iPod Mania.

I have theory as to why I always hear on the news that test scores are going down in schools especially in math and science. Music. And not very good music at that. When I moved here about 8 years ago, mp3 players were in their infancy and I don't even know that the iPod was invented yet. It seemed that waaayyy back then that the thing to do when riding mass transit, which most people do here, was to read. Some people read newspapers, some books, magazines, work, whatever. Hell, I've said many times that the reason I passed the CFA exams was the hour and a half a day I spent riding the Metra from Aurora to downtown everyday. Sometime since then it seems that listening to music on an iPod surpassed reading as the primary method of passing time on the train. And I say iPod because it seems as though everyone's allegiance lies with Apple, which I find strange because it seemed like it was the anti-corporate hipsters who lead the push in Apple's comeback. Now Apple is the corporate giant. I don't have anything against Apple or the hipsters but I do find it ironic. Anyway, it's not just on the trains now either. It seems that nobody can go anywhere without their iPod now. I don't have anthing against music either but when you are spending more time in a day listening to music than reading, you had better be a musician.

As bad as the music thing is, it doesn't hold a candle to the waste of brain cells that is text messaging and playing video games. Now I played video games as a kid. But probably a quarter of the amount of time I spent playing games outdoors. I heard the professional basketball player for the Washington (don't call them Bullets) Wizards say on a talk show the other day that he spends 10 hours a day playing video games and only sleeps 3 hours a day. Now that's something for the kids to aspire to. Now I don't condone the 10 hours a day some kids force their kids to spend studying for the national spelling bee but there has to be a balance in there somewhere.

Okay, in summary, it seems like there may be a correlation (and it ain't positive) between the rise of personal electronics and the intelligence (and perhaps waist sizes) of kids. That's my hypothesis, now somebody go do a study on it.