Entertain Me

The other day when I dropped by our local Barnes & Noble bookstore I noticed a huge crowd of people lined up outside, cordoned off to a specific area of the sidewalk outside so as not to interrupt traffic flow into the store. Some appeared to have been camping out there for some time, perhaps even overnight if the large coolers they were resting their feet on were any indication. Some were standing and stretching, some were laying on beach towels in swimming suits at their spot in line, but most had brought lawn chairs and umbrellas so their wait would be comfortable. As comfortable as it could be in 110 degree heat at noon, that is. What, I wondered, was so important that folks were willing to give up hours of their time in this heat to wait in line to wait for it?

Turns out it was for the final installment of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Okay, so one time we did something sort of like this. It was to get our son into Kindergarten at the same school that his cousins were attending, and only because I babysat these cousins full-time and it would have been a logistics nightmare for me to have to pick up different kids from different schools and have them all on different breaks at different times if they weren't at the same school. It was necessary if I was to maintain my sanity.

But this line at Barnes & Noble really blew me away. It just seemed wrong, somehow. All these people, some young, some old, waiting in line under the blistering hot summer sun for hours on end...all for a book?

Not long ago, the same thing also happened at our local WalMart while I was shopping for clothes. Only this time it was in the evening. A long line assembled outside and wrapped all the way around the store. I was trying something on when I heard heard a ruckus over an employees radio just outside the dressing room. The cops and paramedics had been called to the scene as a fight had apparently broken out over a place in line, and someone had been hurt in the scuffle. What were those people waiting for? The XBox360 Game System. Was it really so important to be the first on the block to have or use the game system, or to play the games?

You might remember the Cabbage Patch Craze in the 80's, which caused some poor woman to get trampled and her leg broken. Or the soccer game crush down in Latin America somewhere that ended up resulting in the trampling deaths of 11 people during the mad rush to be the first inside for a championship game. Was the game really worth losing 11 lives over? I hardly think so!

What spawns such a 'craze' anyway?

I tend to think that much of it has to do with putting ourselves first. Being the one to get the best seat, or to have or own or play it first. As a kid, I really wanted a Rubik's Cube for that reason, but we certainly never waited in any lines to get it. My parents never would have gone for that. They wouldn't even cough up the money for it during the craze. In fact, I had to wait until the following Christmas to finally get one of my own, and by then everyone I knew had already 'solved' them and thrown them in a closet somewhere. But that's just the way it was with most things for us. My parents had four children to raise, and we lived on one income during most of my childhood. "We're not made of money!" and "Money doesn't grow on trees!" were comments I heard often in those days. We usually played with all the cool new toys at our friends houses long before our parents got around to buying them, if they ever did. I never did get the Barbie with bendable knees and a tan-line. And you know what? I survived. My psyche isn't irreparably damaged.

It seems there are crazes occuring with more and more regularity these days. I'm amazed by the masses of people that rush to purchase these things. Things that most families from my generation would have been hard-pressed to come up with the money for. Most game systems cost the equivalent of a car payement, or at the very least, a couple of week's worth of groceries. Most games, the cost of a tank of gas. And yet people from all walks of life young and old came out of the woodwork to stand in line at WalMart that day to have their chance at getting one.

In our home we're choosy about the genre and content of the books we read, and the movies we watch and the video or computer games that our son plays, and the types of sites we visit on the internet. We don't watch TV because we don't have cable or satellite, though we do have a DVD/VCR player hooked up to an old TV for the occasional wholesome movie. These are our convictions, and we stick to them. Which is one reason we don't seem to be much affected by the crazes that we've noticed around us.

As a result, we spend a lot of time reading. We'd love for our older son to take as much of an interest in reading as we have, but so far that hasn't happened. He hasn't yet experienced the satisfaction that comes with reading a well written story, or the thrill of a good mystery or an edge-of-your-seat action thriller, not to mention all the discoveries to be made about numerous other interesting or favorite topics. As much as we want him to take a personal interest in reading, we stopped short of allowing him to read Harry Potter, even though people around us were claiming it would do the trick. We were just not willing to sacrifice our values in the process. From what we've read for ourselves about the books, they are nothing more than mild occult and witchcraft masquerading as Fantasy Fiction, and that is contrary to our personal beliefs and convictions. But that's a topic for another post.

One reason I'm convinced these crazes occur is because our society has shifted to this 'entertain me' , entitlement type of culture. Like we deserve to be entertained, and we want it our way, when we want it...and we want to be the first to have it.

Years ago, kids used to spend their free time pursuing hobbies. Climbing trees, riding bikes. Collecting things, identifying bugs or birds. Playing sandlot baseball, building forts. Playing outside with friends until dark or spending an afternoon at the library checking out a stack of books on topics of great interest to them. They didn't have a lot of time to while away, and so they used it to the utmost. And for the most part, it kept them out of trouble. Now, however, most kids spend an average of 5 or more hours a day in front of screens. Television or computer screens, handheld video games systems and phone screens. Mind-numbing activity that often fills the brain with meaningless drivel and fluff. Entertainment for entertainment's sake. No real take away value. And often, parents assume that because the kid is home, they're okay, and they don't monitor or supervise what their kids are involved in, much less limit the time they spend indulging in it. And I won't even get into the effect of violence and nudity in these pursuits, and the harmful effects those things have in our society. Too many kids, with way too much idle time on their hands.

Now a fun game, or a good movie or a book as entertainment do they have their place. Most folks enjoy a little down-time when their work is done, or relaxing or unwinding at the end of the day. I love curling up on the couch or in bed after everyone is asleep to read a good Inspirational Fiction book. It's relaxing, and I don't have anyone to interrupt me. For me, it's like going to a good movie. But if I spent all my waking hours in movies, or reading novels, or playing video games, or watching TV...my home would fall to pieces. There has to be a healthy balance, and it should always be done after all the important things have been taken care of for the day.

Entertainment only books, gaming systems, TV, music and music are often overindulged in by our 'entertain me' society. I have a real problem with the whole 'bandwagon' effect that has begun to happen where people line up in droves to be the first to get the latest gaming system, or to be the first to read the latest Harry Potter book. I find this sad. Too many people have sacrificed their originality and uniqueness (often characterized by their interests and hobbies) in favor of hours-per-day in front of the latest 'craze', to be just like everyone else.

There are many wonderful hobbies and sports and pastimes out there (like reading) that could not only keep a child too busy to get in trouble, but could expand their knowledge and understanding of the world around them and to teach valuable skills. So many wonderful books to explore under countless fascinating topics that could broaden horizons and enrich minds instead of filling them with meaningless drivel. All these positive things have begun to fall by the wayside in favor of hours-per-day of gaming, TV and other mind-numbing wastes of time.

Is it any wonder that young people on the cusp of adulthood today often have trouble trying to decide what to do with their lives? They haven't used their childhoods to explore various interests or pursue the many opportunities that might have turned into natural-fit, enjoyable and challenging professions for them here in our wonderful country, and then they find themselves at a crossroads, not sure where to go or what to do with their lives as young adults. Perhaps that's also why so many of our doctors and other high-science professionals have come from foreign lands to fill these jobs. The children (our nations next generation of leaders) are too consumed with indulging in their own appetites for entertainment, and not paying enough attention to those things that really matter. The future. Their future. How they will support themselves and their families when and if they marry? When they retire? When they get sick in old age?

Children of our parents and grandparents generations, before the advent of TV, spent many hours a day doing constructive activities. Their parents kept them busy with chores which developed responsibility. Taught them valuable skills like gardening and sewing and the value of hard work. Then when they were done, they used their free time to play and to read up on those things that interested them...chemistry experiments, aeronautics, how to care for sick animals, identifying different types of bugs or birds, and so on. These same young people went on to become the scientists and pilots and doctors and professors of their generation. Now it seems that millions of wonderful books on untold topics and genres go largely unexplored. Hobbies and past-times of fifty years ago are dying out, valuable skills becoming scarce as hen's teeth. The children of our nation are growing up without a moral or vocational compass. And this is supposed to give us hope for our future as a nation? It's rather frightening, really.

Parents of today have a lot more money to throw around than parents of 30, 40 and 50 years ago ever had, and think they are doing their children favors by 'providing' for them all the latest in everything, gratifying their 'needs' for entertainment--all because they felt deprived of things they had wanted as children. But is this really helping our children? Or are we creating spoiled, entitlement mentality kids that think they are owed what they want with very little effort to get it? Are we inadvertently creating a generation of lazy, couch-potato adult-escents that will never leave the comforts of their parents homes?

We as a nation need to take stock and reassess what this could mean for them and the very future of our country. Are we as parents doing enough to limit frivolous wastes of time in our children's lives? Are we doing enough to encourage our children to do constructive, mind-enriching things with their time, learning new skills and enjoying new activities which may become the seed that springs to life as a future career for them? Will our children be among those that contribute to and propel our country into the future as contenders in a world economy, as a nation of brilliant scholars and professionals, or will they be the dead-weight that hinders us from going forward at all? We need to be sure we're not failing our children by indulging their every whim, and pacifying them with various forms of entertainment, but instead are instilling in them the importance of thinking past just today, past the wants and desires of the short term, and to begin thinking ahead towards their futures, and the wise expenditure of time, energy and resources at their disposal now.