In response to “Dueling Texters – A Tragicomedic Modern Event”
So, my mother wrote this.
In response:
First of all, your usage is improper. LMAO is an emotional and physical expression, and doesn’t work when used as a pure abbreviation. One uses emoticons and their related txt shorthand to express emotional and physical communication that is not normally communicated in text or speech. This is intended to directly combat the inability of casual text based correspondence to communicate mood and feeling without delving into deeper and not necessarily more meaningful vocabulary trees. When used appropriately, it can mitigate the loss of connection caused by having a purely electronic conversation.
I should also note that for all that we worry about “neural pathways”, etc, sports records continue to be broken, sports and physical activity numbers continue to go up, and in general, folks continue to muddle through. We have more kids who are obese or completely overcome by electronic distractions, but frankly they are only more visible because as a society we don’t suppress and compress people into a very narrow “normal” the way that we used to. People are not different than they always have been, they are simply more visible because they’re not ostracized as much.
Video games also have a lot of POSITIVE influences on development, although like anything else the rule of “everything in moderation” still applies. As an expert opinion, I will site “The Kids are Alright”, which is a book written by a baby boomer who set out to write a book about the horrible effects of gaming and modern culture on kids, and then as he did the research and actually studied the evidence, came to the conclusion that things weren’t anywhere near as bad as they seemed…and likely were far better than in the tv and drugs generation that he grew up in. I keep recommending you read it, and you never have.
The next few decades are no more likely to be very interesting than your own generation’s control…which has produced such stellar examples as GWB and a country willing to let him get elected twice. I hardly think that the kids growing up on games that require thinking about consequences and living in an interconnected world where consequences are both immediately visible for instant feedback and historically trackable for going back and thinking about it can really do worse.
First of all, BACK THE HELL OFF!! It’s incredibly arrogant and rude of you to sit there and blame our mother for GWB. And it’s our parent’s generation and those who are a few years older who produced the internet and games you so love first. It’s our parent’s generation who fought for civil rights. It’s our parent’s generation who fought for environmental change. No one generation is completely responsible for the way the world is or for the people who grew up in it. You want to be personally blamed for the Virginia Tech shooter? How about the Columbine shooters? In fact, if you want to lamblast a generation for producing GWB, I think you’d be better off targeting our grandparent’s generation – the parent’s generation. They’re the ones who produced GWB, not the generation coming of age with him.
And there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with questioning the state of the world today. You do it often enough. Quit taking a personal and differing view of the world as a personal attack about how you have chosen to live your life. Or are you feeling guilty? Have the same respect for others’ opinions that you so vociferously demand for you own.