Action rich or action poor?

I revisited St Paul's Cathedral last week. It is always a beautiful and inspiring place to visit at any time but on this occasion I was keen to try out the new touch screen multimedia guides. A year or so ago a colleague and I worked together on an interpretation development plan for the Cathedral and these newly installed hand-sets are part of that programme. The tours are very well researched with an excellent balance of facts and story telling and great 'zoom in and see' details. I tried out the family tour too and enjoyed the quirky quizzes. Like any audio guide in an historical attraction, whether simple or sophisticated, they are all intended to increase and deepen the visitors' engagement and enjoyment of the building. A good audio or multimedia guide will not detract or spoil the sensory or spiritual impact of the experience but enhance it in a way that the visitor can personally time and control. In my opinion, the new kit at St Paul's does just that.
I was therefore somewhat alarmed just a few days later to read in a Future Foundation report (The Future of Freetime, April 2010) that a new generation of young people are emerging who will reject 'real' leisure and travel experiences in favour of social networking and 'always on' media. Brought up on a diet of constant gaming, communication and stimulation, these so-called 'go-nowhere-gamers' will find out of home experiences too action-poor. They will prefer to live their lives completely at home, playing computer games, watching interactive 3D TV and chatting on line. Maybe I just don't 'get' this virtual world stuff but my heart sinks at the thought of what these youngsters will be missing. But what I do 'get' is that the challenge to make real life experiences in the world of arts and heritage even more interesting and engaging for this generation in the future is just getting even harder.