President Barack ObamaObama, Obama, Obama. A president can't catch a break. Tea Partiers, birthers, pro-off shore drilling people, anti-off shore drilling people, gays, homophobes, immigrant rights advocates, tough immigration law advocates...and pretty much any one else under the sun that seems to expect one man to solve all the world's ills.
Kids, trust me, you don't want to grow up to president.
Then suddenly out of nowhere, tech geeks and video gamers lose their minds over him name-dropping their $200 - $600 digital children, many of which probably treated with more care than some of these people's actual children, in a speech showing concern over the vast media overload and how easy false ideas spread. I dig deeper into the actuality of the speech in an opinion piece at Bitmob, but let me entertain the paranoid notion that the president was actually ridiculing the use of our generation's precious little gadgets. What if the person often called the most powerful person in the free world actually called for us to think about not just the information we're bombarded with, but the devices we use. The devices many of us stretch our budgets for the status-symbol of having a first run model and spaz out like an addict going through withdrawals whenever we don't have within arms reach to whine to world on some social networking site that a cook didn't place the extra pickles you ordered on the left side of the burger.
Obviously I'm being facetious with that example, but for all the griping every time some authority figure asks us to think about our media diet and if we're over-reliant on our technology, the angry mob of nerds want to cry their old and out of touch. Yet we all know someone or have been someone that's gone to a midnight launch, spent all night playing some new game and was semi-functional in the morning. We've all read the stories of people neglecting jobs, personal relationships, and children (one case recently resulting in death) because of compulsive and irresponsible use. We often joke to each other about it, shake our head at those people. We know many of the concerns some of these public figures have are actually legitimate.
But because they are authority figures, like children, the angry nerd mob wants to rebel. It wants to play victim at every mention of a video game that's not meant with glowing praise.
It does have a root. Often citing not generally accept behavioral research — when they decide to cite any research at all — many public figures do irresponsibly scapegoat video games for societal ills that have been problems long before books, let alone any medium that precedes games. Humans have been a violent species for as long as we have recorded history. The very idea that something on a DVD-ROM will somehow make a person that doesn't have any violent tendencies suddenly go out and assault, rob, or rape someone is ridiculous. But some self-serving politicians see fit to distort facts and frame things in the very hard to oppose notion that they are trying to protect children. Because no one in their right mind would stop someone from protecting kids.
As such, gamers have been smeared with many a lie about the medium and themselves. The bad apples have often been painted as the whole. And now gamers have been in many cases conditioned to go on the defensive at any criticism thrown their way.
Problem is, there's absolutely nothing with wrong with a person asking that we be mindful of what we play or how much time we're spending on those things. It's perfectly reasonable and frankly healthy. Do most of us have any issues discern what games are good us or not? Of course not. Do most of us having problems managing our time on a game console or other device? No. Do many of us do have those problems and need to be have people attempting to get them to think about what they are doing. Absolutely.
Most of us don't drive drunk. None of us are silly enough to tell a public figure not to spread the message to not drink and drive. We don't suddenly assume they painting everyone that's had an alcoholic beverage as irresponsible. Most of us probably don't eat at McDonalds' cheeseburgers and candy for most of their meals in a week. None of us are silly enough to tell someone not to advocate eating a healthy, well balanced diet. We don't suddenly they are painting everyone that's had a candy bar or some fast food is on a Super Size Me diet.
So why do gamers have it in their heads that they are so special that when someone does offer sound advice that many could use, it's suddenly an attack on the whole? When someone advocates unplugging every once in a while, why do some many get offended? It is truly because any one that's ever uttered the words that isn't on a video game message board every day actually thinks all gamers play to detrimental levels? Or maybe if it bothers you, it's because you might actually need to think about it from time to time. Maybe you're so offended because in your own personal case there may be an element of truth to it.
I've known many a person that plays games and manages every other facet of their lives perfectly well. Their personal identities aren't so tied to a piece of technology. When I talk to them about many of the same comments, they treat it with the same level-headedness they've balanced the rest of their lives. They discern the malicious and harmful attacks from the reasonable concerns of how we use the tech we depend on so much.
The regular reflecting on our consumption of anything we consume — be it media, food, technology or anything else in our lives — is a very intelligent thing. To not be assessing the actual value of certain things we take in or involve ourselves with is to be missing opportunities to improve our lives. To let go or cut back on some things that may not be bringing as much to us or holding us back from our own goals. And if you can honestly look at yourself and say things nothing needs tweaking, that's awesome. You're a better person than I've been any point in my life apparently. But the reflection and the thought costs us nothing, hurts us in no way. and is only truly a threat to a person that fears what they may find.
So simmer down some of that rage and figure out why you're really so mad at this sort of thing.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 10:22PM 
Costume Tyson at Rocklive ringThere's been quite the hiatus here on the blog. Many personal things at the root. But with SXSW going on here in Austin and Screenburn at SXSW ongoing, I have spent sometime covering the event. Expected some Ms. Splosion Man impressions and a Twisted Pixel interview at XBLA Fans soon, thoughts and interviews on Journey (which I experienced for the first time today), Thor: God of Thunder, 3DS, Renegade Kid, and Capcom plus more either here or sites to be announced later.
