If we took a second to break down and analyze this video, we'd realize there is absolutely nothing to analyze at all. It's just a lot of fearmongering. Show me the data that says video games are directly a detriment to young children's developmental processes. Well, that's difficult because it doesn't really exist. The data sets that are gathered are, what statisticians would call, "associations". An association is "any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent".
The The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation makes a fun attempt at this sort of statistical backroom abortion by providing correlative data sets showing that 92% of children and adolescents ages 2-17 play video games (National Institute on Media and the Family) and nine out of ten (89%) of the top-selling video games contained violence (Children Now).
I'm sure everyone is just as sick of the "Do Video Games Make Children Violent/Anti-Social/ADD/Depressed/Etc?" argument, which is good because I don't want to write about it and I'm pretty sure my opinion on the subject is obvious. What I am going to talk about here is the fear-mongering itself.
Why does it exist? I mean, lets ignore the obvious answer that it's just a tactic to deflect the burden of responsibility away from the authority figures on whose shoulders it should rest, and yes, the media will try and excite a frenzy whenever it can, but what exactly about this medium is it that has people so unnerved? Parents are seemingly chomping at the bit for an excuse to ban video games from their household. Why do we as a society feel threatened by this in relation to our children?
The answer is simple: Engagement.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, video games can be used as educational tools. Actually, I would argue that it's impossible for them not to be used as educational tools. Good games rely on immersion and so it is a priority for developers to teach children how to play their game to get the full experience. This has essentially taken parents out of the equation.
So the parents now effectively lose out on that bonding they would typical experience with other hobbies to a degree because the developer has replaced them in the role of "mentor". Now we have a subconscious paranoia on the part of the parents who believe that they are getting left out (brace yourselves, we're going to get Freudian). Essentially when they point the finger at the develop and say "you've turned my child into a violent monster", what they're really doing is salvaging their egos and saying "See? I would have been a better authority figure. If I had been there guiding them it wouldn't have ended up this way."
No instruction booklets come with many other toys. No interactive tutorial comes with your puzzles, Lincoln logs, or erector sets. The parents can be the focus of the attention with these traditional games, using their knowledge of these basic rules and systems and bonding through the act of transmission and collaboration. It also helps that board games rarely take more than an hour or two, and puzzles can be slowly completed over the course of time. But the important thing to remember is that it is always the authority figure asserting themselves as competent, knowledgeable, and in control.
Suddenly, with the advent of video games, parents have lost control. These games now engage children at all times. They are always ready to play. They come on consoles, handhelds, computers and cellphones. The parents feel that they are being usurped and that they have lost some degree of authority to this autonomous digital force. You can't compete with that, ever. Don't bother trying. They don't need sleep (but they do need batteries). It's natural for people to get territorial when an intruder invades their space and begins to shift the balance of power in the household.
Another factor that drives this is parents lack of experience with video games. They're foreign and strange. Video games just haven't been around long enough to have universal appeal for older generations. This is the first generation where video games have gained mass popularity and widespread usage. It's equivalent to us trying to teach our grandparents how to use a computer. There's a technological, as well as generational, disconnect.
The difference here is that this dynamic power shift is occurring between children and adults. The roles have been flipped and now the child has all the knowledge and experience. He is master of this element. The parents wonders what use they are to their child anymore and secretly are disheartened at having some of their thunder being taken away by this invader. Children also view their parents as less knowledgeable. They begin to question the fundamental rules their parents lay down. "Because I said so" is no longer an acceptable answer, because the children no longer view their parents as sole guardians of the answers to the universe.They may even feel frustration at having to teach their parents simple game mechanics that they mastered on their own in order to connect with their parents. They feel burdened by the role of informer and educator now.
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| No dad, I can't make it to your Tee-ball game. i have to work late tonight. |
While this fear is not unfounded, it is easily remedied. Since 2006, we've seen a trend toward casual games. Not the traditional sense of casual games, but "family-oriented" and "party" games. Parents don't need to fear castration by the tiny white box in your living room. Most of these games have intuitive controls or simple motion controls, and are things you can participate in with your child.
Just because you don't understand video games, doesn't mean they should be an object of fear any more than curling, cricket, or base-jumping should be feared (okay...maybe fear base-jumping). The Wii is a great console to learn the basics. It's the shallow end of the pool.
From there you can at least have a basic comprehension of what he's doing. It'll even help you learn how to regulate what he plays and how often he plays it. It puts you back in the spot of authority. Ignorance, as usual (this will probably be a running theme), is the biggest obstacle between you and your child. Share their interests. The more you shun them, the more likely they are to pick their hobby (playing video games) over spending time with you. As previously espoused on this blog, there is plenty of tangential learning done through video games and with careful research (just like you would give to the books they read or the movies they watch) it can be a purely positive experience.
Enough of the fear-mongering. Don't fear video games. Fear ignorance. And everyone gets to keep their penises.
I'm pretty sure that it's up to our generation to stop these ridiculous claims that video games corrupt and warp the minds of children. Honestly, I don't think this issue as bad as they used to be. My parents, for example, played video games with me when I was a kid. I'll do the same for mine. They understood that I needed moderation until I was able to make my own judgment on how much I should be playing video games. People are starting to realize that a lot of parents were like this, and only a smaller percentage of parents have been so careless as to buy games for their kids without acknowledging the consequences.
ReplyDeleteOur generation got to experience the turning point where games started to become artistic endeavors instead of just money-making lines of code. Games became more engaging than the world around us. What parents should be doing is finding ways to experience that engagement with their kids instead of leaving them to their own devices
More than anything, though, we need more positive press on video games than negative press. You should read this book (I have it if you want to borrow it): http://realityisbroken.org/
It is the single greatest proponent of the merits and benefits of video games that I have ever seen and is worth your time.
Yes please, I think that would be a very enlightening read.
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to have another rant about pros and cons of childhood gaming, but it was a problem that was bothering me so I decided to address the "why" from a psychological standpoint rather than a sociological one.
My first real experiences with gaming were with my father, because he was on the road a lot we would play Dungeon Siege and Rainbow Six online for a sense of bonding I could have never experienced otherwise as a child. And my first RPG I ever played was when my uncle and I played through Final Fantasy VII one Christmas.
It's just like any other hobby. If you approach it as a positive and get excited about it with your kid, it will be a positive experience for you both. If you try to demonize it, especially in this era when it's an almost inescapable artistic platform, you'll only estrange yourself from your child and cause the both of you some small degree of emotional turmoil.