Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Here is a good example of our problem as a society...
My nephew is 14-years-old. Since the time he was old enough to speak, he has had some kind of electronic game in his hands, and he literally spends every waking hour, playing or thinking about some video game. He has somehow managed to get through middle school and is now in high school. His older sister and cousins graduated last year, and went on with their chosen career paths, so this has prompted us relatives to query him about his future plans. Of course, he wants to "design video games" but he confides to me, he is not good at math, hates it... and he hates using the keyboard, can't type a lick.
Now, if we are ever invaded by space aliens from another galaxy, and we have developed a joystick-controlled secret death-ray weapon guided via a monitor, I want him at the controls... I want him to be the one shooting them down! He is great at that! But as I tried to explain to my nephew, what he wants to go into, will require him to know and understand math, and be able to efficiently use a keyboard. There is just no way around it, if you want to be a video game designer.
This brings me to our problem. Are my nephew's parents going to push him to bone up on his math? Are they going to make him take the courses to learn keyboard functions and coding formulas required for his chosen field? Nope... they are going to sit on their lazy asses letting him play his games, until he is left behind by those who have a greater motivation to succeed and realize what it takes. As a result, he will most likely never become a video game developer, he will end up working in some trivial low-wage job, or on disability, because he can't function without a video game in his hand.
I am sure this is not an isolated situation, there are many young people out there, who have been spoiled their entire life, and have no clear direction for their future. Teachers and Parents seem to be completely oblivious to this, allowing the "kids to be kids" and not taking a proactive role in developing their future, or helping them to prepare for what they want to do in life. My nephew, if he applied himself and began preparing now, would probably be a phenomenal video game developer. But what he needs is for someone to kick his ass and make him do the hard work now, to prepare him for what he will need to know in the future. No one is willing to do that. Not the schools, not the guidance counselors we're paying for, not his parents.
I believe this is why we currently have an entire generation (or more) of absolute nitwits, who have been spoiled their entire life, who have had no direction or discipline, and who live inside a video game, away from the realities of the rest of the world. Common sense, logic, and reason, don't apply to video games, you can make anything happen to anything. Nothing has to make sense, nothing has to conform to any sense of morals or ethics, and life is but a game. I think since the days of "Dr. Spock", we stopped parenting, and we have been sliding on the slippery slope ever since.
My nephew is 14-years-old. Since the time he was old enough to speak, he has had some kind of electronic game in his hands, and he literally spends every waking hour, playing or thinking about some video game. He has somehow managed to get through middle school and is now in high school. His older sister and cousins graduated last year, and went on with their chosen career paths, so this has prompted us relatives to query him about his future plans. Of course, he wants to "design video games" but he confides to me, he is not good at math, hates it... and he hates using the keyboard, can't type a lick.
Now, if we are ever invaded by space aliens from another galaxy, and we have developed a joystick-controlled secret death-ray weapon guided via a monitor, I want him at the controls... I want him to be the one shooting them down! He is great at that! But as I tried to explain to my nephew, what he wants to go into, will require him to know and understand math, and be able to efficiently use a keyboard. There is just no way around it, if you want to be a video game designer.
This brings me to our problem. Are my nephew's parents going to push him to bone up on his math? Are they going to make him take the courses to learn keyboard functions and coding formulas required for his chosen field? Nope... they are going to sit on their lazy asses letting him play his games, until he is left behind by those who have a greater motivation to succeed and realize what it takes. As a result, he will most likely never become a video game developer, he will end up working in some trivial low-wage job, or on disability, because he can't function without a video game in his hand.
I am sure this is not an isolated situation, there are many young people out there, who have been spoiled their entire life, and have no clear direction for their future. Teachers and Parents seem to be completely oblivious to this, allowing the "kids to be kids" and not taking a proactive role in developing their future, or helping them to prepare for what they want to do in life. My nephew, if he applied himself and began preparing now, would probably be a phenomenal video game developer. But what he needs is for someone to kick his ass and make him do the hard work now, to prepare him for what he will need to know in the future. No one is willing to do that. Not the schools, not the guidance counselors we're paying for, not his parents.
I believe this is why we currently have an entire generation (or more) of absolute nitwits, who have been spoiled their entire life, who have had no direction or discipline, and who live inside a video game, away from the realities of the rest of the world. Common sense, logic, and reason, don't apply to video games, you can make anything happen to anything. Nothing has to make sense, nothing has to conform to any sense of morals or ethics, and life is but a game. I think since the days of "Dr. Spock", we stopped parenting, and we have been sliding on the slippery slope ever since.
