[lanstin]

I used to spend a lot of time imagining myself as the captain of a Federation starship :) but I did also read a lot of books.

But also, the availability of YouTube changes the utility of descriptive writing. Moby Dick can have pages of text about whales or whatever, but now I can spend hours watching whale videos on YouTube. The importance of the interior life of the characters is more, or of diffusive world building stories with too much intricacy for a movie or video presentation.

[roysting]

You point out a critical difference, you were already experienced and “skilled” in imagining because you read a lot, a function where you are inherently going to have to imagine a lot more based on various degrees and quality of descriptions.

I think you may be underestimating the value of that skill and experience. You may not even be able to put yourself in the shoes, i.e., imagine what it may be like never having to had to imagine anything if you only ever watched the things happen on a rectangle from infancy on.

I argue that you only cross referenced the imagination skill into being a federation captain because you were already experienced and skilled in imagination.

I suspect it will be realized what devastation it has caused within our lifetimes and if we still have the capacity, we may even revert back to requiring reading and hopefully even banning screen usage by any minors.