Problems with Susan Greenfield’s short attention span
On the 7.30 report last night Susan_Greenfield said that computer games are ruining children’s minds.
She sez that computer games alter children’s brains by replacing the real world - where events occur in a sequential narrative, choices are made and consequences occur - with an instant gratification shoot-em-up simulacrum [my word not hers but aint it a great one?].
Ho Hum. It seems to me that the brains of some grown ups must develop into a state that dictates that if they didn’t experience something when they were young, it must be bad. Look at Nicola Roxon, who thinks that alcopops are a dire threat to teenage girls. She has been silent on how her generation avoided certain ruin at the hands of Brandevino and Passiona.
As Hesiod is said to have said:
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words… When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint.
I was so disturbed by the interview that I immeadiately got online and started blasting away at anything that moved in Urban Terrror.
Susan, AYBABTU.
May 19th, 2009 at 0:48
I hear lots of comments along this line but I also hear the opposite … young people are learning to handle life in a simultaneous approach instead of the old sequential method. They are development methods of absorbing lots of unrelated data, putting it all together and coming up with multiple solutions - something that old, sequential people cannot do.
June 15th, 2009 at 18:03
Are you seriously trying to say that blowing the brains out of some alien with three green heads is contributing to the child’s development in some way? Please! These games are getting so realistic that I believe kids are growing up with a totally distorted sense of reality. Don’t try to tell me it’s life training!