I can’t help but think that those who read gossip rags must have the most pathetically boring lives. Or that those who own iPads have a mental inability to entertain themselves. There are times where distractions are positive, but they are undoubtedly negative when moments of awareness are less than those of blind entertainment. A distracted population is easy to manipulate. Like when a child asks his mother if he can play with matches and she just says yes because she is busy with two other kids, supper, the phone, laundry. Then he burns down the house and when she is tending to her melted flesh, she admonishes him. Except we were so busy sifting through the internet on our phones, cheering for a football team, or shopping for seasonal gifts that we didn’t even bother to give an answer. So we’ll have no place to admonish later.