When I was young, I’d often stay up late and watch a movie on TV. In the wee hours past my bedtime, I watched “Jaws,” “Superman II,” “Star Wars,” and everything I could find on cable TV after my parents had gone to bed. I found out there was a reason some movies were “not for little kids,” and I loved it. But I did get scared. Whenever I was most afraid, I’d look to the edges of the screen to remind myself the movie was pretend and I was safe at home. I’d look away long enough for my heart rate to drop and then I’d get right back into it.
Movies have the power to transport us. Have you ever noticed that when you’re watching a movie, the world around you seems to disappear? Have you also noticed this with Facebook? Despite the artistry of the great cinematic storytellers, it appears that the screen itself is mighty. Screens seem to have a magical ability to narrow our perception to a frame and box us in. Today, more and more, our planet is surfaced with screens that confine us, like General Zod, to a two-dimensional world. It seems that less and less often people are making direct present tense contact with the physical world, and effectively dulling
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