Game Politics ran an article about a study from Save the Children which indicates video games and modern culture as a source of socialization problems in children. The good thing about this whole issue is that intelligent people like Hal Hapin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, have come out to speak about it. In an interview with IGN, Halpin states that:
This is another example of real world anecdotal evidence consistently flying in the face of pseudo-research. If that’s the case here, I’ve seen my son play DS with his cousins just as I’ve seen my daughter play hop-scotch with friends. Both sets of kids were having fun and communicating. Both were interacting and being social. One could even argue that the DS group was doing so in multiple channels more than the physical-only crowd.
Hearing about social isolation stories makes me wonder where the parent — or in this case, perhaps the parent and the teacher — has failed the child, not how the technology or media choices that he/she uses to pass their clearly lonely time has made them so…
I’m sure pointing fingers and laying blame elsewhere makes some adults feel better, but it just isn’t reality.
Thank God that there are people who can say things to the public concerning video games that sound reasonable. No elitist remarks, just plain talk from a person who knows games and has children who game.
People will always be on the lookout for the reasons that things change. Times are changing that much is for sure. However is it possible that socialization is not decreasing overall as a result of technology but is just changing in the way it works? The study insinuates that children who spend time at home and on cell phones are damaging their socialization skills. But to counter that one could say they are just adapting their socialization skills to a changing environment. The writers on this website use the internet to communicate more than they do their vocal chords and still some how function in society.
I think Halpin makes a strong case when he says that the problem lies more in the institutions and with the parents. Teachers need to take the extra time to work with children and their social needs. If there are children that have different socialization needs now than they did years ago then the curriculums and the skills of the teachers and parents need to learn how to work within the world the children know. It just seems like there is a paradigm shift in terms of how people are interacting and so much of those who are “the man,” so to speak, are more concerned with how they know it than how it really is.
Chufmoney