Child psychologists speak of a fairly primitive stage of social development called
"parallel play" -- two kids in a sandbox, each playing with a toy but not really interacting with each other. In healthy development children outgrow
parallel play. But the public spectacles of television leave us at that arrested stage of development, rarely moving beyond parallel attentiveness to the same external stimulus....
The apotheosis of these trends can be found, most improbably, at the Holiday Bowling Lanes in New London, Connecticut. Mounted above each lane is a giant television screen displaying the evening's TV fare. Even on a full night of league play team members are no longer in lively conversation with one another about the day's events, public or private. Instead each stares silently at the screen while awaiting his or her turn.
Even while bowling together, they are watching alone.-- Robert D. Putnam
As bad as the social phenomenon of "parallel play" was when Robert Putnam's book was initially published ten years ago, it has since become even
worse due to the utter
explosion in use of both cell phones and portable media players (but cell phones especially):
Pathetic and sad, is it not?
