I love to snuggle up on the couch on cold winter nights and make fantasy orders from video catalogs. Highlighting every interesting product, I mark up the margins with notes on how I might use them. Sometimes I even write everything on the order form. Then I look at our checkbook balance and reality sets in . . .
Videos tend to build strong visual pathways.
It seems that though humans have an abundance of brain cells, each cell has to pick one neural path and stick with it. When more cells are committed to the visual pathway, less are left for language development or just plain thinking. A child who spends too much time watching videos may suffer subtle language deficits. There is evidence that a mind connected to larger muscle activity thinks better. A play time spent chasing balls, or as in our family, chopping wood, may be just the action needed to help the mind use its most recent input.