My nephews never seemed too imaginative either. Granted, my brother and sister in law are great people, but not imaginative either.
I mean.. when they came over to play with the lego I build for them in the attic, they would ask me if this wizard could fly, who this king rules, etc. Instead of making much up on their own. They didnt name characters at all or made really any story. It was just about all out war or racing or such, it always had to be direct competition against each other where both would rush to claim ownership of stuff. Generally one the pirate theme and the other the knights theme. And constantly argueing about what the other can and cant do.
They NEVER seemed capable of playing alone. Always someone has to play with them, usually each other or a friend. They are 11 and 13 now, the oldest sold his own lego years ago because he wanted a gameboy.
It's just sad. I'm closer to my sister than my brother though due to less age difference, and my sister's little girl of a year and a half might turn out more imaginative. My sister encourages it more. Its still hard to tell at this point how much imagination she truly has with play since shes still sticking the 123 clickies into her mouth despite me telling her that they dont like that.
But yes, theres so much media targeted towards kids telling them how to think and feel that its scary. Children kind of deserve more protection from that. They are an easy target for agressive marketing, and if they are easily suckered into it as kids, they may very well continue this trend in their adult life.
Pretty sure we all bought stuff in childhood or asked stuff for birthdays and such that we regretted later, but I can see how it can continue in adult life if someone is gullible.
