Should video gamers be wary of President-Elect
Obama?
For at least the past four decades, political candidates and government officials (and their spouses) have been slinging blame at the entertainment industry's products (movies, music, video games) for the decaying, lazy, and apathetic aspects of society. For example, in 1985, then-Senator
Al Gore's wife Tipper co-founded the
Parents Music Resource Center and testified before Congress about the negative effects of some popular music on kids. These hearings eventually led to warning labels on albums – not an entirely bad thing, but it was strange to see
Frank Zappa trying to explain his music to a congressional committee.
Today,
video gamers are parsing candidate Barack Obama's words to determine what a President Barack Obama will have to say about the influence of video games on people's lives. Obama has said he supports controls for both television and video games and that if the video game industry didn't improve its voluntary rating system, "then [his] administration would."
In campaign
speeches to parent groups and educational organizations, Obama often told the crowds "There is no policy or program that can substitute for a parent who ... is willing to turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child, or help with homework."
Overall, for a candidate who so successfully harnessed the power of the Internet, social networking and even gaming (he purchased
advertising time on Xbox live games), Obama seems to understand the potential for technology and entertainment to distract kids from learning – and to allow parents to abdicate some responsibility, such as when he told the American Library Association that we have "a general culture that glorifies anti-intellectualism."
He cautioned that "it's too easy for the rest of us to make excuses for it - pretending that putting a baby in front of a DVD is educational, letting a 12-year-old skip reading as long as he's playing good video games, or substituting dinner in front of the TV for family conversation."
As much as we love gaming, maybe it is time to talk a walk outside? As the Nature Conservancy pointed out early this year, fewer Americans are visiting national parks each year -- and much of
the decline is due to video games.
So when you're done reading and commenting on this post, go get some fresh air. [Source:
New York Times.]
Brutal honesty here: on election day this past November, the entire Engadget staff (well, those of us with US passports) collectively agreed that casting our vote via SMS or some other incredibly simple method would be infinitely more awesome than trudging out in the streets and waiting in hour-long lines. Clearly, some higher-ups in Estonia are on board with that concept, as its Parliament has approved a law that will likely make it the first nation on Planet Earth to give citizens the right to vote by phone in something that matters (American Idol notwithstanding). 'Course, those who choose to take advantage must first obtain a free authorization chip for their handset, which sort of kills the whole "not having to leave your house" aspect of all this. Ah well, at least we're moving in the right direction.
For all of the 
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