Crack cocaine and the perils of Tetris
p2pnet news | Games:- Video games are like crack! So stay away from them!
They’re not exactly intrinsically evil, apparently, but they’re pretty damned (in the biblical sense) close.
So says father Raymond J. de Souza , a Catholic priest who regularly preaches for the National Post.
And since it’s Christmas, “for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t buy them for your children,” he declares.
Not even Tetris.
Tetris was gone. Life improved immediately.
De Souza, it seems, was corrupted by Tetris when he went off on his own to Queen’s University.
“It would not be fair to blame my second-year troubles – my worst academic performance in 12 years of post-secondary education – on Tetris alone, but it was a contributing factor,” he says. “My capacity to waste time with Tetris was prodigious; how many hours were lost is unknown.”
Wouldn’t that be more of a de Souza will-power (or possibly won’t-power) than Tetris video game problem?
Then one day – “several months too late” – he deleted it. “Tetris was gone. Life improved immediately.”
Since then, says de Souza proudly, he’s never played another video game —- “It’s too dangerous.”
He goes on:
Video games have some kind of addictive allure that means any number of hours is not enough. It is always possible to play again – to rise to that “next level” which somehow acquires near-mystical importance. They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world.
We are told that childhood obesity is on the rise partly because no one seems to walk to school anymore, and no one seems to run around the neighbourhood. Schools in Ontario now mandate 20 minutes of physical activity a day. We used to call that recess. So where are all the kids? Indoors playing video games.
Really?
Not only but also, “Video entertainment is by nature passive. No matter how energetically a child works the controls, all the images and scenarios are provided for him. The elaborate imaginary situations children can create for themselves are literally flattened by the avalanche of images coming their way.
“Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography?” – de Souza asks.
No, he didn’t, and to a limited extent, I’ll go along with that. But that doesn’t mean all video games are dangerous and/or addictive, or anywhere near it.
Liz (my wife) and I, and the other mums and dads we know, keep an eye on what on- and offline video games our kids are playing and if they look dodgy, they don’t get played.
End of story.
So, “This Christmas, do the poor kids of all economic levels a favour: Don’t buy them video games,” he adds.
Damn! (In the non-biblical sense.)
De Souza is chaplain for Newman House, the Catholic chaplaincy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
Also See:
National Post – The crack cocaine of the electronic world, December 13, 2007
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December 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
He is partially right. They are addictive. Now only if only people could come up with better plot-lines…
December 17th, 2007 at 11:02 am
O RLY?
December 17th, 2007 at 11:15 am
What’s funny is that the Bible is full of graphic violence and this asshole doesn’t give a shit about that.
December 17th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
>”a Catholic priest”
Sorry, but if they’re going to be wrong about everything else, I can’t expect them to suddenly start telling it like it is.
Why should I buy anyone anything for Christmas, a holiday (created by pagans) to which the Catholics misapplied Jesus’s name?
Anyway, he blames the game rather than his own inadequacies in fighting the addiction. How absolutely stupid of him.
December 17th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Don’t forget Super Mario Bros, it advocates violence against turtles. Also it teaches kids that flowers will give them the ability to throw fireballs.
What I want to know is how the hell does someone become addicted to tetris?
December 18th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
“What I want to know is how the hell does someone become addicted to tetris?”
If you get addicted to a game as simple as Tetris, I think that speaks a lot for your self-control and mental strength.
December 19th, 2007 at 4:49 am
So, what, if someone somehow tricks him into spending a few minutes in World of Warcraft, he wont be bothering any of us anymore as he will learn what true addiction is, becoming a shivering wretched shadow of his former self? Sounds worth it to me. I know what a special someone is getting from Santa this year. Do you suppose he’ll leave the box somewhere where it will taunt him until he finally caves in, like a heroin addict thats been clean for years deciding that one little fix wont hurt if you put it right in his hand, or do you suppose he’ll throw the box away immediately to avoid all temptation?
December 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
“What’s funny is that the Bible is full of graphic violence and this asshole doesn’t give a shit about that.”
That’s an overstatement at best. There are a few occassions in the Bible where some violence is described graphically, but it obviously isn’t done to tittilate.
Get a life, pal.