In Which I Protest Video and Computer Games, and Texting

Before you begin reading this, I will give this warning:

If you absolutely love video/computer games, play them 24/7, and are easily offended by someone telling you to not spend so much time on them, you may not wish to continue reading.

So there you are.  Fair warning to my fair readers.

Video and computer games.

Really, what is the big deal? 

Studies and surveys show that teens spend twelve to twenty-three hours a week playing video or computer games, guys typically being on the higher end.  What is up with that, guys?  There are so many better things to be doing!  Now, I won't lie, I can't claim complete resistance to video and computer games.  A few days ago I sat down to a computer game, and spent a good two or three hours on it before I knew what had happened.  If they're good games, they'll get you so involved and wrapped up that you don't notice how much time has passed, which is a bit disturbing, to me at least.  Call me paranoid or a control freak, but I like to be in control of my senses and time.

So, qualm one with video and computer games:

- They are time eaters.  Time eaters that blind you to how much time they've eaten.

Next, for some reason, once you can do something on a video/computer game, you assume you can do it in real life.  Sword-fight?  Shoot firearms?  Play basketball?  Football?  Drums?  Guitar?  Drive a car?  "Oh, I do that on the computer all the time!  Of course I can just pick up a set of drumsticks and strike up a beat.  Right?"

Wrong.

Just because you can do something in a game, does not mean you can do it in real life.  I know someone who played a lot of car racing games when they were young, and when they learned to drive, assumed it would be easy because of that.  Was it easier for them?  No.

Qualm number two:

- They invoke false confidence and boasting.

Now, confidence is a good thing!  I think people could use more of it.  But not when it isn't grounded in something strong.

Next there is issue of desensitizing.  Do parents give their kids a firearm and let them go out and shoot people?  Do they give them a sword and let them go cut someone's head off?  No.  So why do they let them do it in video games?  Some of those fighting games get bloody.  I saw a kid who couldn't have been more than fourteen playing a shooting game.  They shot a guy, then ran up to the body and started repeatedly shooting it just to watch the extra blood spurt and gush out.

Is that disturbing to only me?

So there's the gore factor.  Next?  Language.  Some of that video/computer game language is not pretty.  And still parents let kids play it?

What are kids learning by that?  Blood is cool.  Shooting people is cool.  Running people over with a car is cool.  Cussing is cool.

Wonderful, people.  Wonderful.

Qualm number three:

- Desensitizing

So there are my three qualms with video and computer games.  I'm sure I could come up with some more, but this post is getting long enough.

Briefly though, I want to make a comment on texting.  Now first I wish to say that I think texting can be a very good thing.  There are times when it is simply more convenient to text than to call.  If you're in a loud room, or a place where you need to be quiet, and you need to talk to someone.  Texting is the perfect solution.

But it can be dangerous, and I do think it is overused.

My main problem here, is obliviousness.  On many levels.

I passed a friend in the store just yesterday.  He was texting, had complete focus on his phone, and was walking.  I crossed right in front of him, and he didn't have a clue.  For all he knew, I wasn't there.  Now what if he were in the parking lot?  Walking and texting, and I was a car?  Or a mugger?  Or a killer?  How good would that be?

Next?  People text others while they're with their friends.  There will be a group of teenagers, a few will be talking, a couple others will be hanging behind, attention glued to their phones.  No heed to their friends around them.  Why don't you pay attention with the people that are with you at that moment, cultivate that friendship, then talk to whoever it is you're talking to on your phone?

Third, and I'll leave it at this.  People texting people that are right next to them.  What is up with that?  Now, I know, some people say, "I don't want anyone around me knowing what we're saying."

Why don't you just wait until another time then?  Is it really that appropriate if you're afraid of someone overhearing?

You're blocking people out.  Isolating yourselves.  Telling others, unwittingly or not, not to bother you.

There you have it.

Now tell me, what are your views on this matter?

In the shadow of the Greatest Shinobi

~MDS