Video Game Generation

[DanielleNguyen]

So recently I started babysitting again. Only problem is the kids are so into video games which drives me crazy. I am not allowed to discipline these kids or take away their video games but every time I suggest something new or fun like a outdoor activity they shut me down. When playing video games I have noticed children have more accidents on themselves. I have noticed this in all three households. Yes I have tried talking to the parents about limiting their video game play and only one parent out of the three households decided to try it. My husband and I recently took the kids out to the park and they all decided to be antisocial. I thought kids would love the park and playing with other kids. But for the whole hour they just shadowed me asking" Can we go home now and play Kirby? " And I also have noticed that when I let them play video games (limited to a hour) soon as I want to turn it off they scream and have a temper tantrum much like a two year old. Even the 15 year old results to these measures and flashes me screaming profanities. I have tried talking to the parents and spoke honestly about my concerns, not just on the video games but on their junk food diet as well. I mean the kids are at a unhealthy weight and just want to be on the couch all day playing video games. I know this may seem unreasonable but I have decided that my household will never have a gaming system. I rather have my kids outside playing in the sprinkler or playing ball until the street lights come on. I mean whatever happened to picking up a stick and suddenly your a heroic knight. Most Americans see me as a unreasonable mom and baby sitter but I think my concerns are rational. What do you think?

[DanielleNguyen]

I have commented on other peoples.

[Bstyle]

I was a gamer back when being a gamer actually had meaning. Started off on the Atari 2600 and a NES a few years later. Games back then were so much more challenging and creative. Most people back then thought gaming was something for nerds. By the time the SNES came out I saw that games were being dumbed down. Now for the past 13 years every game is nothing more than running around with a machine gun killing everything in sight. How do kids not get bored of that?

[Wolfeye]

DanielleNguyen- You're not wrong about that. I used to play a alot of video games, because there was no one else around to go to each other's houses or anywhere to run around & do things. Te games ARE much simpler & a lot of them basically do things for you. Supposedly, growing up with too much electronics (always having the face buried in the cell phone, constantly on video games, constantly on the internet) it actually causes schizoid disorders- that they get all cloistered & don't socialize or form close relationships. They don't even bother with sex, as a general rule.

I've noticed that there's a constant thing with computers, cell phones, video games & fake interactions in general. Something about that: If electronic technology is a bridge to doing anything, don't you think that's an avenue for dictatorial behavior? A mojor point is that all this information that's out there, it'd be a lot easier for someone to come to a conclusion & then act on it- whatever that happens to mean. Spies & such form a profile on someone using this exact information. If nothing ese, having this much information on a lot of people gives them an easier ability to scam a group with whatever situaon.

Oh, you're not "into anything bad" so you'd be fine? How do you know it'll get deduced that way? Or that someone else isn't & your paths have crossed in some way that gets interpretted to mean something- ossibly by a control freak that thinks they're never wrong. Maybe it's just one more thing to make up- another category of evidence to fabricate. It wouldn't be too hard to actually plant something in this situation, would it?

People forget that sometimes you're not actually dealing with what's advertised. Maybe someone ACTS confused & then you try to get them to understand, but they were never confused in the first place. Sometimes you're dealing with people who have "compasses" that point backward & command other people to work their will. If someone was a nutjob that wanted to kill a bunch of people, they could only do so much damage on their own- but with an army or a police agency, they could multiply the damage.

I know this isn't exactly the subject, but I've got to wonder about a lot of it, since it DOES seem to be internet-connected. I mean, doesn't the way you do whatever game convey something about how you might do things in real life? Look at all the battle games- maybe that works to give someone an advance idea of what you'd do if there ever was a real civil war or something. I don't belly-crawl to get the mail or anything, but I do figure a lot of this could be a factor- especially with all the sneaky Nazi-like shit that's been going on for quite a while.

[abcdavid01]

When I was a kid it was very social. I remember going on this bus tour from NJ to Tennessee and trading Pokemon with the kid sitting next to me. Then over a decade later I had such great memories I came back to Tennessee for college. At home I'd go over my cousin's house and play video games with him all the time. Then when I was a teenager it was more anti-social. I'd play 80 hour role playing games day and night. Very little else to do in my town and all the good kids moved away. But now I just see diminishing returns. Every Zelda's pretty similar, rpgs have pretty similar stories, the last Pokemon probably can't get any better. So I'd rather go on walks and explore things, but if I see someone into videogames I'll have that connection. Maybe even trade pokemon with them, I don't know.

[Halwick]

As much as I abhor video game and the way they diminish the actual human physical interaction with one another, they seem to have had an unexpected positive effect on a certain group of people.

Some fifteen years ago when unmanned pilotless aircraft were in their infancy, I had a conversation with an USAF Colonel (former fighter pilot) on how the experienced fighter pilots were adapting to flying the drones. He said the experienced pilots were not as comfortable flying them via a "detached remote control station", whereas the young airmen who were raised on video games were totally at ease and flying circles around older generation experienced pilots in mock combats.

So maybe there is hope for the video game generation. Who knows, maybe in the future when you HA's fly abroad, you may be flying aboard an remotely piloted Airbus piloted by a "pilot" who cut his teeth on video games.

[DanielleNguyen]

I know but kids need to play outside too is all im. Saying.