The Blog of Jade and Ryan

The other day I broke down and bought a Nintendo DS. I couldn't pass up the allure of the various mind puzzle games they had for this system, as that is one of my weaknesses. Having had it for a couple days now, I realized that it was filling time that used to be filled with my own thoughts. Time spent just before dinner is ready, or as a passenger in a vehicle, etc…Instead of utilizing down time contemplating various subjects of interest or coming up with fun ways to think of things around me, I now find myself playing Brain Age or some other game. That made me start to think (or, kept me from thinking about until recently) how much of our intelligence and creativity is being lost as a result of portable media.

I remember road trips as a child being a much more fun experience for me than my parents. We would play games like road sign bingo, out-of-state plates, and what does that cloud look like. Whereas these games were merely designed as a means to get me to shut up and stop asking dumb questions, it really did a lot more. It mandated the use of thought and creativity. I had to remember what road signs I needed, or what states I had already seen license plates from. I had to create in my mind that the cloud that looked so similar to every other cloud actually did look like Mickey Mouse. Today, life has become easier for the parent, as many vehicles are coming equipped with DVD players in the back seat, in which the same company that brought you the Mickey Mouse you saw in the cloud, is now bring your kids all the entertainment they want, without them having to even think to get it.

This change isn't only present in the way we raise our kids, but in the way we raise ourselves as well. Games for both the Nintendo DS as well as the PSP are targeting adults as well as kids. The PSP even has full length movies you can spend your time watching anywhere you want. Devices like the iPOD touch and the Blackberry have absorbed the time of adults everywhere. This time used to be absorbed by just being alone with out thoughts. Whether consciously or not, the brain is constantly processing different things, and making connections out of the stimulus it receives. When that time is spent with pre-formulated stimulus, it no longer has the randomness, which restricts the breadth of what we have experienced, and the connections our brain can make.

Next time you are at an airport or a doctor's office waiting room, compare the amount of people that are reading a book to the number that are using their cell phones to browse the internet or text message. Next time you're on a highway and pass vehicles with kids in the back, compare the number of kids that are looking out the windows at the clouds and license plates to the number looking at PSPs or DVD players. Seeing how much or our society has given into this new portable media craze may make you think about how much time we really dedicate just to our thoughts; or maybe, you'll be too busy reading this blog on your iPhone to think about it at all.