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30 year olds need to drop the gamepad and grow up - According to Kay Hymowitz in an opinion piece
According to Kay, today's man of 20-something/30-something is lulled into a 'child-man'-state by pop-culture, she blames video-games for this. "Thanks to the emergence of pop culture such as television and gaming today's mid-20-something male "lingers happily, in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance," argues the article."
Now from a professional stand point (being an almost-shrink) I wonder if this truly is the case. It is true that over the ages childhood has extended into the teen years, puberty was invented and college students are called 'kids'. Some do seem to never grow up and remain in a semi-pubertal state - but perhaps videogames are not the sole culprit. I think it's today's parents who do not seem to want to prepare their kids to become adults in the real world. You raise adults, you don't raise kids. Reaping reward from investing time and sowing effort is what builds character. A little adversity, setting yourself some goals and experiencing hardship is something that helps people grow up, not being pampered and getting everything handed to you on a golden platter. This creates a sense of entitlement and makes people very ego-centric/weak/unskilled. Exactly what Kay describes in her article. So what causes this? Perhaps the alarming divorce rate and the number of broken-homes in today's society are to blame. After a divorce it often happens that parents over-indulge their kids out of guilt, this does not make those folk to be better parents and often results in some horrible behavioral patterns of the child(ren) involved. Are these early signs of our culture spiraling out of control, a culture about to succumb and be succeeded by a more successful one? Or is this something of all ages, something about an older generation looking back observing the younger generations - not liking what they see. I tend to think it is the latter. There's nothing wrong with playing videogames, it doesn't cause me to be stunted or child-like. I am getting married in less than a week, I am in training to become a psychiatrist and I am very responsible - as are many other gamers I know. But there do exist youths that are in trouble, they are missing the boat, a chance to live a rich and full life. Perhaps it's by choice, perhaps they are created by bad parenting combined with pop-culture. Who knows?
I believe it us foolish and shortsighted to blame this kind of thing solely on video-games - just because some politicians 'believe' this to be the case?
I am off to play some Burnout Paradise on my xbox360, and that doesn't make me a bad driver in real life either ;-P
Source: Dallas Morning News, Computer and Video games
- Mark Vergeer's blog
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"Videogames are just another hobby/activity. Nothing less, nothing more. You don't need to be a specific age to enjoy it, as there is significant diversity to appeal to all ages and interests. From 3 year olds to 70+ year olds, it's all just interaction with an electronic medium. The only difference between videogames and anything else is that videogames are more interactive in most ways than something like stamp or coin collecting, and interactive in different ways than woodworking, kite flying or board games. It always amazes me that some individuals like to try to place age restrictions on a particular activity. If it's fun to you and you're age "x", then it's appropriate for age "x", plain and simple. And yes, that's paying attention to age recommendations for the very young. Videogames have to be as responsible as music, TV, movies and books in that regard, but not moreso.
As I say in the subject line, this is more odd press in the Jack Thompson/Fox News/Mass Effect vein that appeals to a very particular type of person who already has their mind made up about "videogames". It's really just controversy bating and stirring up an easy mark for publicity purposes.
And yes, I agree with you Mark that every generation grows up different because every generation is raised different and exposed to different environments and societal norms. Videogames are a small piece of that, but so is everything else from age 0 to adulthood. Humans are nothing more than a result of our past experiences and our own wills and desires. Some do better than others, some "succeed" earlier than others, some purposely stay locked in a particular mode by choice (that party mode that was described in the article). Doesn't sound any different than human life throughout history, and if I'm not mistaken videogames or rock and roll or cars or any other "evil" thing of the day weren't always around."
"I think it's odd that adult men may play lots of videogames, but only one I know actually still plays with toys (Transformers, etc.) The only way playing with toys is acceptable is if it's part of a complex game (such as wargaming). Why is that we've been able to resist the older generation's insistence that games, cartoons, and comics are inappropriate for adults, but seem to agree with them about toys?"
"Perhaps a lot of people are just narrow minded and do not want to think outside the box?
It is a fact that with the industrial revolution the balance between working and leisure time shifted towards the latter and over the years people have found more ways to use that time:
- visiting the pub
- free climbing
- sky diving
- collecting stamps
- playing sports
- cultural or social engaging activities
- playing videogames
- playing with toys
- playing a musical instrument (needs excessive practicing to make it perfect errr. audible hmmm bearable)
Nothing is wrong with that except when you do it to an access so that it interferes with normal activities and responsibilities. You can't just blame any single one of those things as the cause of the downfall of society or the lack of responsibilities in some young men today. That is just bonkers.
So what if a grown up feels like playing house with play-mobil or build stuff with Lego? I personally wouldn't find it very interesting on my at age 37, but with a small kid (nephew) it actually is quite fun. There's tons of video-games that are just not my cup of tea - perhaps they are too childish or too shallow/simple for me to enjoy. But there are others that I find amazing.
So what if a person decides to live on the edge and goes free-climbing whilst at the same time being a father of 3? Hey I would perhaps think twice about taking such risks when being responsible for 3 kids and not do such things, but there are others who choose to do the free-climbing with their kids. Am I just being too prudent? Is the other guy who takes a risk with the lives of his kids just insane? Who knows?
Look we've come to live in a world where some - quite a lot actually - have to labor crazy hours just to be able to survive whereas others are able to spend their days lying on a couch just idling away looking at pixels on a hd-tv playing the latest XBLA game. The world is a screwed up place - we made it screwed up that way. Think about that too much and you'll get depressed/frustrated about the inequality of it all. Stopping a political/philosophical rant NOW..... sound of screeching brakes, nails on schoolboard"