Temecula Tech

Stephen Johnson’s commentary, Hillary vs. the Xbox, makes a number of good points about the benefits of playing video games (and one of the drawbacks — lack of exercise). Regarding the harmful effects of violent games, he points out the following:

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.

I read the essay with my 7 and 9 year old video game playing sons this morning and we talked about what they enjoyed about the games they play, which don’t include GTA. Some of the vocabulary was challenging for the 7 year old, but he got through it and both of them wanted to know what kind of research would be done to determine the effects of video games on children.

We also discussed Johnson’s point about high school football right before we left to go swimming. Ironically, at the pool, 7 high school football players came over after practice and jumped in to cool off and to taunt, punch and choke each other. The biggest guy seemed to enjoy tormenting each of the others one at a time by applying a choke hold to them while another would splash them or punch them. Both of my sons were terrified by what they saw and asked several times if I would call the police. Fortunately no one was hurt and we went home to the safety of our Playstation.

Stephen Johnson’s commentary, Hillary vs. the Xbox, makes a number of good points about the benefits of playing video games (and one of the drawbacks — lack of exercise). Regarding the harmful effects of violent games, he points out the following:

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.

I read the essay with my 7 and 9 year old video game playing sons this morning and we talked about what they enjoyed about the games they play, which don’t include GTA. Some of the vocabulary was challenging for the 7 year old, but he got through it and both of them wanted to know what kind of research would be done to determine the effects of video games on children.

We also discussed Johnson’s point about high school football right before we left to go swimming. Ironically, at the pool, 7 high school football players came over after practice and jumped in to cool off and to taunt, punch and choke each other. The biggest guy seemed to enjoy tormenting each of the others one at a time by applying a choke hold to them while another would splash them or punch them. Both of my sons were terrified by what they saw and asked several times if I would call the police. Fortunately no one was hurt and we went home to the safety of our Playstation.