Is Imagination Truly Lost Within The Realms of Technology, Or Merely Hidden Behind It?
We are all guilty of getting lost in our virtual worlds every once in awhile. Sometimes it is difficult to find the balance between technology and reality when everyone else is stuck in the same place. However, I do not believe that technology takes away from childrens’ imagination, so much as it greatly distracts from it. When a child is faced with the chance to interact with something fun and cool such as video games, of course they will submerge themselves in that. If you take this option away from them though, they are left with no choice but venture out and discover things for themselves.
This video is a great example of how children can adapt. At first this little boy is lost in his world of video games, but then when told to go play outside he eventually digs into a different part of his mind and discovers a whole new world to experience. All from his imagination. Maybe the initial plot of what he is pretending to play stems from a broader, more general idea he experienced from somewhere or something else, but what he chooses to do with it comes completely from within him. A lot can stem off one little idea or imagination. It’s moments like these that have shaped some of the largest, most important, aspects of our world today.
In our reading from MCS 499, we are currently focusing on “A Problem of Presence,” by Matthew Engelke. In this book a group called the Friday Aposolistics discusses how they do not believe in the Bible as part of their religion, because it is a materialistic viewpoint on Christianity, whereas they prefer their spirituality to come from deeper within and not from the dependence on objects. In a sense this is very relatable to the idea of technology being a material depedency that children turn to as an imaginative outlet. Instead of spending more time looking at a screen or living in a virtual world, they could spend time in the real world allowing their imagination to blossom and grow through real life experiences. Not to say that technology is all bad, of course it has endless amounts of positive tributes. However, technology will never be able to replace the simplest forms of humanity such as imagination and wonder. It will never be able to take away from that single moment of actually experiencing something real.
Use this as food for thought and maybe once in awhile when you catch yourself watching way too many re-runs of your favorite Netflix series, or mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, turn it off, put it down, and do something that excites you. Sometimes it’s as simple as reading a good book, or going on a hike…if it’s stimulating your brain, allowing you to imagine and act out a more fulfilling or happy life, then it’s doing something.
