Parents Just Don't Understand

by Wayne Frisbie 

"Get off that computer!" "Turn that thing off!" "Go outside!" "Go read a book or something!"
If your parents have never said those things while playing video games, or watching t.v., you're extremely lucky. No need to argue, parents just don't understand, as a somewhat popular rap song stated. Many parents think video games and television are a waste of time, a waste of money, and lots of other things. Some go so far as to say they make thier kids stupid, some say they're evil. Let's reveiw a few things.

When the Columbine High School shooting occured, the parents of the killers, and a few other people, blamed the ever popular first-person shooter, Doom. They said that game influenced their children to shoot people. They talked about how evil it was.

Hmmmm.

I'll admit, Doom isn't a game you really want young kids to play. But that's just obvious. Younger kids that don't know any better are influenced by this stuff strongly. But anybody over the age of 8 or 9 should know better than to copy what they saw on a video game, or on a movie! And a game where you go around killing space aliens has nothing to do with some brain-dead kid going around shooting the people who harrassed him for being a "nerd".

"The Matrix" was also blamed for this, because of their scene with the main character Neo (played by Keanu Reves) in a black trenchcoat. According to what I saw on t.v., the "Black Trenchcoat Mafia" as these kids called themselves were around alot longer than "The Matrix". How could they have possibly blamed that movie for their kids' violence against their peers?

And we have to wonder, how do these people get off saying they didn't know their kids were up to no good when they were in a small group, that invited few or no other people in, wearing black trenchcoats (nothing really wrong with that, but when a group of kids that all hang out together are all wearing them, it should be considered a gang), and screwing around in private? They must kick themselves over knowing they should've stopped their kids when they thought something was up. And at one time or another, they had to have thought something was up.

Video games have been deemed "uneducational", a "waste of time and money", and many other things. Let me ask you this. Do you really think an uneducated, idiotic, illiterate (the list goes on and on...) person could play a game like Final Fantasy VIII, much less know how to turn their Playstation on?! No! Video games take more intelligance than reading a book. Not only do you have to read in a video game, you have to think of what to do next, when to go, follow instructions, lots of things. Things that require intellect. All a video game is is a book that requires more than turning the pages. And I think I can honestly say I've learned more useful information playing EverQuest online with my friends than I have in my many years of school.

So kids, next time your parents tell you to "turn that thing off and read a book", reply by putting your Xenogears cd into your PSX.