The Plug-In Drug

A couple of days ago, I finished another one of my birthday books: The Plug-In Drug. This book is primarily about the impact of television on children--this gist being that it has the capacity to turn them into passive, mindless little zombies "plugged in" to a screen, which is often used as a babysitting in a manner similar to parents of old would dope their kids up with opium or laudanum to keep them quiet and inert while they went to labor in the thread factory (or wherever).

I have had this book on my wishlist for some time and I was happy to finally read it. I wish I had read it prior to having that "fight" in January with the UU member about my "get rid of your TV!" simple living tip. That was the only "public" argument I've ever had with anyone and I approached it in a way too overzealous manner. Anyway, this book would have been good back up ;-) (I did mention it to him, even though I hadn't read it yet).

I had quotes marked to share, etc., but I just don't feel like it right now. So, I'm going to close with my thoughts incomplete. This was a pretty good book--I didn't love it and agree with everything she said, but overall, her hypotheses make sense to me (reading the book was a little bit of a "preaching to the choir" experience).

Yesterday, I also read Continuum, the newsletter of the LLLI Alumnae Association. There was a review of a book that sounded interesting to me--If I Live to Be 100--but when I looked it up at Amazon to see about it buying it, the reviews were poor (I actually place a lot of stock in the reviews on Amazon) and so I put it on my library wish list instead. I didn't end up renewing my subscription to Continuum this year. I think maybe it will appeal to me more when I'm retired (duh! That is who it is geared for anyway!)