Kids, Parents, and the Digital Age

So, I received this article in my news feeds this morning. It reminded me of what was read in the article Next. There are parents who don't want to play the video games with their kids because they believe in the "the violence, the obsession," and they don't think it's good for them. My reaction was, if the parents don't believe that the violence and obsession is good for them, then why are they permitting the kid to play the games alone. Do they talk about what the game is about and how it can affect the kid's normal life? From the talk in the article, it seems no. The article also states that those parents who do play the video games with their kids are normally the ones that are younger, part-time employed, and possibly single.

The poll results were interesting:

• 81 percent of children age four to 17 play computer or video games at least occasionally, compared with 38 percent of adults
• 59 percent of those age 18 to 29 play at least sometimes, double the rate for people age 50 to 64
• There is little difference among users by race or region, with middle-income earners likeliest to indulge
• Casual games like card or board games were the favorite of 31 percent of gamers, about twice the number who like action games, the next most popular alternative. About half of women cited casual games as their favorites, triple the number of men who did so, while twice as many males than females preferred action games.

It seems that with the digital world, even the card games have gone high tech. I remember my parents playing card games with us--they still do when we get together. But with all the focus on digital entertainment, the old stand-bys of playing outside or playing a board game together have gone out the window and instead of the parents getting involved in the new gaming the way that they would with the older "manual" games, they have decided it isn't worth their time or effort.

Odd huh? They want to communicate and bond with their kids, but it has to be their way instead of learning what they like to do.

"Kid-Friendly"?

Alright, so I'm not big on having young kids around, but my mother and I were talking about children's programing yesterday and some interesting comments came about.

We started talking about what type of things I was allowed to watch when I was younger. I was allowed to watch The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, any of the Muppet movies, Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood (the Disney version with the foxes), the majority of the animated Disney movies that came out during the late 80s and early 90s, The Munsters, and some of the older television shows when we could find them or my dad recorded them off the TV. My mom said that I would go through many copies over a year because I knew how to work the VCR. We had cable, but my parents knew how to block certain channels or how to "erase" channels so I wouldn't be able to get at them at certain times of the day when I was home.

Saturday morning cartoons/programming were completely out when I was younger. If I wanted to be with a friend Saturday morning, my mother would ask if that friend could come over to our house; because my mom knew that at the friend's house there would be Saturday morning cartoons and at our house there would be VHS movies. Things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Batman, and others weren't allowed until I was a bit older. I never really got into a lot of the Saturday morning programming. Yes, I knew the shows and I had watched a little bit so I could understand what the kids at school were talking about, but I didn't really watch it as much as those around me did.

That could explain my love of the older Disney movies and the Muppets.

So last Saturday I got up earlier than I expected and I decided to flip through the channels and see what was on. Well, the Saturday morning programming was going and I decided to watch and see what had changed . . . and it had changed. Is this what they are calling "kid-friendly"? I was really taken back by what I saw. There was a lot of cartoon violence, the girls were all "sexualized", and there was humor there that went on many different levels. It made me think that they were trying to entice the parents into the cartoons/programs as well as the kids.

There is a reason that I like the older shows like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dike Show, and The Munsters. Yes, for today's younger generations it might not catch their eye because it doesn't have any fancy explosions or CGI or cool fights, but it worries me to see where children's programming is heading.

What does that do for the youth of today? I think that it starts the desensitization process at a very early age and their exposure to it just seems to increase that desensitization to the point where they look at the everyday news and events and just kind of shrug their shoulders and say "huh, so . . .". And unfortunately, those youth are the ones who will be making the next generation of "entertainment", so what does that tell you about what will come next?

One Laptop Per Child

I was flipping through the Newsweek that my boss just leaves around the office--primarily on my desk--when I came across an article on a laptop project that is aiming to have a laptop for kids in developing nations. Apparently it is solar powered, runs on as little as two watts, has a screen that is readable in bright sunlight, swivels into an e-book reader, most software is collaborative, and is just under $200 (and you can get a tax deduction for the donation).

People in the US can't buy one for themselves unless they pay for two of them; one to go to a child and the other for you. That is still less than most laptops today and it benefits both you and a child in an underprivileged community. Nicholas Negroponte is the chairman behind the company and says that this could be something that can change the face of the world's economy. His original goal was to have the laptop for $100, but the production starting cost was a bit higher than he though it would be. He's still aiming for the goal of $100 which he says is obtainable in about 20 months; he wants it down to $50 by 2009/2010.

I think that this is a wonderful opportunity for the community to get involved. Not only do they get a reasonable laptop but they are able to give a laptop to another child and allow that child to advance in ways that they normally wouldn't be able to. Who knows, perhaps something amazing will come out of the project.

www.xogiving.org

Dirty Gold?

I was talking with a friend about my love of gems and unique jewelry when she looked at me appalled and said "aren't you thinking about how that effects the environment?" I didn't understand what she meant by that. I know that gems and gold/silver/platinum all come from the earth and I'd rather not buy lab-created stones, but she went on to tell me that mining can produce upwards of 20 tons of waste per 18-karat gold ring. I think that those figures are a bit high, but I'm not in the mining business so I really wouldn't know.

I know that the movie "Blood Diamond" has gotten jewelers and potential consumers to take off the binders and notice what is going on, but it seems that our want for that "something shiny" takes us a step farther. Some people are willing to kill to get that perfect gem, but there is always a buyer.

Yes, I know that with my love of gems and jewelry I'm spurring on that sensation, but I don't like the look of the lab-created stones. With all the technology we have, they still look fake and ugly. There is a real beauty when you're holding a gem that has been in the ground for centuries and now is that piece of art in your collection. The lab-created stones have a fakeness to them that no matter what setting you have them in, they don't look natural. They tend to make them too big, so that adds to the gaudy factor.

I've always been interested in where my gems come from and how they are mined, but now I'm a bit more studious when I'm out looking at jewelry. There are sites out in the web that are ecofriendly and sell recycled gold or they know exactly where and how there gem and jewelery is coming from. But I'm still all for the natural stuff.

Age and Technology

I was reading Newsweek and found an interesting article. It seems that Tom Anderson, cofounder of MySpace, is actually 5 years older than his profile leads you to believe. In the article the editor of mashable.com says that "young people don't want someone their dad's age running a site they think is cool". Does that have any reflection on today's society? I think it does.

For one, you never really can take things at face value anymore. An apple that is red and shiny on the outside can be all brown and disgusting on the inside. Things aren't always as they seem. But with today's youth, they want to be older so when they're online they say they are older than they are. Yes, it is dangerous to spread your real birthday all over the internet for anyone to see considering with your birthday anyone can have access to very personal information, but things get crazy when it comes to social networking sites. Like that editor says, today's youth don't want to think that someone their parent's age (possibly) is the one that came up with something cool.

I believe that in the age of technology and the way that it is changing quicker than you can blink, we can't ever take anything by face value anymore. Sites that look legitimate may be completely inaccurate, things said to be run by 20somethings are actually run by a bunch of young teens. Yes, today's youth are getting smarter and smarter than their older generation counterparts, but those older generation people want to fit in and not seen as obsolete, so they have to find a way for that to happen . . . so down goes the age.

Ukrainian Orphans Halloween Party

I'm sad I wasn't able to post this last saturday when it happened, but sometimes you can't trust technology.

On Saturday October 27th, the Alpine Garrison was invited to a Halloween party for 45 Ukrainian orphans that were brought to Utah through the Save a Child foundation. It was an interesting experience. Many of the kids knew a few words in english, but most of the time it was point and guess and sign language. We were afraid that the kids wouldn't understand what it was we were doing, but since Star Wars is pretty universal they were really excited to see us there. Many of them had never been to a Halloween party before.

Many of the kids were pretty hesitant at first. They were giving us a look over and trying to decide what it was we were doing. Once a few of them decided to come up, they were coming up in hoards wanting their pictures taken. They got to press the buttons on Vader's chest box and hear him breath. They got to hold the blasters and lightsabers of the troopers and the Jedi.

And they even got to hear Vader speak a bit of Russian to them--that surprised a couple of young girls who were trying to figure out if it was a real person in there.


And the Jedi got to teach a few of the young kids there how to swing their lightsabers correctly.

It was a fun experience, even if I couldn't communicate with all the kids and I wasn't in costume but taking pictures and spotting for everyone else.

Halloween

Okay, Halloween is actually one of my favorite holidays, but there are a few things that I'm totally against.

1-Adults who dress up and go door to door and beg for candy. I will shut my door on adults who do that . . . especially college students. If you're going around with little ones, that is fine because you are escorting them and keeping them safe, but a bunch of older teens and young adults? Come on! You have money, go buy your own candy.

Now, I know that I dress up for charity events, and yes, I even dress up for Halloween, but I don't go out trick-or-treating anymore. Leave that aspect of Halloween to the younger kids. They have more fun anyway.

2-Christmas items in the store before Halloween or even thanksgiving. I get really miffed when I walk into the stores looking for fun and inexpensive Halloween decorations and I see the christmas stuff already up on display taking up half the store and all they have is a couple of shelves worth of Halloween stuff. There are two holidays before christmas for crying out loud! I think that if a store wants to have it's christmas stuff out, why don't they put it up somewhere in the back of the store and keep it there. It seems like that stuff is coming out earlier and earlier each year and Halloween and thanksgiving decorations come out a few weeks before the holiday and then disappear just a quickly as if retailers were ashamed of the goods.

3-Pets in "human" costumes. Those little costumes that have arms and only go over the animals front paws. I saw a dog that looked so miserable from that that I felt sorry for the little guy. I think it's great that people want to include their pet as part of the family--my cat sure thinks hes the head of the household--but they should have a bit of dignity. Give them a little coat or cover that still lets them be their selves, but don't try to make them look like the kids in the family.

4-People that see the need to smash or steal pumpkins. A friend of mine is an amazing pumpkin carver and hers really turn out like works of art . . . but very few people ever get to see them because she won't put them on her porch. A year or so ago, she had created a fantasy scene on her porch with carved pumpkins and it was truly amazing. Well, she left for the afternoon and when she arrived back home in the evening, half the display was gone. She found two or three in the road smashed to pieces. That evening as she was taking her kids around their trick-or-treating route, she heard some neighbors talking about a couple pumpkins on the porch of this one young man's house. He said that he had done all of them. She took a look and sure enough, there were her pumpkins. When she confronted the young man about it he was adamant that they were his, but my friend knew better. She signs all her pumpkins on the bottom and somewhere in the design. Those were hers.

My parents won't put pumpkins out of their steps anymore either. We've had them smashed in our rose garden, up against the side of the house, in the road, and on my car--which is not easy to get off once it's dried.

If people don't want to take the time or have the family activity of carving a pumpkin, then ask someone else if you can pay them to carve one for you or get one of the ones that has a face painted on it.

Now, getting to the real reason I wanted to write about Halloween. Commercials and advertisements have gone to two different extremes in my opinion. One extreme is that they dumb it down for the kids and tell them that they need a different and more expensive costume each year and that it has to be what they want not what their parents--most of the time--can afford. The other extreme is the sexualization of the costumes and accessories for the adults. I normally make all my costumes, but I've been busy this semester so I wasn't able to start on one, so when I had a bit of free time I decided to go looking for pieces to use or for a full costume that wasn't too expensive. What I found was a lot of short, skimpy costumes or some that didn't have any ethics behind it. I ended up going back to the safety of the poodle skirt, although I didn't wear it all day.

I'm not a big fan of the macabre portion of Halloween or at least what some members of the general public make of it. I was watching CNN a few nights ago and this guy had gotten in trouble for hanging nooses and then dummys from his house. He saw nothing wrong in it, but I think that it is the wrong message to be sending to today's youth. In a world where there is so much death and violence, things like nooses and knives sticking through chests or heads isn't needed. All I need to do on any given day is turn on the news.

I'm all for the fun aspect that Halloween and its decorations can become. A few friends and I are in the planning stages for a haunted house, but we aren't putting anything that could have a negative effect on the youth of today.