Steven Johnson, author of the book, “Everything Bad is Good for You” caught wind of Hillary’s latest rant and wrote an article that was published in the LA Times. It’s titled, “Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game over” and is an interesting look at how congress is spending our money. 90MM dollars to commission a study on how video games affect our children. Mainly, how they affect them in a negative way. And mainly based on her assessment of a game called, “Grand Theft Auto.”
Now it pains me to write this post because I really do respect and admire Hillary. As a matter of fact I would probably be waiting on line to vote for her if she ran in 2008. And I like Steven Johnson, what I’ve read of him anyway, and thought he was hilarious on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. So what’s a mom to do? On this one I have to say, Steven wins. Hillary’s elect ability which has led her to the center seems to be killing her practical, good judgment. 90MM dollars, come on? When we’re looking at cuts in funding programming like PBS she wants to spend 90MM dollars on a study of a subject that frankly has been studied to death? Give my 4 year olds back “Clifford” and let the parents regulate “Grand Theft Auto.” After all, don’t we as parents bare any of the responsibility in what our kids watch, play and read? The opening of his article really states the issue quite clearly (and painfully funny as well)
“I’d like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.
I’m talking, of course, about high school football.”
Johnson’s point in the article (I’ll admit I’m a bit skeptical) is that if kids are playing out some of these violent scenarios in the context of the game they are less likely to go out and commit them in real life. A sort of “get your rocks off” when it’s not quite real. This may be the case. He notes that according to Duke University’s Child Well-Being Index, today’s kids are less violent than kids have been at any time since the study began in 1975. I’m inclined to think there are other influencers bringing the crime rate down but hell if this is one of them, play away.
The point, which I’m finally coming back to, is that if the “kids are alright” than spend the money on something that really matters and leave parenting, well, to the parents. Most of the time we do a pretty decent job. Anyway, it’s a great read. Let me know what you think.
Posted on July 29th, 2005 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized
It is good that someone writes articles which really matters something. Thank you for this article, it’s full of knowledge which is hard to find in tons of rubbish in our famous world wide web. Regards and good luck!
As I read this post it’s funny to consider that Hllary is now an official candidate. The world changes quickly–just like how we fill up the WWW. HAve a great weekend!