Now there are interactive video games galore in which one alters the outcome. And if the game gets boring, or if the player is losing, it s easy to switch to a new game. But there are deeper changes. Most of my generation grew up in religious homes. We might have fallen away from the practices and beliefs of our parents, but we remember the truths they tried to impart.
Religion often plays a smaller or nonexistent part in modern child rearing.
Perhaps, not having been taught that there are great truths, this generation also grew up without appreciating that there are lesser truths. With no authority higher than ourselves, facts as well as conduct become subjective choices. Environmentalists won out over safety advocates, so smaller cars were recommended despite their higher fatality rate. This process cannot get far in the physical sciences, but in the social sciences it does wonders. Whole-word methods do less well than phonics in teaching reading, but they persist because of theoretical advantages.