Sunday, February 9, 2014

Parenting and Video Game

I went on Flipboard (app) today with the intention of catching the latest update on the removal of the highly addictive game “Flappy Bird” from the App Store. But it was another post that captures my attention, an article published on Forbe titled “Violent Video Games Can Turn Kids Into Progressive Intellectuals” by Jordan Shapiro [link]. This article does not necessary point out the positive of video game directly, but it did challenge the reader to think differently about video game; it is not all bad.

Video game, which can be interpret as a tool of interactive story-telling, are no different than other tools in our daily lives; tools that can be both beneficial and harmful at the same time. On one hand it provides the purpose of entertainment/stress relieve, but on another it also can be seen as a gateway of immoral behaviors. We are merely looking at both sides of the same coin.

Perhaps my favorite statement from Jordon’s article is: “It is not the violence of video games that creates morally immature individuals, but lack of supervision, education, and good parenting." Computer programs, televisions, and tablets can’t be trusted on their own, parents need to teach kids how to use them.”

Cartoon from

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