Kids & Tech – The Pack of Wild Dogs Syndrome
There’s a school drop-off conversation that keeps popping up over and over lately with the same results. Our young kids are spending more and more time playing video games and we as parents are starting to notice that these electronic universes are having a serious attitude altering effect on them.
When they are stomping through puddles or trashing the house building forts we can see them blowing off steam, having a great time, learning and then coming back afterward feeling relatively calm and ready for a good night’s sleep. When their afternoons are spent eyes locked in tot forward position, glued to video games – even the Wii or XBox Kinect – they turn into a pack of wild dogs that are nearly uncontrollable the instant the screen goes blank.
This isn’t a holier than thou rant. XBox lives at our house and has been known to be the sole source of entertainment on any given afternoon. But, lately, the parents-of-6-year-olds crowd seem to agree on one thing – play dates and afternoons packed with electronic devices are changing our children in unholy sorts of ways.
Whether you are of the mind that video games are where it’s at or would never let your child near them (most folks, like us, I suspect fall somewhere in the middle), it’s a conversation worth having. As we look at the violence in our communities, the youths who are feeling disconnected from their families, the recent deaths of teens by their own hand and a loss of sense of place we begin to look at technology and wonder if it is the culprit.
It seems an easy out – video games make my kid crazy. What can I do? She’s going to play them. Technology is here to stay. I might as well just let her have at it and deal with the consequences as they come. But, I suspect the solution is not that easy – which is the playground conversation I seem to be having with other parents a lot these days.
It’s a mix of a little bit helpless and little bit WTF – like the craziness of Pokemon. You don’t want to ostracize your kid. But, you also don’t want to deal with the unholy wrath of video-game brain after a couple afternoon hours of Star Wars or even seemingly tamer versions of games like Kinectimals (a fave at our house). I loathe video games, but find myself playing Fruit Ninja on the IPad at 11 p.m. when I should be sleeping. If I read a book or listened to some music I sleep better, am far less cranky. Same theory, different human.
I’m not going to be taking the XBox away from our daughter any time soon. But, the one thing we will do is to counteract the crazy town of it all is spend a whole lot more time outside. We’ve been testing the theory lately and the crew of kids and parents out there with us agrees – play dates in the forest, on the farm, by the water, in the back yard produce kids with a much lower angry birds quotient. The other wow in it all is that while I’ve always been a huge fan of getting little kids (0-5) outside like with our NeighbourWood Walks program, I never realized until recently that getting older kids out may be even more profound.
Since our oldest started public school, we’ve found that the time between end of school and dinner is the perfect chance for her and her friends to get out to places in nature that they would otherwise not see. Cooped up in the classroom all day, the kids have come to look forward to the chance to run around in the fields at farms or along the river watching salmon spawn. They watch the seasons change. They have those kind of friendship moments that last well into adulthood…and they connect with the world around them. It is magical.
Then, there is an occasional afternoon of video games (with the expected aftermath of yelling, grumpy, disobedient, uncontrolled yuck). We accept it and move on.
Watching this in action has inspired me as parents have been asking for several years for OBE to institute and after-school NeighbourWood Walks program (Sometimes I’m a little dense).
These conversations in the school yard, the larger community in need of ways to develop deeper roots for our children, has served as an inspiration and call to action for me to help use technology in ways that bring us back to a simpler, more connected and familiar time in our lives.
We’ll begin simply by creating a space for school-aged kids and their families to get outside after class this Winter and explore. Whether it be stopping by a local dairy to watch them milk cows, a walk along the Tsolum River to check out the wildlife, a shore clean up along the Courtenay Estuary or a fun afternoon learning about shells, we’ll be making some plans and kicking off the after school program in January.
Maybe, just maybe, we can help our kids find a stronger sense of place in this pack-of-wild-dogs world.
Category: INSPIRED ACTION, Technology, Youth & Teens
About the Author (Author Profile)
Robin Rivers is Our Big Earth’s Publisher and Sr. Partner. Able to survive on coffee alone. Often can be found leaping tall buildings with the help of great friends. Predisposed to odd hats and the color orange. In love with imagination, her kids and that crazy guy who married her.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Oh, I love the idea! I am so sad it is starting just after I began working until five every day
Video games, in regards to Xbox etc, won’t be available at our house. I won’t be buying my children these devices. I am not against video games at all, I only recognize that children need to be active and involved in group activities, sports, outdoor fun. It makes it a lot harder to do when the playstation is plugged in. Although fun, they simply cause hours of wasted time and brain drain…
Yeah!! We miss the OBE walks. Can’t wait to join in the fun in January.
Robin:
What a great article – as per usual!
Not having TV and video games has proven to be a very good fit for our family. Not that we don’t watch our share of Princess movies or engage in electronic learning devices, but we certainly appreciate how it works for us. You stress the importance of balance and moderation – thanks for that reminder!
Since our daughter has started school, we are already learning about peers and their influence, the feeling of loss of control and the increasing importance of being present as a parent and as a family.
I think it’s fantastic that you are expanding your reach to actively engage older children and youth.
We look forward to participating and helping in whatever capacity we can!
As austalians say … You little ripper! See you in January, whenever we can. Yee ha.
This makes me so very, very happy. I am thrilled to see OBE reaching out to school age children. I look forward to participating and supporting your initiatives!!
xoxox
Thanks everyone. We at OBE are truly looking forward to getting this program off the ground this Winter!
I HATE video games. I know Hate is a strong word, but I really do HATE video games for so many reasons (my reasons, not scientific).
1) The bing, bing, bing, ting, ting, ting, pop pop pop of color and noise is enough to drive me crazy. I can’t stand that little developing brains are being subjected to this in the name of “educational entertainment”. I truly believe that any possible learning that happens through these games is negated by the intrusive way of “teaching”.
2) More importantly, I feel that these video games have a way of sucking kids (and teens and adults) into a unrealistic and unattainable virtual world with which our ordinary world can not compare. It’s like people get a “high” off of this fake world and then are bored and disappointed with our normal reality (Hello post video game freak out). We all know the trouble with getting a high is that it always takes more and more to get the same rush.
3) I really do believe that the creators of these games have absolutely no interest in educating our kids. They care about baiting them and holding on to them as life long consumers of their products. And even if some of these games are purely innocent and have an educational aspect to them, what about the games for the next age group. How many teenagers are learning about animals and geography via video games. Not the ones I’ve seen. It’s all guns and violence.
4) I don’t think it’s an even playing field. The creators and marketers of these games have researched how to best hook children and keep them hooked. Not many children would be able to self-regulate in these situations. Please watch Consuming Kids on youtube.
5) It seems that every year or two a new bigger and better gaming system comes out. So something that was purchased for quite a bit of money is then rendered obsolete. What a waste!!!
6) I think most of these “educational” games are just another way of selling more pop culture to kids. We all learned to read and write without Dora and Diego.
So why is all of this (in my opinion) CR#P, being brought into our homes. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said we don’t want to be the ones who “ostracize” our kids. I’m assuming you meant by making our kids the only ones who don’t have what everyone else has to play with. Well doesn’t that bring on another whole dimension into question. Is the social situation within which we place our kids so fragile and precarious that we need to “keep up with the Jones” at all costs even if we see how negatively it affects our kids and/or goes against our better judgement? If so, then why even bother talking to our kids about being “an individual, unique, not following the crowd” when our actions are stating loud and clear “Fitting in is so important that I’m going to buy you all the latest cr#p, even though I don’t agree with it, just to make sure you have friends”. I think everyone would be a little bit shocked if we looked at ourselves and asked, “What do I do to validate peer pressure?”
Now that I’ve had my rant, do I hate technology? Absolutely NOT. It has it’s place and I’m thankful for it. Do we have t.v. and video games in our homes? No. Do I think I’m the perfect parent? Abso-friggin’-lutely NOT!!!! This subject just touched a button with me and I wanted to vent. Like you, I’ve been thinking about all the struggles families are facing here, and I really do feel like part of the problem is 1) Our kids are being bombarded (from birth) from every angle by media and technology, and for the most part, it’s all CR#P!!!! Just a whole bunch of fluff that is so disconnected from what’s real. 2) In our attempts to “socialize” our children, we are placing them in situations where their peers (kids who are as equally immature and in need of as much guidance as them) rule.
My suggestion. Start in your home. Take away screen time for a month or two. Replace it with family activities or even more quiet time. See what happens.
Talk to the parents of your children’s friends and the school about what you would like to see happen as a group. We would never let our young children have a little bit of alcohol or nicotine on a daily/weekly basis, why would we let them have access to video games when we can see first hand how badly it affects them afterwards?
Robin, thanks for posting and excellent idea for getting the kids and families outside after school.