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The writing is on the wall - computer games rot the brain
It’s the snarl that gives the game away. It’s the sobbing and the shrieking and the horrible pleading — that’s how you know your children are undergoing a sudden narcotic withdrawal. As the strobing colours die away and the screen goes black, you listen to the wail of protest from the offspring and you know that you have just turned off their drug, and you know that, to a greater or lesser extent, they are addicts.
Some children have it bad. Some are miraculously unaffected. But millions of seven- to 15-year-olds are hooked, especially boys, and it is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo. It is time to garrotte the Game Boy and paralyse the PlayStation, and it is about time, as a society, that we admitted the catastrophic effect these blasted gizmos are having on the literacy and the prospects of young males.
It was among the first acts of the Labour Government to institute a universal “literacy” hour in primary schools; and yet, in the six years following 1997, the numbers of young children who said that they didn’t like reading rose from 23 per cent to 35 per cent. In spite of all our cash and effort, the surveys increasingly show that children (especially boys) regard reading as a chore, something that needs to be accomplished for the sake of passing tests, not as a joy in itself. It is a disaster, and I refuse to believe that these hypnotic little machines are innocent.
We demand that teachers provide our children with reading skills; we expect the schools to fill them with a love of books; and yet at home we let them slump in front of the consoles. We get on with our hedonistic 21st-century lives while in some other room the nippers are bleeping and zapping in speechless rapture, their passive faces washed in explosions and gore. They sit for so long that their souls seem to have been sucked down the cathode ray tube.
They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious. These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory — though some of them may cunningly pretend to be educational. I have just watched an 11-year-old play a game that looked fairly historical, on the packet. Your average guilt-ridden parent might assume that it taught the child something about the Vikings and medieval siege warfare.
Phooey! The red soldiers robotically slaughtered the white soldiers, and then they did it again, that was it. Everything was programmed, spoon-fed, immediate — and endlessly showering the player with undeserved praise, richly congratulating him for his bogus massacres. The more addictive these games are to the male mind, the more difficult it is to persuade boys to read books; and that is why it is no comfort that Britain has more computer games per household than any other EU country, and, even though they are wince-makingly expensive, an amazing 89 per cent of British households with children now boast a games console, with distribution right across the socio-economic groups.
Every child must have one, and what we fail to grasp is that these possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty. It hardly matters how much cash we pour into reading in schools if there is no culture of reading at home; and the consequences of this failure to read can be seen throughout the education system.
Huge numbers are still leaving primary school in a state of functional illiteracy, with 44 per cent unable either to read, write or do basic sums. By the age of 14, there are still 40 per cent whose literacy or numeracy is not up to the expected standard, and a large proportion of the effort at Further Education colleges (about 20 per cent) is devoted to remedial reading and writing. Even at university, there are now terrifying numbers of students who cannot express themselves in the kind of clear, logical English required for an essay, and in many important respects if you can’t write, you can’t think. The Royal Literary Fund has, in the past few years, done a wonderful job of establishing Writing Fellows at our universities, offering therapy for those who can’t put their thoughts on paper; and yet the fund admits that the scale of the problem is quite beyond its abilities.
It is a shock, arriving at university, and being asked to compose an essay of a couple of thousand words, and then discovering that you can’t do it; and this demoralisation is a major cause of dropping-out. It’s not that the students lack the brains; the raw circuitry is better than ever. It’s the software that’s the problem. They have not been properly programmed, because they have not read enough. The only way to learn to write is to be forced time and again to articulate your own thoughts in your own words, and you haven’t a hope of doing this if you haven’t read enough to absorb the basic elements of vocabulary, grammar, rhythm, style and structure; and young males in particular won’t read enough if we continually capitulate and let them fritter their lives away in front of these drivelling machines.
Gordon Brown proposed in his Pre-Budget Report to spend £2,000 per head on improving the reading of six-year-old boys. That is all well and good, especially when you consider that the cost of remedial English in secondary school soars to £50,000 per head. But it would be cheaper and possibly more effective if we all — politicians, parents, whoever — had the nerve to crack down on this electronic opiate.
So I say now: stop just lying there in your post-Christmas state of crapulous indifference. Get up off the sofa. Can the DVD of Desperate Housewives, and go to where your children are sitting in auto-lobotomy in front of the console.
Summon up all your strength, all your courage. Steel yourself for the screams and yank out that plug.
And if they still kick up a fuss, then get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy.
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I speak as one who, for three months, was so seriously addicted to Electro Freddy, Boris, that zapping Freddy replaced almost all other forms of enjoyment.
And of course it didn’t stop there. Freddy was simply the slippery slope down which I slithered towards a compulsive obsession with finding the 12 magic tokens which would destroy the Evil Necromancer, free the princess, and light up my name - My Name - in eye twitching, pulsating, glory on the Last Screen Of All.
Thankfully there was an end to it all. The demise of the necromancer cured me of my obsession with gaming. Once I reached that final glorious ending, no other game could ever hold me in its thrall again.
So, I’m sorry to have to break it to you, Boris, that I’m on your boys side on this one. They aren’t the ones with the problem, it’s you with the problem, you are displaying symptons of technophobia 
It isn’t games that damage our children’s minds, it’s our failure to spend time with our children. Games are not damaging - they’re ace, Boris!
So, go, Boris juniors, kill all of the virtual baddies - and give ‘em one for Auntie Flo’!
And one last point.
Combined Middle East debate
4,347,884 page impressions
Pope meets Muslim envoys: Your reaction
1,401,281
Muslim cartoon row: your reaction
1,331,356
Richard Hammond: Your messages
1,543,503
Would removing veils improve community relations?
778,782
Have UK airport delays affected you?
1,323,031
Your reaction to death of Steve Irwin
827,125
What are your views on the Israeli action in Gaza?
388,017
Can North Korea be restrained?
288,087
Should Iran develop nuclear energy?
422,153
The above listing of debates ranked by poplarity is currently displayed on the BBC’s ‘Have Your Say’ forum. If technology enabled that level of political interaction, then - aside from power crazed politicians like Blair & co subverting it - what do we have to be afraid of?
Make them play games like Football Manager. The sheer amount of numbers that must be juggled to be at all successful in that sort of game make them far from mind-rotting.
Sounds like somebody’s got buyer’s remorse after Christmas. It’s not too late, Boris: book stores have sales all this week!
Ho,ho,ho! Father Christmas here. Out of work for another year and Mrs Christmas suggesting Prozac for my depression. It’s not just the out of work worry but the realisation that I, personally, have delivered thousands of Nintendo mind-numbers to frizzle the brains of innocents. I’m sure, dear Boris, that, as a good journo, you felt forced to focus on just one aspect of the Playstation plague - namely its influence on illiteracy in young Brits. However, the less informed of your readers really ought to be made aware that in-depth research (details vailable) has proved conclusively that these so called ‘toys’ contribute greatly to aggressive behaviour in boys (who develop a liking for killing but don’t want to go to Iraq and get killed). Yours S. Claus (aka St Nicholas)
If games consoles are reducing our literacy, is word processing software diminishing our ability to spell correctly? What about mobile telephones, does our reliance on them prevent our being able to remember telephone numbers? Is increasing reliance on technology making us less reliant on our own abilities? I think it is.
If there’s one thing to be said for games consoles, it’s a very cheap form of entertainment compared to more active passtimes. A good fishing session costs a fortune in tackle and bait these days. Playing cricket on a Saturday ends up costing at least forty quid by the time you’ve paid your match fee, travel costs and had a good drink with the lads afterwards.
The cost of taking up rally driving or running a fast car exceeds the means of most people, but playing racing games does not. Participating in adventure sports doesn’t exactly come cheap and a weeks skiing will set you back the best part of a grand. Video games might make people fat and stupid but they are a cheap form of entertainment that appeals to the masses.
I don’t doubt that reading books and riding bikes is better for kids than shooting virtual bad guys but I can’t see things changing in the near future. A generation of parents that likes these games as much as their kids is springing up, things will get worse before they get better. They might go out of fashion one day, when playing shoot-em-ups is something that Grandad does.
Another thing, whatever happened to virtual reality?
Could not agree more. Computers have the ability to turn a normal, polite and chatty seven year old into an obnoxious, monosylabic teenage boy in seconds, as I found out this Christmas. They drain children of an imagination and help the boundaries of right and wrong become blurred. The love of reading is a wonderful gift and we should be doing all we can to ensure that children grow up with this gift. A good book can make the past come alive for a child far more than any computer game can. A well written book will transport the reader across the world and across the centuries, how tragic that we are allowing our children to loose this.
I’m with Flo’ on this. I’ve been hooked on Tomb Raider for years (which reminds me that I have the latest copy still unplayed). If nothing else, it’s great to chase Lara Croft down long corridors. I’m still rather sorry that in the very first game I played, the only way I knew how to end the game was, sadly, to drown her in a swimming pool.
The only ill-effects I’ve ever suffered from playing computer games has been from playing a Grand Prix racing game all day one day, and then climbing into my real car. Unfortunately, playing Grand Prix had reprogrammmed me to drive into corners at high speeds, brake hard, and turn the wheel sharply. On the short journey that I took that evening in my real car, the result was that I mounted and drove over a roundabout, and about a mile later spun the car through 90 degrees.
Tomb Raider has no such ill effects. It requires the application of no little intelligence, coordination, spacial awareness, and indeed sometimes even a little courage. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
On a darker note, I’ve just been through the experience of having BBC News 24 first announce that Saddam Hussein was about to be executed in the next half hour, and to then report that he had been executed. The result was that I was thinking about Saddam Hussein while he was being hanged.
Did I feel happy? No. I thought his trial was a farce. And his sudden, rushed execution has been its unsurprisingly botched culmination. It will be understood, and perhaps be intended to be understood, as the execution of a Muslim by Christians on the dawn of Eid.
What comes to mind somehow is Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, who was executed there in 1946. At least one person wept on the occasion, simply because Auschwitz had claimed yet another life that day.
You’re making the mistake here of tarring all video games with the same brush. You’ve tried to argue against the first-person shooter genre with a lot of rhetoric and not many facts, but it reads like you’ve had experience of playing games only by proxy. ” I have just watched an 11-year-old play a game” - but did you ever try playing it for yourself?
They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious.
Then might I suggest a Nintendo Wii and a copy of Wii Sports? This has been a big hit with my family this Christmas, and it’s the first time that my brothers, my uncle and my grandpa have all played the same game together in the living room.
These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory — though some of them may cunningly pretend to be educational.
Try playing through a Legend of Zelda game without basic literacy. You can’t, because you’re required to read virtually all the way through or you won’t understand what to do in even the early stages of the game. You will also need good problem solving skills later on in the game. Now, I’m not claiming to know what I’m talking about here, but I’d wager that one Legend of Zelda game will teach more about problem solving than your Classics degree ever did.
And I think that’s part of your problem. You’re approaching the problem of declining literacy from the point of view of somebody with experience of a Classics degree. You know what skills are required for that particular course. But in a more scientific course, reading novels will only do so much to prepare you for the kind of technical writing that will be expected of you, and will leave you woefully unprepared for the kind of teamwork and problem solving that will be required.
Yes, reading has become something that is competing with TV and video games for young people’s attention, but is the solution really to stop them from playing? I think part of the problem is the attitude towards reading that is prevalent in schools. There’s no attempt to find out what children actually like to read on an individual basis and then find other books that would interest them. In fact, the situation is virtually the opposite - when I was studying Standard Grade English, the Point Horror books were a big hit with people my age, and more of us were reading voluntarily than ever before. When it came time to choose a book to study, Point Horror books were explicitly banned. I’d imagine that the same is happening with the Harry Potter books today. Instead, children are being told to read Shakespeare in schools - no wonder they’re being put off!
I’m currently reading my way through Iain Banks’ sci-fi series of books, and I can’t get enough of them. The sheer imagination involved in constructing the worlds in which the stories are set has me captivated. Now, if my temperament for reading was being assessed on one of Banks’ ‘literary fiction’ novels, I would have been classed as one of your video game playing zombies, my brain rotted by the glow of the television screen. The fact is that I think that Banks’ literary fiction is complete and utter drivel, and more of an exercise in literary masturbation than a serious attempt to tell a story. It’s not that I don’t like reading, it’s just that I was reading the wrong books.
And I think that’s the problem. From the start of this article you’ve taken your fat, tar-soaked brush to everything from children’s preferences in books, to the educational worth of video games, to the literary requirements of university. Try getting a broader view before forming opinions next time.
I did a science degree and I found that the fact that I am an avid reader helped me a lot when it came to writing. Good writing is good writing whether it is technical or not. When one looks at the grades of students who read a lot and students who only read when they have to there is a big difference in the quality of their writing.
You come up with absurd allocations that computer games have a direct correlation to children and adults literacy level where is the proof you just pull figures out of your hat and claim them to be true .
I agree with Jack Target’s reply.
I’m certain that playing Strategy/Trading/Action Games on my Spectrum in the early 90’s helped develop my decision making, information retention and fine motor co-ordination skills.
I think it is a case of all things in moderation being good. For example, my 4 year old son is able to control a car around a race track on the computer. For Christmas, we bought him a scalextric set and he immediately was able to have the cars whizzing round without them falling off the track. He knew not to go to fast, he co-ordinated going faster in the straights and slower round the corners. This annoyed is 9 year old sister, who came off around almost every corner. His older sister isn’t interested in the computer car racing game. His interest and participation has improved his skills in that area.
I still believe their time on the computer should be limited, just as I believe it would be wrong to force them to participate excessively in any sport (my son can be a pro footballer if he wants but I would worry if he spent all his spare time training to the exclusion of all other activities).
I disagree with “The writing is on the wall - computer games rot the brain”, I would agree with “The writing is on the wall - excessive participation in singular activities may be detrimental to balanced development”. Mind you, I like your title more in that it will get more reader attention.
k - I too did a science degree and agree with you completely.
I too bought my soon-to-be-seven year old a computer game (on TV) and it’s still in the box. His favourite toys have ben a huge crayon full of paper and pens, his sisters Leap Pad, his Thomas the Tank Engine annual and a new DVD player for his dinosaur films.
< When one looks at the grades of students who read a lot and students who only read when they have to there is a big difference in the quality of their writing (K)<
How did you work this one out? Are you saying reading lots of books is a sign of a superior academic ability? I remember several obessive readers from school and university. I can’t however remember there being any correlation between the amount of books they read and what grades they got.
Yes, reading lots of books (and no, the fear street novels do not count if one is over the age of thirteen) tends to be sign of superior academic ability, but not always superior intelligence. When at university the friends I knew who read avidly got much better grades for written work than those who did not and they tended to enjoy their work a great deal more, whereas those who did not read for pleasure tended to find researching and writing essays a struggle (I know intelligent final year and masters students like this, who still resort to copying and pasting sections of their essays from the internet and then paraphrasing it). Perhaps, the difference in grades is a relativly recent occurance, due to the increase in coursework that students are required to do and the decrease in the importance of examinations.
So what then does blogging count as? Is blogging a brain-rotting bad habit or an educational activity? I’d say it’s addictive, serves little useful purpose and that there are far more constructive things one could do with ones time.
Would the five minutes I’ve just spent writing this post have been better used swotting up about something on Wikipedia instead?
Well as wikipedia is unregulated and anyone can put anything up, I would not advise using it as a revision source. But, seriously, these sort of blog sites are great for talking to a greater diversity of people than I would normally discuss politics with. Take raincoaster, apart from the fact she lives in Canada, the fact that she is an anarchist/communist whereas I am a conservative means that in real life we would probably not really ever talk about anything. Whereas on this blogsite we can have civilised debates and see other points of view to a much greater extent. I think of this blogsite as an interesting educational tool as much as anything else.
< Well as wikipedia is unregulated and anyone can put anything up, I would not advise using it as a revision source.(k)<
In this respect books are also unregulated, anyone can write a book, anyone can set up a publishing company. At least wikipedia is referenced, unlike newspapers, which are often used as sources of information during these debates. I find you can learn a lot flicking through wikipedia when you’re bored.
I can’t see how reading about a historical event, a famous person or an area of politics on wikipedia is any less reliable than picking up a paperback in Waterstones. The fact that people can add their points of view to the article must surely be an advantage over a book, which often merely articulates the authors’ own points of view.
In terms of academia recommended texts vary greatly from lecturer to lecturer, from establishment to establishment. I’ve even heard of one lecturer that made his students buy his own book at fifty quid a copy. Nice work if you can get it. In fact with Boris being something of a bookseller himself, perhaps there could be an ulterior motive to this rant against the video game.
Steven_L - Boris doesn’t charge us to come here. But I agree that Wiki is an interesting and valuable source of information that is regulated under strict rules. The fact that anyone can contribute tends to mean that rubbish is disposed of rather than distributed unchallenged.
I’m a Wiki fan too. I regularly read articles on topics that I know quite a bit about looking for some specific information. I was about to say that I rarely find any information that’s incorrect to my knowledge, but in fact I don’t think I’ve EVER found incorrect information on it.
Someone I know is a professor at UCL. For years she was part of the academic gang who hate Wikipedia, forcing students to re-submit essays that cited Wikipedia as a source. Recently however, she actually looked at it, again initially in subjects in which she is highly expert. Since the articles were comprehensive, unbiased, and often more well-written than most of the academic books she reads, she softened somewhat to it. Of course it is still not a valid source, but is superb for background reading.
Boris, Boris, Boris. I think you’re a very funny guy and refreshingly frank and sincere (from what I see of you on the telly anyway). But your article is total garbage. Okay, not TOTAL garbage, but is typical of the views of someone who has barely picked up a control pad in their life.
Yes, far too many games are rubbish - mindless, unoriginal and, as a result, forgettable. Far too many games are violent too (not that I want to get into the argument of whether violent games make the player develop violent tendencies, as I believe games help me LET OUT my aggression..). But exactly the same is true of films too. And music.
But there are games that involve huge levels of tactical thinking and problem solving, as other commenters have alluded to. Also pretty much all games encourage coordination of many forms.
On top of this some games (though far too few as I mentioned previously) have fantastic storylines, utterly memorable characters, and just generally provide an honestly deep and memorable experience.
Take, Metal Gear Solid, as an example. It blew me away. Really it did. The storyline, with shocking twists and turns, combined with the fantastic musical score, the thumping atmosphere, the brilliant, deep and varied characters, and the important message it tries to convey, provide an experience that I will never ever forget.
Yes it may be old now - the graphics compared to games today are terrible, and the gameplay mechanics are creaking with age (both no fault of the game, merely time) - but there’s so much more to it than pretty colours and blowing people up.
It’s deeper and (for me) more enjoyable and memorable (by far) than any film or book I’ve ever seen or read.
Anyway not to rant on, but Boris perhaps you should try playing games before you form an opinion on them. And if you do (not that you will) make sure it’s not one that your young nephew recommends or it will only serve to reinforce your premature suspicions.
I recommend:
Final Fantasy 7
Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
Warcraft III
Civilisation IV
Neverwinter Nights
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
And specially for you Boris:
Rome: Total War
Why does reading a book become a better use of your time then playing a game? Studies have shown that games have extremely complex storylines, require problem solving skills, forward-thinking, spacial awareness, advanced risk/reward strategies and some of the most impressive storylines of all entertainment medium.
I remember AA GIll saying people who disregard tv as worse than books (blaming poor quality tv etc.) are tv-illiterate. I rather fear you may be game-illiterate.
Sit and read a book and a wonderful story is presented to you, you can learn, you can be excited and you can be amazed by the beautiful prose that writers bring us. Play a good game and you not only watch a story you take part, you shape that story, you work things out, you uncover secrets and beat challenges along the way.
I don’t make the mistake of disregarding books Boris, because they are wonderful things capable of keeping me up until 4am and making me late for work (darn you Keith Waterhouse), but I also don’t make the mistake of disregarding computer games based on very dubious lazy notions that somehow equate reading as infinitely more valuable than playing.
Read some Mills & Boon then play Call of Duty and tell me which is better both in terms of entertainment, education, improvement of ones mind. Because I know which I would prefer my children to experience…
Thanks Boris.
On balance I think it is inevitable that to help our kids connect with a diverse group of peers, now and in later life, there needs to be some ‘console time’.
I have suggested the ’sledgehammer’ option on several occasions, so am grateful for the endorsement here which I will frame and keep handy for the next time …
k said: (hear! hear!)
>on this blogsite we can have civilised debates and see other points of view to a much greater extent. I think of this blogsite as an interesting educational tool as much as anything else.
What might those who are playing computer games be doing if they were not playing games? Makes me shudder to think about it. With religion in terminal decline, we need to have some way of keeping the proles occupied. Computer games appear to fit the bill.
we need to have some way of keeping the proles occupied. Computer games appear to fit the bill. Mike H
What a pathetic remark. You aren’t my last ex-husband are you? Because you sound just like that miserable, jumped up little snob.
Sorry Auntie F that I have given offence. I thought I would be among like minded people here:-)
There is a serious point though. The Romans had their gladiatorial games to keep the people’s minds off other things. Rather similar to computer games in a way - particularly in the way they needed to get more and more gory to keep the “viewers” interested. Religion was a useful controlling force for quite a while but is now on the wane. What next? Boris is right in that they are brain rotting but so was religion and the Coliseum.
I don’t think we have been married yet but who knows what 2007 will bring. Have a good one everyone.
Uncritical belief? Which is what it is for many, but of course not for all; and not all will get their minds putrefied by computer games, but many will.
I wonder if people were afraid that books would rot away the great aural tradition of culture that existed before their invention. They have certianly been considered dangerous in much the same way as new media and games are practising using it.
Mrs . N refers to my blogging activities as “Playing” . I `m not at all sure it is much else
Reading the Guardian yesterday (is one allowed to admit that here?) I came across this:
“Coleridge divided readers into four types: the best were “Moghul diamonds” who “profit by what they read and enable others to profit by it too”; “Sand-glasses” remember nothing of what they read and only do it to get through the time; “Strain-bags” remember “merely the dregs of what they read”; “sponges absorb all they read and return it nearly in the same state only a little dirtier”.”
I feel that most readers of books in the modern world are sand glasses. However it keeps them, and me, out of trouble and so is probably good thing - perhaps like blogging. Wasn’t the big worry about books a control issue? - that they would allow the people to be privy to what the first estate regarded as their privileged knowledge - rather like the Internet today. However I think it would be fair to say that at least 95 percent of the printed word is just fodder for the sand-glasses. With the electronic word on the Internet it is probably much higher but it keeps us out of mischief.
My point? I think I was just squeezing out the sponge.
So, Boris, can I sign you up for my Campaign for the Abolition of TV Advertising to Children? You could be the third member.
May I suggest that all those who roundly condemn this article read it again. He is talking specifically about Nintendo, Game Boy and Play Stations - video game consoles, not PC-based strategy games.
The slightly hysterical tone of some contributors reminds me of the smoking thread on BJ’s forum, except the latter is more reasoned and analytical. You guys aren’t addicted, by any chance?
Like you, Flo, I was once hooked on a shoot-em-up game when the machines were in their infancy (and I was not). This one, set in a table-top, had been installed in a pub in Wales where we were on holiday. It was so addictive that I spent every available minute crouched over the damn thing, firing missiles at the grimblies as they marched across the screen then, when they were all gone, feeding it with cash for the next fix. I can’t say it ruined the holiday but can understand why the family were cheesed off.
Since then, I have given these games wide berth and was delighted when the headmaster at my sons’ school announced he was banning GameBoys from the school grounds. Every other parent, without exception, supported the move.
The marketeers at Sony and co know what they’re doing. It’s no secret that games are developed and honed for their ability to get children hooked, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5191678.stm
Of course we can’t de-invent them. But that’s a feeble excuse for letting children zombify themselves.
Conservatives are being asked to be modern and to jettison imaginings of a forgotten golden Eden . Sometimes I wonder why exactly .Many things are getting worse and see no reason not to wish them restored to their former glory . This computer games thingymabob however is pure filler . Boris isn’t allowed to aim his fork at the plump juicy steak of the EU and so he scavenges , not unlike a mangy cur, around the bones beneath the table . Literacy levels have nothing whatsoever to do with computer games , they are not having any effect in Asia or India , the reverse if anything . Naturally you can engage in pointless repetitive activities using computers . More pointless than chess , more pointless than dominos , drafts , bridge , football ,golf , fishing …..and so on . Clearly not and I remain hooked to some of these
It is this sort of dislike for the modern that does make the Conservative Party with its average age above 60 a laughing stock. There are real problems to be addressed. The collapse of the educational system caused largely by years of listening to the NUT and the teaching colleges. The destruction of the working class communities within which life was once ordered for the majority . The poisonous effects of the benefits system that has , in turn destroyed the low income family .
Look at who is failing , white working class boys . The privileged are learning to read just fine , they are piercing their stomachs , walking like pimps , listening to hip hop , playing computer games and in may ways annoying their parents , no doubt . They will still collect qualifications and be fine .
I feel Sorry for Boris ,he is denied access to the large issues of the day and I commend his attempt to sneak a little sense over the closed Cameroon border. In this case he is appealing to the worst and least attractive foibles of the curmudgeonly old .
(At 43 I am something of Peter Pan figure and will not admit to being old for decades to come . )
Idlex said
Did I feel happy? No. I thought his trial was a farce. And his sudden, rushed execution has been its unsurprisingly botched culmination
He deserved to die and he is dead. In this way the “farce” of justice in Iraq is immeasurably superior to the convenient fiction of justice we put up with .There are forty , or so , prisoners in this country who will never be released. Rose West is the most famous and all should be executed . In this way we will all be aware of what death is and the appalling crime that is murder , it should be in public and we should all have to face the moral decision we are complicit in.
Love , sympathy and pity are evils without justice . Justice comes first and I do not believe the emphasis on Love that Jesus brought to the Jewish tradition was ever intended to be though of as outside that governing context.
Rose West is the most famous and all should be executed . In this way we will all be aware of what death is and the appalling crime that is murder… (newmania)
So, in order to make people aware of the appalling crime that is murder, we should judicially murder Rose West?
Rose West is the most famous and all should be executed . In this way we will all be aware of what death is and the appalling crime that is murder… (newmania)
So, in order to make people aware of the appalling crime that is murder, we should judicially murder Rose West? (idlex)
Well said idlex!
Not well said Idlex .There are levels of knowing Looking and seeing , recall and memory to some there is no difference but there are profound differences We know we will not live forever and yet we spend out time lost in the modern illusion of immortality the physical reality of death is hidden , tidied away and this is part of the ubiquitous superficiality of modern preoccupations .
We know that murder is bad but an imaginative empathy with the victim cannot be attained without the greatest effort . We would rather not make that effort we would rather the outcome was tidies away into a room where we cannot see it . The dead cannot complain and the families of the dead can do little .
This is convenient, actually it is cheap , and it is wrong .
I do not seriously expect capital punishment to be brought back to this country despite the clear wish of the majority that it should be .I have however found it amusing that the worst thing about killing Saddaam , it would appear , is that we have “seen ” it . In this I see an echo of the moral malaise of this country from which much else follows.
It isn’t right but it seems to make everyone comfortable (temporarily) .Exactly what I detest about Tony Blair. Killing a person who deserves to be dead is an unpleasant duty not a vicious or barbaric act. It is an expression of love.
Having concluded the debate and knocked Idlex into a cocked hat I will be returning to gags and smutty innuendo post haste . I `m afraid none of you will ever be as good and fine a human being as me !!(especially Flo)
Sorry Auntie F that I have given offence. I thought I would be among like minded people here (mike H)
No offence taken, mike H. As newmania said when I first joined Boris’s Blog, since we’re both blogging here, we must have something in common. How about mutual detestation of nulab and their corrupt government’s destruction of our freedom, democracy, values and rule of Law? Or our mutual disgust with nulab’s corrosive, near totalitarian, nanny and surveillance state - will that do?
I’m a life long Liberal, Mike H. Though disenchanted with the Lib Dems - thanks to their leftward lurch, betrayal of local community politics and adoration of the corrupt EU. I stuck with the Lib Dems because I could not vote for the divisive policies of the Tories.
It surprised me as much as it does you that your new leader’s liberal Conservatism and winning potential encouraged me to join your party recently. But then look what happened. No sooner did I join than Hilton-Cameron began lurching to the left and all manner of Toynbeesque, spin doctored, rubbish began pouring out of them. Now who do I vote for? I feel cheated and angry, I’d never have joined a party which so mimics nulab. I will certainly not vote for another spin doctored sofa government, one even more utopian and hare brained and with even less sustainable, sunshine rules the day, policies than nulab - which is the direction in which Hilton is dragging the conservatives.
What Hilton and Cameron have failed to grasp is the highly contradictory nature of us lot in the centre - and that Liberals who are disenchanted with the Lib Dems have been shunted to the centre right over the past 10 years by nulab, not to the left. I suspect that the same is true of a majority of those who are disaffected, centre left, nulab supporters. That’s why, given that this must be the most detested government of all time, the Conservatives are not mopping up the support at they should be in the polls.
…and to you Mel
Best Regards
Unimportant member of the aetiolated wraiths encompassed by “and all”
K increase in coursework that students are required to do and the decrease in the importance of examinations.
I recently met someone who was doing an English degree . Having stumbled through one myself ages ago I was staggered at how little she (a mature student) seemed to understand of the subject. Politely enquiring as to what she was actually doing I became aware for the first time of the modular course work system. I am quite obviously . not half as clever as I like to think but I am pretty certain I could get through such a degree in three months from a standing start. To be fair lets say History or some other soft subject. And then they hand out Firsts. Bitter bitter I know but really , noone has ever obtained a first at my University for English and getting through at all was not accomplished by half the course. Are degrees now as worthless as A levels ? You are young and sprightly , I think , do tell .
Love , sympathy and pity are evils without justice . Justice comes first - newmania
Justice is returning like-for-like newmania. For example executing a person for committing murder. However by definition that is also turning us into complicit murderers, like-for-like remember.
What Hilton and Cameron have failed to grasp is the highly contradictory nature of us lot in the centre -
Yes Flo I think there is definitely something in that . Where the fissure opens up for me is that the by reason of never having to have policies the Liberal Party has become a home for refugees from political reality and a host of shallow attitudes ..can you imagine what the kumquat drizzled offals at Islington`s bleeding edge are like . The Conservative Party has come to stand not just for certain political views but for honest politics itself . It is this moral and personal gulf between the forces of hell (Liberals) and the glittering knights of justice (Conservatives) that strikes one .
definition that is also turning us into complicit murderers, like-for-like remember.
No it isn’t JT ? If I imprison someone am I a kidnapper . No , of course not.
Justice has been pictured a set of scales and while it may not be a perfect model it has some merit which you might acknowledge. All you offer is a wallow in self serving empathy . Enjoy your warm bath while “Ye lovers (of justice) bathen in gladnesse” .
I am resolved to improve you in 2007 , it is my burden
There are levels of knowing Looking and seeing , recall and memory to some there is no difference but there are profound differences We know we will not live forever and yet we spend out time lost in the modern illusion of immortality the physical reality of death is hidden , tidied away and this is part of the ubiquitous superficiality of modern preoccupations . (newmania)
I’ve been re-reading the above passage for about 10 minutes trying to make sense of it - unsuccessfully.
Justice has been pictured a set of scales and while it may not be a perfect model it has some merit…
Well, that’s a start, I suppose. Do you have any further thoughts on justice, other than a vague image of a set of scales?
Newmania, you choose a particularly poor example in calling for Rose West to hang. Why her?
Punishment? She’s getting that already. She might even prefer death to her miserable, drawn-out existence as a universal figure of hate. Her husband certainly did. And God only knows what her fellow inmates are dishing out as “punishment”.
Retribution? She has done nothing to hurt me personally, unless you want to quote John Donne. Sorry if that sounds glib but her crimes are not in the same league as Saddam’s. I can understand why millions of Iraqis want to see the bugger swing in revenge for the suffering he has brought upon them, their families, their friends and compatriots. Rose West? She’s a one-off, plain nuts.
Deterrent? Oh yes, there must be scores of British women thinking “Goodee, we don’t have the death penalty. I’ll just kill a few kids and bury them under the patio before the old man gets home.”
To be honest, I’m torn on the death penalty when it comes to the likes of Saddam. Principles are good but aren’t they all negotiable in extreme circumstances? Take two examples:
Scenario 1: You have a gun. You find yourself next to a doctor who is about to pull the plug on a pitifully disabled baby.
Scenario 2: You have a gun. You find yourself with a megalomaniac scientist who is about to press a button that will destroy the entire population of Europe.
In both cases you could intervene. Which one, if either, would you shoot?
And to those who think Saddam should have been spared, who are we to impose our morals on a nation with different values? (many of them, it must be said, rooted in scriptures not entirely dissimilar to those underlying our own Judeo-Christian principles).
And while I’ve got you, Newmania… your comment on the original topic: It is this sort of dislike for the modern that does make the Conservative Party with its average age above 60 a laughing stock.
I hope you’re not having a pop at me for siding with Boris on video games. I may be the wrong side of 40 but as someone who is (rather was, until object oriented programming got the better of me) a fluent programmer in C and Turbo Pascal - entirely self-taught - it’s not exactly a case of “The Rolling who?”.
Boris Boris Boris… I DO like you. But this article is utter pants. No way to react just because you were beaten at PacMan by a six year old this Christmas !
Another thought. Funny, isn’t it, how the bleeding hearts who condemn the Iraqis for stringing up one of their own, in their own country for the gravest offences against their own people, are so forgiving of extreme Muslim behaviour when it’s carried out in our country against our people.
I’ve been re-reading the above passage for about 10 minutes trying to make sense of it - unsuccessfully.
Oh dear .. It is true Idlex I entirely lack your gift for lucidity. Sorry. I think the best plan is to think through ones own thoughts first and write later.Allow me to ponder
Right then admonished by Idlex as obscure and picked on by Paul D I `m rather honoured and I’ve had another go.
Justice is a word for rightness and has no meaning outside system of belief including right and wrong. Such a system may have religious underpinning but it is not necessary. The wish for and sense of good is in our hearts whether or not God put it there .
An injustice or crime , imbalances the “Scales of Justice “. Our wish for goodness makes us want to correct this balance and the meaning of the traditional Scales is the difficulty of weighing and measuring this response . It does not mean it is easy to decide ; quite the reverse . If we do not allow this model though , we are left with “convenience “. In that case all those I dislike may expect to be bagged up and fed to the pigs by tomorrow . Why not , if there is no such thing as justice ?
Justice cannot be disassociated from revenge although the distaste for it is a real problem( the “deeds creature” problem of Hamlet). In the case of murder it is the revenge taken by the living in behalf of the dead. Like all revenge it is prompted by love and respect for the victim. I have a parable ..(it was only a matter of time …….)
Hundreds of years ago in the Village of D nestled in loamy D shire a good man lived and by his work acquired a small cottage . A bad man seeing this thought that the world would suit him better rearranged a little . He killed Good man and occupied his house .The villager’s first instinct was to drag him from his bed and after public torture and humiliation, so all should know ,dispatch him to hell. Bad man was a clever arguer though .He made suggestions that troubled them .
” Retribution , he sneered , why ? I have done you no personal harm and Good man cannot be revived by this means ”
“Listen ” he said as a pitchfork approached his temple “In order to have done this I must surely be mad .I am not responsible and as for deterrent , well it is unlikely anyone else is as mad as me . I can’t see what you gain by any of this ?”
Perhaps it was he screaming of good man’s wife and children ..who knows but still the villagers advance upon bad man…now he began to panic
“Wait wait he pleads at about this time Ghengis Khan is spending happy weeks killing and torturing hundreds of thousands …I mean compared to him I `m really astonishingly moral ”
The villagers appear to agree that this would be convenient , it is after all quite confusing and aside from the growing stench of Goodman’s corpse life would certainly be easier if they forgot about him entirely. As Bad man breathed a sigh of relief however they laughed telling him that it was only a cruel joke and that his soon to be over life held nothing but pain. They did this because they loved and still love Goodman and they cannot abide the injustice.
Same here . Rose West dead , Hussein ..obviously .
In real life we do not know who is Good and who is bad and we resolve this by Jurisprudence in which we seek to recreate impersonal justice in the world . Some things seem clear to me . Death may very well be justice and as such should be available. We are right to worry about weighing the scales and our limited view of what justice is .We are wrong to be so bamboozled that we forget the point and create complexity when there is none . We are wrong to give to much weight to what the murderer has to say because it is “easier”.
The two example you give
1 If it was my child yes
2 Yes
These are personal not judicial judgements though. I would rather both were submitted to law which I may seek to affect as part of Society .
With some relief let me turn to the modernity of Paul D.-Paul you have always struck me as a gorgeous silvery fish flashing in the bright waters of the modern stream . I am a curmudgeonly toad sulking in a muddy hole as it passes me by . I am perfectly happy that the past was in many ways better . I just think that this one (computer games) is irrelevant and silly .
I am 43 and member of the Conservative Party , I only know one computer game , Sims. Hat tip to your IT skills
That was much clearer, newmania. But as you describe it in your story, the death of badman re-balances the scales of justice after his murder of goodman. Allow me to modify the story slightly:
Just when the villagers are about to kill badman, the village idiot intervenes and says, “Wait! Who is going to look after goodman’s wife and children? Who is going to do goodman’s work of hauling water for us from the well?” And as the villagers ponder this, the idiot says, “Why not make badman work to support goodman’s wife and children all their days, and haul water from the well? We cannot bring back goodman, but we can replace him with badman.”
And the villagers think about it, and then they say, “That’s all very well, idiot, but what if badman escapes or refuses to work?” And the idiot replies, “Badman will always drag a ball and chain, and village dogs will soon hunt him down if he escapes. As for whether he will work or not, why not ask him which he prefers?”
And so the villagers ask badman which he would prefer: immediate execution or continued life in the service of goodman’s wife? And badman chooses to live as her servant.
And so badman lives on, working for goodman’s wife, and hauling water from the well. And life in the village continues almost exactly as it did before.
Which is the better justice? That badman simply be killed, or that badman make good the harm he has done?
An afterthought about computer games. Boris wrote up top there:
The only way to learn to write is to be forced time and again to articulate your own thoughts in your own words, and you haven’t a hope of doing this if you haven’t read enough to absorb the basic elements of vocabulary, grammar, rhythm, style and structure; and young males in particular won’t read enough if we continually capitulate and let them fritter their lives away in front of these drivelling machines.
Newmania has just been forced to re-articulate his thoughts with new words of his, and has done so creditably. But hasn’t he done so by playing this online computer game called boris-johnson.com, which has a multi-player text input-output system, some unwritten rules, and a few prizes to be won?
Perhaps we are ourselves “frittering away our lives” playing this game? What sobbing and the shrieking and the horrible pleading would there be if our children marched in and told us to stop playing this infernal Boris Johnson computer game?
Well, that dreadful enforced winter break is over, and chance for me once again to read the outpourings here.
Having not played a computer game since I was very much younger and the original text-only ‘Adventure’ with its maze of twisty litle passages (all alike) was around, I’m probably not the best person to comment, and the fact that I don’t even have a TV either won’t help I guess, but I’d say that televised ’sport’ and the national lottery are the way in which the lower orders are very effectively kept in their place. Video games seem to be less effective, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with a mental age above 21 ever playing them.
newmania what is the point of this justice though? I’m not entirely sure I disagree with you, but this question nags me.
I assume you don’t come from a religion that believes that there actually is a large physics pair of scales somewhere for us to rebalance, and that you’re speaking in metaphor. If so, then why do we try to rebalance them? And more to the point, perhaps the scales are a bad analogy, after all it does rather seem to assume (by rebalancing) that the justice negates the evil. What if it adds to it? I hate to spout children’s cliches at you, but “two wrongs don’t make a right”, and I’m not convinced that executing someone justly isn’t wrong. So again, why should we be just?
Jack . The scales of justice refer particularly to the legal process of seeking fairness in courts as variously conceived, it likens balance to fairness or in our legal system the ubiquitous notions of what reasonable man would think … It is a metaphor for the fine balancing of considerations. As an image of this “human “process it is, of course compromised and slippery in reality but the physical sense of weighing fractional increments of load with infinite care is a model for judgement. It is not a metaphysical metaphor for morality and will not work . Notably as the murder victim remains dead
This picture precedes a age where anyone would have questioned the worth of the endeavour, the existence of justice or the superior claims of comfort ease and convenience. I still do not .
In the case of murder ; the revenge cannot indemnify the bereived and it grievously assaults the revengers soul . It is expensive and may well have a poor effect as well as a deterrent effect. Despite all of this I believe that at times it is right and should be an option. I think it likely that what is right will in the end lead to the greater good but social effects are a secondary issue. All of these problems are large , especially the effect on the revenger and the society that by proxy commits the act. Nonetheless there is right and there is wrong
I have tried to show how to me a sense of right and wrong are all that is required for the rest to follow .You , typically, wonder where such an idea might come from .For the purposes of capital punishment I only asked that its existence might be allowed from experience like the existence of sight .I have previously admitted to you that with no clear faith I am somewhat at sea explaining most of the things in life that are obviously important and true .
Btw I was pleased to see the Bishop of Lichfield support the hanging of Saddam……some cojones left after all ?
What sobbing and the shrieking and the horrible pleading would there be if our children marched in and told us to stop playing this infernal Boris Johnson computer game?
Touché, Idlex. Neat move. However, most web forums aimed at the younger player are unmitigated rubbish written in txt speak (aka fukwit).
I fail to see how the torrent of drivel on these sites “y u 2 disin me wid da evils wen u dun no nufin baht me lol” shows the internet - in that sector anyway - as making anything but a negative contribution to the art of vocabulary, grammar, rhythm, style, structure etc.
At least BJ’s forum can’t be accused of lowering the cybertone.
At least BJ’s forum can’t be accused of lowering the cybertone
It varies
. He is a clever stick that crafty Idlex isn`t he .
“This picture precedes a age where anyone would have questioned the worth of the endeavour, the existence of justice or the superior claims of comfort ease and convenience. I still do not .”
A hundred uncritical Christians might have just noted this and added the following to their arsenal:
“This picture precedes an age where anyone would have questioned the worth of prayer and worship, the existence of God or the supremacy of God over science. I still do not.”
He is a clever stick that crafty Idlex. Indeed, Newmania. But what I want to know is how to win one of these prizes he talks about. What’s on offer? A shiny new Ford Escort? Holiday for two in Old Baghdad? Conducted tour of the Customs & Excise offices?
Politcal figure in negative viewpoint on videogames shocker!
Kids are educated far better now than what they were 40 years ago, before computer games were even invented. Spending time playing games is no different than spending time watching the TV. Shall we try and ban the cinema next?
Boris, you really do not understand computer games and you are of the ilk that never will.
Kids are educated far better now than what they were 40 years ago
Jam, don’t you mean like what they was 40 years ago?
Um I think children are educated far better today than goats were 40 years ago.
On a serious note I’m still trying to get my head around this government initiative!(?)
“Spending time playing games is no different than spending time watching the TV”
TV is awful too! If I had children I would seriously limit the time they spent watching the television and playing video games.
However, I do think video games encourage violence to a much greater extent than television does simply because watching the television is a rather passive activity whereas video games require a much more active participation. i read recently that ps2(I think it was ps2 anyway) had bought out a game where the player played the part of a character that had to kidnap a young girl, sedate her and bury her alive in order to win. This type of game really crosses the line and it is worrying that teenagers will be playing this game.
But what I want to know is how to win one of these prizes he talks about. What’s on offer? (PaulD)
Boris’ books!
I won my first one - 72 Virgins - by claiming the jackpot that Melissa had announced for whoever posted the 200th comment on a thread a couple of years back. To my astonishment, Melissa came good on this, asked for my address, and sent a signed copy of the book, plus a House of Commons diary, and a rather winsome photo of Boris.
The second prize, Boris’ book about Rome, showed up shortly after I’d written a pastiche of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner on Boris’ bicycle collision with a French pedestrian. It began:
It is our Boris Johnson, and he striketh one of three.”
Raincoaster has also been a winner of a book, sent all the way to Canada. And I think a few other people have got them as well. There don’t seem to be any rules about who gets prizes, and it perhaps depends on how many spare copies of Boris’ books are available. But it is a most excellent touch, which I hope Melissa is continuing to exert.
< If I had children I would seriously limit the time they spent watching the television and playing video games (k)<
Thats all well and good provided you can afford to allow them to participate in enough other passtimes to keep them occupied.
When I was a kid my more active hobbies were fishing, playing cricket, playing chess and playing war-games. I played some video games too but was never that obsessed with them. My parents certainly weren’t poor but they weren’t rich enough to feed me, clothe me, buy me fishing gear, give me pocket money to buy my toy soldiers with and keep me kitted out with new cricket gear every time I’d sprung up another few inches and buy me computer games. I couldn’t have everything I wanted all the time, very few people I knew could either.
Then you have the winter months. It gets pretty cold and wet up here, it’s not safe for a 12 year old to go sea fishing on slippery rocks and the trout are out of season. You can’t play cricket in the winter and war-games club and chess club were only once a week. During the winter my friends and I would spend more time playing video games and watching videos. It was inevitable.
It’s all well and good telling kids they can’t watch the television or play computer games but in most peoples’ circumstances what will they do instead? Probably go round their friends house for a game on the Playstation or to watch some video nasties. Would you stop them going round their friends houses too?
Easy, I would get them to read books! Cheap (free from the library), entertaining, educational and they help children to invent their own games.
< Easy, I would get them to read books!(k)<
Reading books is all well and good when you’re on your own, but it’s hardly a social activity is it? When I was a kid I’d play computer games and watch videos with friends. If I had stayed at home reading books all the time I wouldn’t have had any friends.
From what I remember at school reading all the time was synonymous with having no friends. Most people I went to school with would read a bit, some would read more than most. Then there were people who went through their whole school life never once doing anything remotely socialable. Every break-time they would sit indoors reading a book while everyone played and socialised outside.
Just like with video games there has to be a point with reading where it becomes too much. If you read too much as a child at the expense of socialising you surely become unable to interact with the real world and your peers. That must stunt a child emotional growth and confidence in later life. At least video games are competitive and sociable. At least when you sit down to watch a movie with someone you are sharing the same experience.
All things in moderation I say, but I very much doubt a child can be forced to read at the expense of partaking in the activities they want to without it damaging their social skills and confidence.
I am 14 years old (I found this article in a gaming forum) and you could say I fit into the gamer stereotype, I’m not all too athletic, I don’t go out too much, but, I enjoy reading and at the risk of sounding too big headed) I’d say that I’m above average intelligent, and I have found that I have hidden talent for sprinting.
I’ve played Video games since I was 5. They’ve always been part of my life, and they didn’t rot my brain, and now I feel I have an obligation to defend them.
First, I’ll talk about what you labelled (and I suppose correctly) the most violent type of game, the First Person shooter. If an FPS makes you walk outside and massacre those around you, then you seriously need psychiatric help. The FPS is not there to serve any purpose, it is meant to ridiculous fun, and oh my it is. These games are always given age ratings where they are needed, but even still, they do not have an effect on the people who play them, and they aren’t always rampaging kill for kicks games. It’s just fun, and brings out a slightly sadistic side to the player, but at the end of the day, the gamer knows that, it was just a game.
Next, I’ll talk about your comments on reading. it’s not for everyone,, you will never be able to make all little boys read passionately, but, that is because some children just aren’t interested in what most would label, a good book. I wouldn’t say that I am, but recently, I’ve been asking my friends to recommend me books, and I’ve found all of their recommendation’s very enjoyable, I’ve never used my school Library as much as I have in the past few months. What I’m saying is, all you need to do is convince children to at least try, find a book that they can enjoy.
Throughout your article, you basically highlighted the flaws with youths of today and then linked them to videogames with no apparent relevance. Then, you say that they cause poverty. I can tell you, they certainly do not. you pay £200-400 for a new console, but this will happen once every 5 years, not so the companies can leach money from you (but I wont be so naive to say that companies are making games to make us happy, that’s a lie, it’s to make money, they make ss happy so they can make us pay)but so they can introduce a new machine that provides a better experience by taking advantage of new technologies. Speaking of new technologies,let me introduce you to 2 systems, the Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo Wii.
The DS has been available since March in 2005, and has outsold it’s competitor the PSP 2:1. It’s less expensive, has less powerful video cards, but it’s key selling point, is it’s 2 screens, one of which is touch sensitive.
The DS is perfect for everyone, not just children and teenagers, but for adults, people like you who never play videogames. It’s unique control system it’s easy to use and one game in particular, Dr. Kawashimas Brain Training, is made especially for people to sharpen their reflexes, improve their logic and help your memory. In Japan, it has sold millions. At just £99, it’s hardly going to put you on the streets
And the Wii, a new games console, which uses a controller which looks like a TV remote, which senses movement. The Wii is bundled with a game called Wii Sports, featuring basic versions of tennis, baseball, boxing, golf and bowling. To play tennis, you literally, swing the remote to return the ball. In golf, point the remote down, hold down the A button, and swing. In baseball, hold the remote like a bat and swing, or throw (not literally, we don’t want broken remotes!) to throw the ball. It’s fun for everyone, the day I bought it, my Mum and dad had a competition to see who could get the highest score on bowling, and it is exercise. The console is just £180, £90 cheaper than the Xbox 360, and £220 cheaper than the Playstation 3.
Boris, I recommend you buy a Nintendo Wii, if you don’t like it, return it to the store (stock shortages means they’ll definitely take it off your hands!) but I assure you, it will change your opinion of videogames.
Social skills maybe Steven but not confidence. I think confidence has more to do with the reaction of the people around you and is mostly set in one’s formative years. It is a myth, for example, that shy people are quiet. Shy people who lack social confidence are usually the loudest and most animated because they try too hard. Either that or they seek a boost in alcohol which helps present a false image of boisterous, overbearing confidence. The positive reaction of a peer group can go a long way to compensating for an opinion based on others negative reaction, even if that reaction is the indifference of parents or the subtle slights that only parents can give:- ‘oh why can’t you at least try to be like your sister/brother’. So I think it doesn’t matter if a child plays computer games occasionally but that they feel valued and want to be with other people. It is if they are using computers as an escape that is a problem. That and I do think that violent games, as has been pointed out, have an effect on the psyche. But you are right Steven in pointing out that if a person doesn’t have a peer group, they can never gain peer group approval.
I had horses - I brought them oats, they approved. It worked for me! As for warm and cosy support in the horsey world when i was a child… erm, it’s a bit competetive. Raincoaster may confirm that one? But who needs a virtual reality when faced with half a ton of sweating testosterone with a mind of it’s own!
I enjoy reading and at the risk of sounding too big headed) I’d say that I’m above average intelligent (Aranpreet Bhangal)
Good grief. At 14 you have every right to be big headed with a contribution like that. Well done, sir.
As for you, Idlex,
To my astonishment, Melissa came good on this
you’re a loser. I’ll come round yours in the shiny new Ford Escort and explain why.
I got a book from Boris and I attribute it to the sheer volume of words I was shoving in at the time. I have remained in a state of chuffedness ever since.
I suppose everyone but me knows , but has Boris ,in his prestigious position as shadow education minister, had anything much to say about the voucher scheme floated by Nu Lab , the NUT`s ambush of it? What about the current cross party agreement that streaming and selection should be reintroduced. I seriously doubt that computer games have much of a role in this debate which is a strong one for the Blues . It appears that after 40 years it has been accepted that Comprehensive education was a mistake .
“Grammar school education for all ” what a sick joke that is . Now no money and wrong area means you have no chance .
In Northern Ireland 42 % of University entrants come from less privileged backgrounds , here only 28%. 76 % in the ICM poll the other day favoured streaming and importantly as befitting the less academically inclined.
If we are worrying about Literacy we might start there or with the benefits system that has destroyed social structure for the poor . Only 20% of white working class boys get 5 CGSEs A to C level. Its a catastrophe .
What is the blond one saying about it ?Stop playing space invaders ?
14-year-old Aranpreet Bhangal would appear to be the living refutation of Boris’ assertion that you have to read a lot of books and then try very hard to express yourself in your own words. After apparently playing computer games non-stop for 10 years, he has only just discovered his school library, but despite this handicap has today posted a magnificent little essay here.
Either Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training really works, or Mum and Dad helped out a bit with the writing. I suspect Dr Kawashima myself.
And I saw the Nintendo Wii being demonstrated on Newsnight recently, with Pat Cash playing tennis on it. It did seem a truly astonishing innovation.
Melissa, I don’t want to be a loser: can I have a Wii?
The thing is Newmania, is that streaming has been going on in schools. I have spent time in selective schools and comprehensive schools, private and state schools and the one thing they all had in common is that children were split into classes of different abilities.
I thought this was awful for the less able children as they were made to feel like losers by the time they were teenagers. The teachers even made fun of them and were simply not bothered about helping them, but concentrated on pushing the already clever and studious students even further to push the school up the league table. Some schools did this by making the bright students sit their exams a year early (and then again the next year) so they look as if they have got twice the amount of good grades.
This sort of system is a terrible way to educate the less abled or even the less inclined students. If the less abled children had been in a secondary modern type school they would not have been made to feel so stupid (and as such rebel against education) and would have recieved greater attention from the teachers and would do far better. If the abled, but less inclined students had been put in grammer schools they would have been forced to use their intellect and would not give in to peer pressure from less abled friends who feel rejected by the education system.
I got a book from Boris and I attribute it to the sheer volume of words I was shoving in at the time. I have remained in a state of chuffedness ever since. (newmania)
This is the normal way in which Melissa disposes of her enemies.
I am rather a large fan of Boris and read his blog with awe, but this latest post has provoked me to actually make a comment.
I’m twenty and currently studying Business Studies at university. Until last year I was, you could call, addicted to videogames. From watching my father play on the Nintendo Entertainment System to forming a large collection of consoles both retro and modern, hundreds of videogames and related paraphernalia, I have played hundreds, if not thousands of videogames of all different genres and ages.
I have several comments I’d like to bring up on this post. First of all, you appear to be targeting videogames as a sole cause of a childs lack of literacy skills. Whatever happened to the crusade against ceaseless television viewing? Have we decided that this is no longer a problem or is it that videogaming has taken over in terms of popularity?
I also mention this as videogames, as noted so rightly in previous comments, require more interactivity and use of the brain than staring at a television screen. Whilst I agree that some games offer nothing but sadistic pleasures through senseless violence, there are many, many more examples of games that require interaction through reading, solving puzzles, awareness of the environment and many other skills that emulate real life.
I would even argue that videogames teach much more than television shows, films and even some books as they do promote learning of “ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory”.
To claim that some “cunningly pretend to be educational” is very opinionated in a post that is presented as fact. I assume you have never played a videogame in your life, for if you have played as many games as I have, you would surely know that there are educational games. I refer to a previous comment about the exceedingly popular Dr. Kawashimas Brain Training as one example.
So what about the problem with literacy, and how do I feel about it? Despite coming from a broken home and economically challenged background, as most youths who are having problems with education do, I was brought up well by my father. I would choose books over television. I was awarded a scholarship and was educated at a grammar school.
Videogames simply fuelled my passion - and that passion was reading and writing. I would write reviews of games. I learnt some programming languages. When it came to choosing a university course, I even enrolled on a videogame design course. I changed once I’d got to university as my passion for videogames had dwindled and I thought it would create limited opportunities for future careers.
I have got back into reading since coming to university, particularly classics such as “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Dracula”, and of course I own a couple of your books. However, I am absolutely appalled at the standard of literacy here at university. I have flatmates and friends who cannot spell, cannot compose coherent essays and don’t have a book on their shelves. Even some of my tutors only have a basic grasp of how to use the English language.
I want to challenge that literacy levels are falling, but I fear being lambasted for being too young and suffering from “the last generation was better” syndrome. But I’m pretty sure that around sixty years ago, the only pastime was reading.
I just feel a little shocked that Boris has fallen into the trap of creating a correlation between one thing and another before having first hand experience and bonafide facts. Excessive use of videogames may be a contributory factor in dwindling literacy levels, but it most certainly is not a correlative nor the sole factor.
With regards,
Phil
“I have got back into reading since coming to university, particularly classics such as “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Dracula”"
Both good books, but not really university level. I have just graduated and I read both of these book as a young teenager. Citing these as an example of high literacy does rather highlight the decline in educational standards. Sadly Aranpreet Bhangal’s comment highlights this as well and is one of the best arguements I have read for not allowing children to play video games too much.
K -Both good books, but not really university level.
Don`t be such a snob K. It is entirely reasonable both should be studied at University.
Dracula is an interesting example of a book where the character is larger than the literature (like Robinson Crusoe ) this is often true of Gothic romance which can be looked at in term of cultural archetypes. Such books do annoy the “Literary” …so does 1984 , often called adolescent . It is not
I would recommend A “Picture of Tory and Gay “Greg Barkers Autobiography. Ok it isn`t but when he writes one that surely must be the title.
I think you should be forced to read Finnegan’s Wake until you see the error of your ways …AAAAAAAAA !!!!
(Your qualifications are so impressive I like to include them whenever possible )
Newmania,
Ok, fair point studying a them at university is ok since they do tell us a great deal about culture and the evolution of society. But as a book to read rather than study they are not really tough going and are not good books to use when trying to show how computer games do not harm literacy levels.
Saying that though, my reading levels seem to have gone down since I entered my twenties. I have double lined bookcases where I have placed all my “good” books on the outside and all the dog earred Jilly Coopers, Dan Browns and Harry Potters on the inside. The punishment for my snobbery is that each time I try to get one of my hidden books I end up causing an avalanche of “good” books, which are all hardbacked and rather heavy.
Ok, fair point studying a them at university is ok since they do tell us a great deal about culture and the evolution of society.
No “studying them” is not an anthropological expedition across the thin line between the stupid and the clever. These are both excellent books and the fact they are not hard going is one of their qualities. I dread to think what horrors you have inflicted upon yourself K but I do hope you have not confused boring obscure and long winded with “good”Incidentally I don`t mind you applying your critical faculties thusly to me for obvious reasons.
On education the sort of streaming now in place in, a haphazard way is not what is meant. You do not understand the problem. The Middle classes buy education or move. Wrong postcode and no money and you have no chance . Comprehensive schools are worse than the secondary moderns were never mind the Grammars. There is of course a lot to say about this and suffice to say I do not get here out of old Tory prejudice . Quite the reverse.
I suppose you would prefer it if I droned on a bit but I won`t
So you have reached the ripe old age of “your twenties” . …grrrrrrrrr.
Computer games are not a problem as a whole, only certain ones contain this mind-numbing repetition. Typically they’re the ’shoot-em-ups’ (although even they do something for the children’s mental response speed, and their visio-spatial awareness). These types of games are the principal meat of the console market, and admittedly consoles are largely very unhelpful in this regard. But instead of abolishing all computer games, switch the kids to PC games.
PCs are inherently more educational anyway, due to a much more complicated input system, and a more complex operating system. The games on PCs do not lend themselves to simple fighting games, but rather to more complex ones such as Role Playing Games (RPGs) and Real-Time Strategies (RTSs). In RPGs one typically controls one character or a small group of characters, leads them in a long adventure (the one I’m playing now has 11 discs…) collecting goods and improving the characters along the way, and in an RTS one typically builds a nation or army from scratch and coordinates it to some large end (conquering the world, winning a battle, etc.). These two types of games principally encourage two different skills, but are both very useful and sophisticated. RPGs encourage problem-solving, and RTSs encourage strategy and logistics: massive coordination of resources and timing. Both of them encourage quick thinking, retention and swift recollection of large amounts of information, calculation and coordination.
Taking a good example, in “Shogun: Total War” the player conducts two types of game simultaneously, attempting to conquer Japan (often by force, though diplomacy and industry are well represented, and a combination is usually best) and also defending on the battlefield against invading or defending armies. The battle engine is superb, including terrain advantages, lots of unit types, morale, leadership, experience, unit strengths and weaknesses, weather conditions, fatigue, etc. This obviously requires the knowledge and retention of large amounts of information, attempting to coordinate them to best effect and knowing what results certain actions will have in terms of the other variables. In addition the main campaign is educational, at the very least players gain some idea of Japanese geography, and the game is highly historically accurate so hopefully they will learn something from that too. There’s a “Medieval: Total War” too if people think that European geography and history are more useful.
This type of game does not rot the mind.
I was always encouraged to read and did so, and have always been able to write essays. I’ve always liked RPGs and RTSs, and so I’m not entirely sure that my views come from a balanced or comprehensive source! Nonetheless I think there’s nothing wrong with computer games as a whole, but some are clearly much better than others.