Thursday, February 21, 2008
Mixed Realities
I think that this and other examples illustrate quite well a quote I read recently by Richard Purcell (former chief privacy officer at Microsoft) stating that "Technology is way ahead of our ability as a society to think about the consequences"
On a related note (everything is related, I know) an article in the Washington Post about the recent annual Toy Fair in NY, dated February 20, 2008; p.C01 says:
Fact: Kids create more than 100,000 avatars each day in virtual communities such as Habbo and Club Penguin. That startling statistic has broad implications for how kids play and what the $22 billion toy industry wants to sell them to play with.
...For the (toy) industry, which uses this four-day play date to hawk its current and upcoming products, here's the best-case scenario: Kids won't want to stop playing in their online worlds. With the ever-expanding child obesity problem, that also is the worst-case scenario.
Of course, worst-case scenarios make for some of the best business opportunities (e.g. 9/11). That is why you see and will see more and more, a strong linkage from RL to VR as you already have with toys such as Build-a-Bear which uses the virtual world, where children play a controlled fantasy using an avatar of their toy bear, to model their consumer behavior (and their parent's) therefore bouncing back to RL where the child now sees his/her bear as lacking those things which they so easily get online.
More worrying to me is the fact that those kids forfeit their imaginary role and fantasy playing by succumbing to a pre-canned experience. This might have implications for the development of true free-form creativity in the child. And no matter how emphatically the toy companies insist their "privacy policy" protects your children, the fact is that kids activities online are closely monitored by those same companies, so that while individual privacy might be moderately protected (very weakly I would argue) their group as a whole becomes a very vulnerable and exploited target.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I believe it was at Christmas that I looked at the loving Grandparents gathered around and pointed out that of all the toys my husband and I gave to our Son, not a single one required batteries (well, his ride-in race car did, but Santa brought that, no Mom and Dad). Of the toys he received from the older generation, roughly 90% required batteries. I asked them why my son couldn't have toys that required him to make his own noise, or come up with his own type of play. I then pointed out that the big hit this year was the castle that came with little horses, knights with armor, and the dragon in addition. He loves it. He spent hours dressing the knights, shooting the cannon at the dragon, Having the dragon eat the horses and then telling us that Dragons eat Mamas and Daddys too(at that point we got a little nervous and redirected him). This is a society that likes to blame others for its problems. Childhood Obesity is not the fault of video games, rather, it is a reflection of a situation in which parents will not or cannot find a way to get thier children to do other things as well. I admit, some Saturday mornings instead of going to the park, my son and I curl up in bed, eat breakfast, and watch movies. Sometimes, it seems like all my son has done all day is watch TV. But this is not everyday, in fact, not even most days. My parents worked long hours and when they got home they wanted to crash. I was home by myself from the time I was 9, and was not permitted to go outside until someone was home. It meant I played games, watched TV, ate junk. So on Saturday, we were up at dawn, cutting grass, weeding flowerbeds, going to parks, canoeing, whatever my parents could drag me to do early in the morning. They did the best they could to encourage me to be more active.
You may not always be able to control what a child eats, but you can control what's around for the child to eat. With excersize, you cannot make a child be active, but you can drag them around to enough places to force some activity.
Anyone who blames a video game for obesity must realize that the game is what it is, just a game. Those that created it are no more to blame for the desire to play the game than a football is for encouraging men to where shoulderpads. People create games in order to make money. It is the parents that are allowing the game to be played without the moderation of other activities which should be more closely examined. Like I've said before, my son plays video games (with me or his dad), but again in moderation. That is why he has a room full of puzzles, books, Thomas Trains, stuffed animals, little plastic dinos, tigers, lions, and horses, as well as a tipi and a full family of potato-heads. We also have balls for throwing and catching, a tricycle that perhaps one day he'll be able to reach the peddles on well enough to ride without help, and a small dog that loves to play chase.
Post a Comment