My name is Kristina Moore and I am a sophomore Communication major. Additionally, I may double major in AEM. I’m from Northern Virginia; about thirty minutes outside of Washington DC. I love to wake up early and watch the sunrise and my favorite season is winter—so I have no problem with Ithaca blizzards. Other than academics, I’m a sister of Delta Gamma and a soon-to-be member of the Cornell Figure Skating Club.
An Internet phenomenon that I’m interested in is what kind of influence Internet gaming has on younger children. Even though I feel as if my generation was lucky to “grow up” and mature with the convenience of the Internet, I worry sometimes that future generations may not be as fortunate. For example, when I was younger, I spent my days playing imaginary “house” with my girlfriends and the game CLUE with my family. On the other hand, my younger cousin (seven years old) has had his own computer with Internet access since he was five years old. Outside of school, he spends more time playing online games than he does socializing and interacting with other children. I wouldn’t automatically assume that playing online games could be hurtful to his development but this summer an interesting personality trait unveiled itself. We were teaching him how to water-ski and as soon as he learned how to get up on the skis (even though he only glided on the water for about five seconds) he immediately wanted to learn how to pass over the wake of the wave caused by the boat. It was almost as if he had “beat” the level of water-skiing and was ready to “advance” to the next level as if he were playing an online game. Additionally, there are many times when he preferred to stay home and play computer games instead of going out with his friends and family for dinner.
I believe that the space that my younger cousin spends most his time in is a mix between the World Wide Web and a similar version of what Wallace classifies as a MUD game. It is almost as if he doesn’t feel like socializing and making friends with other children his age, so he seeks comfort in his own personal virtual reality.
5 comments:
Kristina,
The influence of internet gaming is a huge concern of mine as well. I can relate to your example because I have a younger brother who seems to have become addicted to the internet gaming phenomenon. My brother is 15 years old and whenever I am home it seems like all he does is sit in front of his computer and play some weird game in which he, and all of his internet counter parts control their own created players and battle one another or team up against others. Honestly, I don't really understand it either. I remember when I was 15, and it was almost impossible to keep me inside, let alone sit on a computer all day.
The scary part is, is that he isn't the only one that participates in this. All of his friends from home do the same thing; it's almost like this is their way of "hanging out" but not actually being together.
I like what you said about "advancing to the next level" almost like they relate the gaming world to "real life." I also believe it gives them (the younger generation) a sense of adventure that we (the elder generation) just might not understand, because it wasnt't available to us as early in life.
On the other hand, I don't think I would classify the online video games as a MUD, but rather as what Wallace refers to as a "Metaworld." I believe this because Metaworlds are basically an advanced form MUDs because they contain visual and sound effects.
~Will
Hey Kristina,
This is Kristina (Canlas, that is). Your parents are smart people for giving you such a beautiful name :D I don't know a whole lot about online games because I don't play them myself, but I believe striking a balance in ones life is important for your mental and emotional health. "All things in moderation," as the Greeks say. What's happening to Will's brother is unfortunate - his being glued to a computer and 'hanging out' with his friends on Halo. That's not to say, though, that all young people can't be persuaded to enjoy the great outdoors. Your younger cousin, for instance, loved water skiing. And as nerdy as it sounds to relate an outdoor water sport with a video game, we relate new things to other things that we're familiar with. For example, when I picked up cooking in high school, following a cook book to me was almost like performing a chemistry lab (NERDY, I KNOW, hahaha).
I believe that it's important to strike a balance in one's life, even when it comes to young children in the face of expanding technology. We all know that technology is becoming more sophisticated, and will only continue to do so over the course of time. Pretty soon, our kids will be able to switch to the next song on their ipods or open our garage doors by blinking. I took a horticulture class my sophomore year and remember reading a book about a man and his son facing the same problems. He grew up in the 50s playing in the grass with bugs while his young son was fascinated with the latest Nintendo game system. As a horticulturist, it hurt him to see his son miss out on all the experiences he had as a child, because nowadays its not as safe for kids to play outdoors by themselves. So he started taking his son out on bike rides over the weekends, as well as on other nature-oriented outings. Studies have shown that children who spend more time outside are happier, and even have fewer symptoms of ADD (thank you HORT 235). I'm not saying that little Johnny Appleseed shouldn't enjoy his X-Box every once in a while, but encouraging a balance between video games and pushing a Razor scooter outside would be helpful. :)
I have had a similar experience with younger children and internet gaming, mainly with one of my friend's younger brother. He spends long hours playing World of Warcraft, and seems to suffer from greatly reduced social contact with kids his own age, sometimes his own family as well. As an outsider to the family I don't have a really good picture of what his situation is, but it does sound like Internet gaming is adversely affecting him. I would be greatly interested in seeing more studies done to find out if there is a causal relationship between gaming online and poor performance in school, reduced social contact, greater feelings of isolation from peers, etc, or if it might also work the other way around. The online space where these children reside serves as a universe where they are not so quickly judge on cues they cannot control. It seems plausable to me that the metaworlds they reside in serve in a similar capacity to escapism fiction, except they can actively participate and alter the story.
Kristina,
I must say that I'm torn on this topic. When I was growing up, although my mother taught computers, she limited any of the video games that I could have to zero and the computer games had to be strictly educational. So I used to read a lot, that helped me today as an ILRie. On the other hand, I have a friend who grew up in the city, which offered a lot less safe extracurricular activities, and he's played videogames since he was young. If you look at him now, his video game expertise has afforded him a wealth of new friends. And not just "video game geeks." There is a variety of different people who game now. There are tournaments and discussion boards that link people throughout the world. You can meet hundreds of different people face-to-face in national tournaments. If you are on a team, you can compete globally and companies will pay you big bucks to use their equipment.
Now, that videogames have been integrated into the world wide web. I believe that it opens our youth up to a global community who share their interest. It might seem that people have become more anti-social but maybe they are just honing their art. Being a gamer is not just pressing a bunch of buttons as fast as you can. Even the simplest of games it takes a lot of strategy and understanding of the mechanics of the game (how lag will effect your shooting, etc).
I think people get caught up in the fact that it's a game. But is it any better if I used to spend hours upon hours by myself, during my youth reading books? Some may say yes, but I was still being anti-social, right? The books I was reading could have been filled with horrible violence (which often they were, pertaining to the wars and the Civil Rights Movement).
Really, I don't know how I feel about videogames effecting the development of children. I do believe that if someone is introverted, they are introverted and the presence of videogames is not going to encourage or spark that; a shy child can find other ways to avoid interaction. But it will be interesting to see how my 4 yr old cousin develops, because he has had a PSP in his hand from birth. It's actually quite amazing that at the age of 3 he can whoop my butt in all racing games. So, who knows what the future will hold....
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