digital storytellers need to take a minute and realize how important the printed and spoken word is. The pen is mightier than the sword but only if we know how to use it. Technology is wonderful and amusing, we've all chosen to embrace and I think that's great but we need to have a base that's written which is why the work of Murray, Laurel and Mateas is so important. It grounds it and helps us understand it (and we need to let those who don't get to read about it, know about it). Paper is more than a wrapper for the "chronic".

Getting off my digital soap box and going back to "The Sims" and sipping on "gin and juice",

Digital Curt