07-Comment-145-147

07--Comment--145-147 5/1/07 2:36 PM Page 145Comment on “Videophilia”Ellen DissanayakeSchool of Music, Music Education DivisionUniversity of Washingtonedissana@seanet.comWe who grew up in earlier decades, who played outdoors with friends after school,lay on the grass and identified shapes in clouds, slept under the stars in the back yard,walked to school, read books for pleasure, made things for play without the use of kits,waded in nearby creeks in summer and ice-skated on local lakes in winter, may some-times wonder whether our misgivings about children’s pastimes today are perhaps justold fogeyish or simple nostalgia for our own lost youth. However, Zaradic and Per-gams, like others, provide empirical evidence that the sedentary, indoor, electronic-centered occupations of most children today have physical, social, and environmentalconsequences that are not in the best interests of young people or the societies theywill one day inherit.Although not quantitative, my ethological studies of the origin and functions of thearts in human evolution provide a perhaps unfamiliar but interesting perspective onthe effects of videophilia in children. Ethologists tell us that the behavior and psych-ology of an animal are as much a product of its environment and way of life as itsanatomy and physiology. For example, caribou and reindeer live on open plains, areexposed to predators, and have evolved to graze in large herds. Forest-dwelling roedeer, however, ...