Talk about digital pathology: You guys really can't help yourselves can you.
"It contributes to unhealthy global warming, with all the CO-spewing electricity plants that are driving hundreds of thousands of data centers and billions of power supplies and battery chargers that maintain the madness."
Another global warming screed in an article that has absolutely nothing to do with global warming? Mark, I think you're right, except it's not only children who are being warped by endless hours of exposure to digital media. You really can't help yourself, can you.
Although I do mostly agree with the primary premise of your piece, (that kids are being overly stimulated digitally - I've personally observed the effects) let me make a counter argument: Perhaps by enslaving upcoming generations to endless digital entertainment we are preventing them from indulging in real activities that might possibly be even more harmful to the environment. Every hour they spend in their dark rooms and basements in front of screens is one hour less they are driving or using other public infrastructure. (After all, the countless hours I spent on "Flight Simulator" were responsible for spewing far less CO2 than the actual hours I spent flying) And that "sedentary lifestyle that comes with screen addiction" will see to it that they don't live long enough to get on Medicare or Social Security. And imagine the CO2 implications of all those kids spending those lost hours on actual jobs instead of in front of screens.
In fact, it's long been a prediction of mine that in the future, "reality" will be almost exclusively for the wealthy. The rest of us will only be able (or allowed) to experience most activities virtually, for both cost and environmental/political purposes. (This has actually been happening for decades, really)
