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April 18, 2008 - "Kids Who Don't Play Video Games Are At Risk"
Wow, I gotta say this is the most fascinating study/viewpoint on video games and youth society I've seen. A few thoughts:
The conclusion, based on the data, that kids that don't play video games are at risk feels like strange common sense; like
something I didn't think about before but once they found that conclusion in the data, it made sense. I mean if I met a teenage
kid that didn't play video games, I would definitely think them weird, wouldn't you? It just is so commonplace within youth
culture in the last 20-25 years.
I liked how they pointed out the "ebb and flow" of aggressive behavior related to viewing a violent movie or videogame. Sure,
kids that do walk out of a Jet Li movie will prolly kung fu each other on the way out of the theater…but it's also true that that
will wear off pretty quickly. Studies that merely incorporate temporary reactions to said mediums do seem woefully inadequate.
I'm looking forward to picking up their book, "Grand Theft Childhood".
It's interesting to note that Seung-Hui Cho didn't play video games, according to his suitemates.
I'm tired of politicians and media pundits that make these overarching claims against video games with little to no data to back
them up. To me it just tells me their lazy.
