Here is one thing that has started to keep me up at night. (These days, almost anything does...) Maybe it has kept you up at night too.
World Of Warcraft (WOW): I am beginning to think that it robs the ambition from our kids. It gives them the wrong ideas about life. As you may already know, the game is about going on missions, gathering wealth or material things, and moving up into advanced levels of the game.
My son can navigate the keyboard and keystroke shortcuts with such ease, his hands literally float across the keys. In the game, he is a naturally leader. Other WOWers follow him. The missions are relatively short and the action is quick. The graphics are amazing. The advatar these kids come up with are definitely original. So what is the problem?
The game feeds the instant gratification desires that my son seems to have. The missions don’t last long and the rewards are relatively high in relation to the effort. He talks about these adventure as if they were great accomplishments. The struggles and tribulations that occurred over the last hour. It is not life, it is fantasy.
The game allows you to dump everything and start over, with out consequences. If you don’t like your world you can erase it and start again. Is that one reason why marriages are crumbling? Is that why bankruptcies are increasing? It is life, it is not fantasy.
I see it sucking the longer term ambition out of him. Ask him about college plans, taking guitar lessons, or watching the football game with me? No thanks, not interested, no confrontations – just no desire. Just the game.
Both my wife and I were outdoor kids. We caught frogs, bees, climbed trees, and had rope swings. We have those things here in our world today. We see them outside our windows. I can walk across my road and can drop a fishing line in the water - you want to join me? Nah, too boring, too mundane, too slimy.
The other morning, he came up to breakfast and announced he was not going to play football next fall. It is the only team sport he plays. He has played two years on the varsity team and this year broke through to start on special teams. He is still growing and needs to fill out some more, but he does have talent and he can tackle. Coaches want him to lift weights and bulk-up during the off season.
I asked him why he was going to quit.
The practices were too hard and they games were anti-climatic. He did not get enough playing time for the work he put in to practicing.
Is there a correlation there?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is an interesting conundrum, all that work for such little reward, and I agree with you completely that the wants and desires of today are being had for much less than they were 10, 20, 50+ years ago.
ReplyDeleteLaw of unintended consequences maybe? As parents we strive to provide for our kids so that they don't have to go through the same tribulations that we did...all the while trying to instill in them disipline, values, and self reliance? Perhaps we have reached the point where we're providing too much for them?