A Childs Right
As I write this blog post, I am looking at six different screens within a two-meter radius. Four of the screens come with cameras, and three have microphones. I am a STEM instructor, and I deal with technology daily. I often wonder and worry if some of my students will feel resentment towards their families and teachers. I worry that some of my students will say when they are adults: “My childhood was a screen!” Although I believe that students can learn creative skills in Minecraft, students should apply what they have learned from digital platforms to the physical world.
Growing up, my Minecraft was the forest. I would knock on my friend's doors every day and drag them away from their Gamecubes and Playstations. I enjoyed video games, but I also had the freedom to wander around the neighborhood. We would go down into the forest and build forts. We would build frames, harvest grass, and mix mud and grass to create strong walls for our forts. In winter, we would play hockey till ten at night and go tobogganing every week.
The article When Games Stopped Being Fun! talks about the famous video game EverQuest. The video game EverQuest is a fantasy role-playing game. Players are immersed in an online fantasy world with challenges and quests that the player must follow. I have never played EverQuest, but I had two friends who really enjoyed the game. One was a school friend who I never hung out with me after school because of his video games. The other friend was my neighbor. It was always a fight to get my neighbor outside, but eventually, my bullying would prevail.
When the article When Games Stopped Being Fun! was written, I would have been twelve years old. I would have walked into my friend's house after school with his mother, watching Oprah, who was talking to parents dealing with children's video game addictions. My friend's mother was heavily influenced by the news, Oprah, and Dr. Phil. She would lock the video games in a vault and only allow us to play them for an hour each day. This forced my friend and me to use our imagination. We would go outside and do fun activities such as bug collecting, jumping on the trampoline, or running around with water guns. Of course, we would cause trouble, but running is healthy. In the UK they call mischief "A child right".
Personally, I think screen time and video games are alright. However, children need to spend more time outside than they do playing on the computer. Parents and teachers should model good outdoor literacy. When I go for a walk in my community, I hardly see adults walking around, let alone a child.
Becker, D. (2002, May 14). When games stop being fun. CNET. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.cnet.com/culture/when-games-stop-being-fun/
So true, "children need to spend more time outside than they do playing on the computer." My brother is a software developed and analyst aka very nice computer geek. All four of his children are constantly tethered to a screen or device; even his special needs daughter. Maybe even if any of them were inclined to be a bookworm like their mom it would have to be on Kindle. My concern for them is their limited interpersonal or social skills.
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