Recently, I read a piece about how younger generations don’t enjoy going to movie theaters. Apparently, they are so used to viewing small screens, they feel some sort of overwhelm in a theater setting.
I thought this was interesting. I wondered if it might be made up as so much of the “information” out there is. But when I thought of the babies I see, sitting in shopping carts, transfixed by whatever they’re viewing on an iPhone, clearly there would be a long-term effect.
Days later, I wonder if constantly looking IN at a narrow space might see a person develop a myopic worldview….along with the problems with their neck and their posture. It certainly seems that way.
Where do people go these days? Facebook? I suspect, most people spend 80% of their time on just a few websites.
What do you think of this? It’s a Saturn in Sagittarius topic. Work to open your mind. Somehow, staring a a small screen does not seem conducive to that sort of like sitting on your butt to get some exercise.
Apparently, they are so used to viewing small screens, they feel some sort of overwhelm in a theater setting.
I’ve been frying my brain with computers since I was a pre-teen (back in the late 70’s). So the stuff about the Gen Y crowd that bothers older people seems perfectly sensible to me. The problem with sitting through movies in the theatre is that it can get *boring*. If you’ve ever seen A Clockwork Orange, the part where Malcolm McDowell has to sit through the movies playing with his eyelids pinned up sums it. It really does vary a lot. I was sitting through a movie where the guy who didn’t know how to fly a plane took over and I’m was getting so irritated I was unconsciously verbally coaching the guy. ‘Elevator… use your elevator.’
Days later, I wonder if constantly looking IN at a narrow space might see a person develop a myopic worldview…
Myopic in one sense – panoramic in another.
Where do people go these days? Facebook? I suspect, most people spend 80% of their time on just a few websites.
More than that, actually (it’s a stronger than logarithmic relationship across the top ten web sites but unfortunately, I can’t find that chart). Here’s an out-of-date (2012) infograph.
Work to open your mind. Somehow, staring a a small screen does not seem conducive to that sort of like sitting on your butt to get some exercise.
I’m sure some people would complain my mind was too open. 🙂
max
[‘Also, I like a big screen hooked to a computer, not a cell.’]
Max, it doesn’t get boring if the movie is good. I saw Clockwork Orange way back then and thought it was a very provocative movie. You don’t get the “feel” of the movie if you’re looking at it on a phone. It seems to me that Gen Y just wants a recap of the movie but they’re missing the best part by doing that; all the emotion and acting.
This may be like people who said that tv ruined radio.
You notice, classical music is just about dead. We’ve got Beyonce and Miley now. What are you gonna do?
This may be like people who said that tv ruined radio.
Movies ruined reading, radio ruined movies, TV ruined radio, computers are ruining TV. Classical music is for a tiny minority (which, actually, it always was), theatre only exists in a few cities, movies are now an event instead of something someone sees twice a week as it was during the depression and so on ad infinitum.
We might be entering a decadent era (are maybe already in one) but we haven’t actually gone dark yet. From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life is a nifty book.
max
[‘But there’s nothing wrong with railing against the dying of the light.’]
Well, that’s my point. Good changes between the people who grew up passively absorbing television and people who grew up interacting with their screen. (Computers are TVs that talk back to you.)
It seems to me that Gen Y just wants a recap of the movie but they’re missing the best part by doing that; all the emotion and acting.
Would it help if I told many (most?) movies just bore the hell out of me. To be fair, I watched a lot of movies when I was a teen and a 20-something and I can identify a movie just by watching a few seconds of it. So I’m an outlier there, maybe.
Still holds up I think. What’s interesting about the small screen crowd is their oblivious to things going on around them in the physical world. But I expect that will change over time. Every new invention takes time to adjust to.
max
[‘…’]
I don’t know if the size of the screen adds to the narrowing, but just the fact of getting so much info, stimulus etc… from pre-digested and targeted internet feed probably eliminates a lot other sources. (And how much time can a person spent per day checking out all this stuff instead of using their body?)
I just read a book on neuro-plasticity (The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge – very interesting and also encouraging to treat/repare all sorts of complex disease) which puts forth the idea that the les neuro stimulation you get from the senses (sight, hearing, touch etc.) the more it shuts down circuits in the brain.
So, if you get all your kicks from virtual stuff on a screen, the brain (& all the rest) will work less and shut down, to different degrees, of course.
But definitely, the eys focusing all the time on short distances loses some its capacity for “elastic” vision. (More & more peole with myopia, it seems.)
Man that is scary
Just wanted to add that my post does not answer the question, just adds parallel stuff.
I think that to open a mind or world view, you have to have curiosity – but I don’t know what encourages curiosity.
Curiosity works with small screens as well as big ones. I think a curious person looking for an info will check something up through a microscope, or worse!
Classical music is far from dead.
Well, people don’t support the symphony like they used to. So says my numerous friends who play in them.
When is the last time you knew someone who went to see a classical music concert?
This doesn’t mean it won’t survive. I expect it will, but we’re headed into a dark age at the moment.
Studies have shown that if you jump off a building without a parachute both the body and brain will be overwhelmed with fear. lol
I live with a young teen and I can say this. They only go to the cinema if it’s worth it because it is getting expensive, compared to what we paid for.
But she does, like using her tablet to view things, like watching tv.. but we have smart tv… and that changes everything too.
What I have noticed is, that they view spare time away from technology as very important and only want to spend their time with something they value. I mean, with my spare time I waste it, they think it’s really bad to do that.
But thats in my surroundings.. I don’t know what its like with others
I get confused that people don’t realize the smart phone is a small computer. So basically we’re on the computer all the time.
Plus it’s strange how we can sit perfectly still and watch one point. Also it has the same irresistible pull for children that sugar does. It’s something to see, a child who rarely gets TV being hypnotized by cartoons or phones. I know a guy who refuses to use smart phones who says I’m strung out on them
It minimizes my reading skills and arm strength and attention span. so it’s harder to read. I’ve been toying with getting a flip phone
I can’t quit it so easily because when I’m alone I don’t like silence. My mind customarily goes into overdrive to block silence, but I love my podcasts and need Skype for sag reasons…..
I’m the opposite. I can’t stand noise. Any noise.
I thrive on silence. The most pure and absolute silence I can find, which is nearly impossible.
I occasionally like music, but only very specific kinds, and in very specific circumstances, and very briefly.
I once went on a one-week supposedly “silent” retreat in a cloistered convent. You got a room, and were fed. Nobody was supposed to talk. I found the place so noisy, I couldn’t believe it. This was because I was used to living alone in absolute silence. The other clients who were used to homes with TV and kids and slamming doors thought it was “quiet”.
“Quiet” and “silence” and “noise” are all relative.
I guess I’ve learned to satisfy my moon needs with it and am lonely without it