I read something very disturbing today in Leadership Journal. It was a very short article focused on “The Isolation Generation”. Young guys…plugged in, and disconnected. I had to ask, “Is this really true?”
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo describes young guys having what he calls “arousal addiction”, always wanting something different. He describes excessive internet use, video gaming, and online porn as causes of this new addiction. By age 21, boys spend 10,000 hours gaming, two-thirds of that time in isolation. The average young man watches 50 porno clips per week.
“Boys’ brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way, for change, novelty, excitement, and constant arousal,” Zimbardo says.
The current upshot of this is that many young men do not connect well to traditional teaching settings and lack social skills, especially with women.
As technology opens up more and more virtual worlds to us, parental wisdom is going to be in great demand. How do we make sure our kids are not adversely influenced by even the innocent participation in video games or good internet sites, let alone the bad stuff? How much is too much? Where does the internet and video games fit in the overall behavioral development of our children? The internet and gaming is inescapable, but to what level of participation and control do we as parents need to commit?
Just a thought, if you haven’t already, take time to put a game plan together for your kids so that you play the primary role in this area of their behavioral development rather than leave it up to them or others.
No comments:
Post a Comment