|
Pokémon seems to have a very love-hate, mostly hate relationship with parents. Sure, Pokémon has the ability to bring out the OCD-kid in all of us, but parents nowadays seem to find Pokémon dangerous when it comes to their children developing social skills.
Oddly enough, I was a kid that grew up during a time when Pokémon was at its prime. I knew all one hundred and fifty Pokémon, I had the cards, I knew all the words to the theme song and Poke raps, and I had my copy of Pokémon: Blue which I played every day as a kid. I obsessed over Pokémon out of sheer love of cute things, and I turned out okay! But in all seriousness, Pokémon had this intense ability to bring all the kids on the playground together, even if it was a fad that we could barely explain coherently to our parents.
My nephew has reached that golden age of seven, where Pokémon is the in thing again, and it's something that he seems to cherish. It is also something my uncle has come to loathe simply because he cannot grasp the concept of catching pocket monsters and becoming a Poke Master. My uncle's frustration comes from the fact that while my nephew is obsessed with Pokémon it's something that they cannot share together. I suppose I was lucky that when I was growing up my mother just accepted every trend that I decided to follow and Pokémon was one that she saw as completely harmless. Yes, I was obsessed with the game, but she understood that this was the 'in' thing and that all the kids were talking about it. Parents of this new generation seem less acceptive of games like Pokémon because they fear it takes from their child's social skills, but refuse to see how social the game actually makes them.
Truth be told, I can understand that fear even if I think it's unjustified. Considering the Nintendo DS makes it so easy to connect with other players, it's hard to see Pokémon as anything but a social game. However, when a kid goes OCD over collecting pocket monsters and will talk of nothing else, it can be very frustrating. My nephew is the perfect example of a kid who wants to play Pokémon 24-7 and gets obsessive to the point where after an hour, my uncle is literally trying to tear the game from him. On the other hand, he just wants to keep up with his friends so he can continue to participate in the ongoing conversations. I suppose when I see parents freaking out over Pokémon it's something I don't understand because I had parents who never saw harm in the fad.
I can understand fearing fads, but Pokémon is one of the few that has always come back in full force every generation. I recognize the steaming pile of Poke-hate by parents also returns every generation, but Pokémon wasn't made for them, it was made for kids. Playing Pokémon isn't as social as being a part of a sports team, but I don't see it as being as harmful as parents perceive it to be. Yes, I believe that playing too much of it can be problematic if that is the only thing they are doing, but even so, I don't think playing Pokémon can make someone anti-social to the extent that some parents think it does. Plus parents should be grateful that Pokémon actually teaches their kids not only math, but problem solving skills. I suppose that a parent can only tolerate hearing the repetitiveness of tiny pocket creatures repeating their names over and over again as though they were real people.
So tell me RPGamers, what's your opinion on this? Do you think Pokémon or any type of gaming at a young age make someone completely anti-social?
|
RSS feed
iTunes