As I work more with today’s youth, I’m overwhelmed with the sheer volumes of time so many of the teens and twenty-somethings I know spend in front of computer games and movies.
Emerging church ideas are packed with the inclusion of digital visual stimuli and various other enhancements, none of which should be decried, but most of which are replacements for artful architecture.
I’m part of the birth to death TV generation; went through puberty watching MTV and bought all my action heroes based on fave TV shows.
I’m interested in my friends, many of whom love computer games, to comment on this article in Maclean’s, called Videogame Widows.
I have a more detailed opinion/perspective, but I’d like to hear from friends on both sides. I’m trying to find my feet in the related/extended issues, and I’m thinking about an entire Western generation and their mental habits/rituals.
The average youth in our economically slow area of the world spends at least 3 hours/day playing videogames (21 hrs./wk., 1100 hrs./yr., 10,920 hrs. between age 8-18 – that’s 2 years of 15 hr. days, 22,000 hrs. between age 8-28 – that’s over 4 years of 15 hr. days).
We should have an opinion beyond “whatever.”
The jury is still out for me. Studies on the brain speak to issues of attention span, diminished creativity (some of my computer game friends are highly creative, I add), lost living and significantly affected relationships.
(An added note: In addition, the most reputable studies note that the brain, while watching TV especially, is more sedate than when the body is asleep, and more “unfilteringly accepting” of all information coming at it. Studies on children are showing significant issues related to attention span and “demand” for constant stimulus.)
I still haven’t added in the movie-watching generation element. That would add on at least 6-8 hrs. a week more in front of the little blue box. Do the math above. The Box wins and we bow down.
I’m open. Let ‘er rip.
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