>
> Why isn't that also the case in heavy book readers? It is
> a solitary sport in which hours upon hours are spent in
> blocking out the world around you. Two people sitting next
> to each other reading may as well be in different worlds.
Instead of "two people sitting next to each other" it seems like two separate, intimate conversations. When I read a book, even crap fiction or propaganda, I'm being spoken to by a human being in a human language.
On the down side the communication is only one-way but on the other hand an author is going to great lengths to present his thoughts to me, human to human and in depth and detail unmatched in ordinary speech.
I see nothing like that in video game play, which feels like unraveling a mechanical logic problem, not like any kind of human intercourse at all. But maybe I haven't played enough video games to judge. I can relate an anecdote how both of my daughters play video games an awful lot, yet despite that they've both been very successful at academic stuff, so Gawker's "functional illiterates" is dumb trolling.
Watching teevee is kind of like reading books, also one-way though ten times shallower and with a twentieth the detail. But the difference between teevee and books is that the reader is the book author's customer, who may not be exactly "always right," but who is at least the primary focus. (I mean, the author's intent may be corrupt, he may be lying his ass off, but as he lies he's still focused directly on _you_.)
Whereas the teevee producer doesn't work for the viewer but advertisers, so his intent toward the audience is rarely to communicate with us but usually instead, just to bedazzle and distract us while his client picks our pockets.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net