[Mighty Midget]

I have been sitting and contemplating: Have our imagination or rather our skill in imagining, waned throughout the last decades or so?

Music: I have watched music videos, and I get a good (?) idea what it is the band is trying to tell me. I then listen to the same song with no video, and I'm all of the sudden wondering: What are they trying to tell me? Do I really need visual aid to understand? Or did the video just broaden the message somehow?

Books and movies: Have movies put our imagination half to sleep? What does it do to us when we get all the images and sounds presented to us, instead of having to make them all up for ourselves? A book needs your imagination, I feel, while a movie presents you with someone else's visions, it doesn't need your imagination on the same level. Instead, that imagination could come into conflict with what you see and hear, so you need to swith off parts of your imaginative mind to watch the movie without losing the thread. On the other side, I have seen stuff in movies I could never have imagine (I think so at least).

What about non-graphical computer games? The old school text adventures for instance. Did we benefit from having to imagine it all or does today's graphics help us expanding our imagination

So, what are your views? Does all this visual and sounds expand our imagination, or does it cripple it?

Use your imagination, guys and gals, what do you think?

DISCLAIMER: This is not a declaration of war against music videos or movies. I do enjoy a good movie. I'm just wondering if our imagination has become "lazier" lately.