When you read a book, for example, you go on a journey. There is a sequence
imposed on you by the author. There is a beginning, and something follows
from that – you are introduced to the characters, you begin to empathise
with them, and so on. You have to read the book in a certain sequence,
rather like a sentence itself, and the journey actually takes you somewhere.
Contrast this with a computer game in which a child must rescue a princess.
There is no real empathy for the princess, only the buzz of the rescue
itself and the process of the game. There is no long-term significance to
the characters, because any consequences are reversible. Children don't
learn from their mistakes at all. Why bother when you can just click restart?
Susan Greenfiled