I’m not talking about the content, first-person shooters, glorified gangs, thieves, and pimps….I’m talking about ME versus everyone, and I mean literally EVERYONE, who blithely lets their kids play video games and pluck away on other devices.
Kids with cell phones? I just heard of a 5 year old who has their own iPhone 5 or 6, whatever version they up to, today!
Parents are always complaining to me about their kids’ behavior – that they are too confrontational, too hyped up, too detached, too ornery, too bored, etc.
But then I see these same kids with their heads buried inches away from electronic screens. They are texting, watching YouTube, or God knows what specifically. And it doesn’t matter. Effectively they are disengaging themselves from reality and from society.
I watched a young man get up on stage the other night at a Cub Scout talent show…
He couldn’t audibly or clearly say his name or the name of the piece he was going to play – he couldn’t take a bow afterwards. Yeah he played beautifully (Chopin’s Nocturne?) but when he sat back down I noticed he eagerly grabbed his iPad and went right back to gaming. Gaming? At a Cub Scout Pack Meeting? Where were his parents and why do they permit such ludicrous, disrespectful behavior? Who gave him an iPad in the first place? Who said he could bring it to the Pack Meeting?
I’ve heard every excuse too. “They need to unwind.” “I limit him/her to only an hour a day.” “I let him play because all the other kids play video games and I don’t want him left out.” “Minecraft is educational!”
Would you let your child smoke pot everyday for 30 minutes to “unwind”?
If you read Boys Adrift – which I highly recommend – you’ll learn that it’s been PROVEN that video games literally FRY THE BRAIN. Gamers apparently have their nucleus accumbens and their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex measurably “out of kilter”.
Seriously, video games and phones are the opiate of our times. One day soon, hopefully, we will all look back on this current phenomena epidemic with as much consternation as we allot the rampant, and complacent smoking in society only a few decades ago.
I mean they just HAD TO KNOW that sucking smoke into their lungs every single day wasn’t in the best interests of their long term health, right?
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