Remember the excitement as a young kid of getting together with a couple of your friends to play? Maybe one would bring a ball, another his dog. You’d run around, devising games and new rules as you went. When you were tired, you’d stop, sit under a shade tree, and complain about your siblings or a mean teacher. In other words, you’d hang out together, enjoying each other’s company.
Contrast that to what was on TV’s 7 on Your Side earlier this week. The segment compared video games for parents thinking about getting one for their child for Christmas. What interested me, though, was the scene: three young boys, presumably friends who had come together to play, sit in a circle, each totally absorbed in his own video-game world. No words or glances were exchanged, no sharing of what was going on in the device clutched in any of the young hands. No indication that any of them knew that anyone else was present in that intimate-looking circle. In short, no interaction.
Me and my video game. Who needs friends?