Soap Box
Yep, it's about time I get on my 'video games suck' soap box again. I'm sure you've all been just waiting for me to spout off again.
I recently received a link to an article by a well known parenting expert, John Rosemond. I'm not very well read on his stuff or familiar with all he says, but I agree with him at least on this article.
I've seen the behavior he writes about in my own children. Heck, I've even seen this behavior in the 'grown' men that I used to work with and manage at Microsoft Game Studios.
I know many if not most of you disagree with me on this. I'm really sorry we disagree and the next time your playing "KILL KILL KILL" or whatever the flavor of the month is I hope your not pretending the bad guys your blowing up are me. Cuz that would just be mean ;)
posted by Kevin @ 3:50 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Nice article and I must say I neither totally agree nor disagree. There are definitely addictive qualities to video games, just as there can be addictive qualities to anything.
However, I do agree that video games often limit creativity and social skills rather than increasing them the way other childhood activities do such as building with blocks or playing outside.
I actually have each of the current gen video game consoles as well as some previous gen and handhelds. I have both adult and kid related games. The kids are absolutely banned from playing the adult games (and thanks to parental controls on newer systems, this is easier to enforce) and I have a personal ban on myself such that I will NOT play adult oriented violent or off colored games with them in the room...or (in most cases) awake.
The kids games we do have are (for the most part) structured to allow multiple players at the same time so that both of my boys can play at the same time. One of their favorites is Lego Star Wars which allows for co-operative single screen play in which they do develop some actual cooperation skills not only in solving the level, but also in actually playing nice together since they both have to coordinate movements in order to manipulate screen space and navigate the world.
Despite the numerous systems we do have at our house, we have set limits on video game play just as Rosemond indicates exists for households with TV watching. There are some days we're more lax than others and let them play for extended periods, but generally, the kids gaming sessions are fairly limitted in scope and we do "kick them off" for some outside or toybox playtime. Also, the rule stands that if any fighting happens, the game is shut off...no arguments.
I do agree that games should not be given to kids in an unsupervised, no-holds barred way. However, at the same time, I don't think games need to be completely withheld from children either. I think there are some moderately good skills that can be learned from certain games such as problem solving, cooperation and even minimal hand-eye coordination. However, I won't fully defend all games because there are plenty of games that are purely escapist and won't help kids learn or grow in any way. Just in the same way that many cartoons, movies or TV programs that kids watch often have no edifying value whatsoever (for this same reason, we limit TV time).
I grew up in a household and a neighborhood that ran rampant with Atari, Nintendo, Sega and other video game systems...and although all of the neighborhood kids could blast through Super Mario Bros in record time, we also had adventures galore running around the neighborhood, climbing trees, building worlds in sandboxes and having non-electronic fun.
I hope for the same type of balance with my children. The biggest problem I have with the external activities is the way the world has changed. It's hard to feel comfortable letting my kids go from house to house in the neighborhood or even ride their bikes around the block. Even in my "sleepy" Bountiful, our neighborhood has had a handful of breakins this past year (both daytime and nighttime) as well as attempted child abductions and child molestations.
There are a couple of sets of parents that share the same view of parenting as my wife and I do, but sadly the majority of the parents seem to be classic examples of Rosemond's criticism in that they rely on TV or video games too much...or worse so, they just let their children run free with no guidelines, rules or supervision at all.
So don't worry, despite the length of my reply, I won't be flaming your post. On the contrary, I agree with it to the extent that raising a child must be done with supervision and discretion in all things and that every parent should be wary of what their child is doing and be sure to ensure variety and opportunities for growth and creativity rather than stagnation and complacency.
So this guy gets one letter from some freaky parents about how video games have totally ruined their children and he actually dares to say "I told you so!"?
From the article:
"Furthermore, their children have very few toys and those they do have are traditional and promote creative play..."
Right. Exposing the Amish to video games may be problematic at first.
Okie is correct. It's about PARENTING. It's ALWAYS ABOUT PARENTING. We both have kids, that if left to their own, would play 24/7. We don't let them, we choose what they can and cannot play, and boom... a 3.9 gpa through Junior High School! Articles like this burn me up for their simplicity.
I could use the same argument with books. Would you let your kids sit around all day reading raunchy violent crap filling their heads with trash, allowing their muscles to atrophy due to no physical play? TV all day? Of course not.
There are many decent video games today that require a high level of concentration, creativity, and manual dexterity. Parents who are involved prohibit the crap and time spent playing.
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