Fantasy world

I just watched an hour of the Academy Awards tonight, and I was impressed with the snippets of movies that were shown (though I haven't seen any of the featured movies yet). I love movies. I've seen hundreds of movies in my life, I'd bet I've watched two or three movies per month over my 54 years of life. Many of them have inspired me. I'm glad we have the opportunity to watch well-crafted movies. I should add that I watch almost no live television. I'm increasingly disturbed about the great number of Americans who know far more about the movies and television they watch than they know about the real world. They know more because they watch dozens of movies every month. They can talk for endless hours about movies, movie stars and even the gossip regarding movie stars. Most people I know have a far greater grasp about movies than they do about any of the big issues facing this country. Movies are as real to them as the world they actually live in. The following statistics are from the Kaiser Foundation:

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
The Academy promotes movies as opportunities to escape, and movies function too well in that regard. [More . . . ]

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What are gamers getting good at?

Game designer Jane McGonigal points out the immense numbers of hours gamers are spending getting good at what they do. World of Warcraft players typically spent 22 hours per week playing that game. What are they getting good at, based upon all of that investment? At what are they becoming virtuosos? McGonigal offers four answers. a. Urgent optimism; b. Weaving a tight social fabric; c. Blissful Productivity d. Epic meaning. Gamers, per McGonigal, are "Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals." They are convinced that they are excellent at changing the world, and they are good at getting things done, but it is only in their cyber-worlds. They are gaming to escape the dysfunctional real world. What's McGonigal's solution? To make the real world more like a game-world--she argues that gamers are a valuable resource that we need to tap into. We are ready to start an "epic game" where we remake the future. Her games include the following invitations to change one's world: A) World without oil - learning to live in a world of Peak Oil. B) Superstruct - Learning to survive global extinction. C) Evoke - Learning to teach social innovation skills to aid stressed societies.

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Free Enterprise Santa

Driving home from work today I did a bit of social psychology inside of my car by scanning the offerings of AM radio (I've been doing that a lot lately). Today, the most prominent AM radio station in St. Louis featured an opportunity to talk to Santa Claus. Santa took precious moments out from his busy schedule to talk to dozens of St. Louis children who were allowed to call the station and discuss upcoming matters of great importance with Mr. Claus. The typical conversation went something like this: Santa: what your name? [I kept thinking, "Here's a man who claims to be virtually omniscient in that he knows who's been bad or good, but he doesn't know who he's talking to."] Ashley: Ashley Santa: How old are you, Ashley? Ashley: I am six. Santa: What would you like for Christmas, Ashley? Ashley: I would like an iPod, and a Nintendo Wii and lots of other toys [Most of the children asked for toys that added up to many hundreds of dollars]. Santa: Ho, Ho, Ho! Thanks for talking! [Santa knew enough avoid saying anything that would cause big disappointments on Christmas morning] -- As you might guess, there was a conspiracy of misinformation going on. The parents and the radio station personalities worked hard to tell the children that Santa Claus actually existed, and they convinced the kids that asking a stranger to bring them valuable things was somehow appropriate. And why wouldn't he be? He gives you stuff, no strings attached. Even though it is obvious, it needs to be said that Santa Claus is far more popular than Jesus Christ, at least among children. [More . . . ]

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