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Still fighting it.
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Should kids play videogames?
I would have put this in the gaming forum, but I think it opens up a wide enough debate on parenting in general to be worth a vigourous general discussion. I thought it was a great article with some well made points. So without further ado:
Clickety.
Quote:
Should Kids Play Games?
READ MORE: editorial, gift guide, home console, portable console, top
Wow, so that question about the best video game console to start your kids out on elicited a lot of very thoughtful comments, nearly 50 of them to be exact. But one in particular caught my attention. A reader sent me an email saying that the best console for a kid was none.
Here’s his reasoning, it’s a good read:
I am not able to comment on Kotaku so I will pass my remark along to you. A consensus of reputable pediatricians recommend no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of television for young children. And no television at all for children under 2. Most American parents let their children watch much more than that and usually from the earliest age. Not only do they let their kids have free run of the television, but they also keep the television on themselves “to keep them company” and their children have portable gaming devices and access to the computer. Once you factor in DVDs, videocassettes, Game Boy, computer games, and mom and dad leaving the tube running in the background all day, your kid is getting far in excess of that 1 to 2 hours. And from the comments on your thread, your readers are saying their kids are playing Game Boy at age 2 and 3.
Most parents have some amorphous and ill-considered notion that somehow gaming “encourages creativity.” How do they arrive at this? They don’t. They don’t attempt to support it, prove it, or verify it. They just believe it and hope like hell it is true. I am a life-time gamer (been playing since Pong in 1977) and I game with my DS, Xbox, Gamecube. In addition, I am wrestling with whether or not I should give my daughter a DS at age EIGHT or whether I should wait until she is ten. In America in 2005, that just about makes me some sort of fanatic, crank, or luddite when most parents are letting their kids watch “Revenge of the Sith” or “Bride of Chucky” at age 2 and most kids have their own televisions in their rooms by age 5 (to go along with the three or four other televisions and videoscreens in the house and in the car).
The reason I don’t know if I want her to own a DS is simply because right now she reads at every opportunity. When she’s bored, she reads. Or draws or writes. In addition, she has taught herself how to play the piano by just sitting down and pursuing it relentlessly. Her entire life she has been limited to one hour a day of “media time.” That means she can spend that time playing a computer game or watching PBS (never commercial television which constantly pushes useless products on her… and us) or a DVD or occasionally a Gamecube game, primarily Animal Crossing (which she usually plays with us, so it’s a social activity). One hour. That’s it.
Now, I know for a fact that she would love to play Animal Crossing on the DS. But whether or not she will love it is not the point. She would love to eat potato chips and ice cream for every meal, but being a responsible parent is not about giving your kid what makes them happy moment to moment. A parent needs to plan for the ongoing long-term happiness and health of their child. Being fit and creative makes her happy. And it takes work. It takes her parents saying no when she asks for candy. Or other crap food. And it takes work when she asks for crap entertainment (maybe “crap” is too strong a word. Better to call it “high calorie/high fat/low nutrition” entertainment).
I have volunteered in my daughter’s classrooms consistently since she was in pre-school and I have had a chance to watch she and her classmates change over time. I have noticed that the children who have spent the most time with television often think and create narratives or artwork using cartoon, game, or comic book characters. They don’t create their own characters or stories. They simply relate an episode or game experience. It wasn’t always that way. At their earliest ages they would create wild epics with wonderfully imaginative original characters. As they grew older, the stories would inevitably become a retelling of Scooby Doo or Spiderman. It saddens me to see them begin so creatively and slowly evolve into mere consumers.
In addition, excessive television watching or playing, especially late at night disrupts sleep patterns. And unless you are locking up your 3 year-olds Game Boy or DS each night, you can bet they are playing it when they need to be sleeping. For young children sleeping is not just about being groggy in the morning like adults. It’s about cognitive development. I see kids in the classroom who don’t get a proper breakfast or who didn’t get enough sleep and they simply cannot focus on their work. Their entire day is a haze. When your kid is playing DS and is not getting the absolutely mandatory sleep their brains need to properly develop you are seriously hampering the health and growth of your child.
Seeing their smiles on Christmas morning or their (and your) joy when you play multi-player Mario Kart is a poor substitute.
It is increasingly becoming clear that Internet and gaming are as addictive and debilitating as any other obsession. And to put that kind of crack into the hands of a 2 year-old does not speak well to the discretion of that child’s guardian, who themselves likely suffers from a dysfunctional attachment to electronic media.
And to say “well, gaming didn’t harm ME” is a weak defense. Gaming in 2005 is PROFOUNDLY and completely different from gaming even five or ten years ago. With WiFi and MMOGs and Xbox Live and portable game systems which offer endless hours of always-on diversion in addition to 500 channels of cable and broadband Internet is nothing like the Pong of my youth or even the Game Boy Color of some of your youth. We don’t have any idea how this will affect our children. To just say “it’s fun. Here. Knock yourself out” is slapdash and irresponsible.
For me, I love to game. But I also think of the things I give up when I go on a gaming binge. I give up the face-to-face company of other humans. I give up exercise. I give up BEING creative instead of just enjoying the creativity of others. I’ve had to ask myself how much of my gaming is healthy pastime and how much of it is unhealthy obsession.
And I don’t want my kid to lose hours and days in front of a video screen like I have. I want her to enjoy gaming as any other pastime, but I want it placed in its proper context.
My suggestion to you is that after you’ve run this “first console” thing, you might want to have a poll which asks who, if anyone (and you might be depressed at the results), has decided to severely limit their child’s gaming time based on their own experiences as a gamer. Or as a sometimes-gamer. Or as a non-gamer.
Finally, your invite system for comments may cut down on spam or poorly crafted remarks, but this thread illustrates how a homogenaeity of pre-selected posters tends to skew the remarks heavily in one direction (i.e. hardcore gamers and their hardcore habits).
I love to game and I would like to spend time (and I have) with my daughter gaming, but I am having some serious doubts whether I should accelerate her access to videogames. Actually, reading the remarks on this thread and the completely uncritical acceptance of the necessity of getting your kids hooked onto a gaming console ASAP has made the decision for me. I was thinking of getting my daughter a DS for Christmas, but that won’t be happening this year. I think I’ll give her rollerskates instead.
By the way, even though this seems highly critical (and it is), I still love your blog and its intelligent treatment of the rapidly maturing medium of video games. Thanks.
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My feelings on this are roughly analogous to my feelings on TV - too much of it is bad for you. I think he could be right in that videogaming is severely hampering creativity and critical thinking in young people, but I think the same is true for lots of things.
What do you reckon? |