January 11th 2011.

If there’s one thing the U.S. economy is booming in, it’s the production of mass quantities of onlookers. We have become a nation of spectators, zoning into the glow of digital and high-def screens, cocooned in entertainment centers, oblivious to the sun in the sky, the breeze in the trees, and the mandate in our bones to be more than observers to our own lives. Like the Chauncey Gardiner character in Being There, we like to watch.

Some, hypnotized by their smart phones, step off curbs into oncoming traffic and wind up in the ER, the latest “text-walking” case. The other day I saw a woman, head down in her phone, sauntering through a red light on a major street while dozens of cars waited. She was clueless that she was a walking bowling pin. Others are so enamored by “Mafia Wars” or “Grand Theft Auto” that significant others are reduced to arcade props. And plenty of others are convinced that the only entertainment is what comes from the giant screen in the living room.

Read the full story at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-robinson/spectator-nation-screen-junkie_b_806570.html?ref=tw

By Joe Robinson