I happen to agree with a lot of it, but the more and more I look at what I hear, it mainly looks just like another bromite to be chanted along with the rest. People can see the desensitized lives they are living, but either do not care or do not really know how to live for real.
There is also a lot of talking about video games and how they are negative and bad and all of this. Most of these arguments I disagree with (call me biased, I enjoy video games when I have a moment of time…).
Today, I was over at friend’s house. It was myself, her, her roommate, and her son (6 years old). We were playing around and the roommate brought out one of those metal wristbands that auto-rolls when slapped (I hope you know what I’m talking about, because they are not really around anymore…). Anyways, we were trying to teach her son how to slap it on to the roommates wrist. He picked up pretty fast. However, he said “this is my last time” and then when he tried, the band bounced off her wrist and flew to the ground in a ball. He picked it up and said,
“I have another try, because I did not get it.”
And that really struck me. That WAS his last try. But, the mentality that he has formed is “If I did not get it, I get to go again.” This could actually go either way as being positive or negative. If it reinforces doing things right and trying until you do, then great!
However, I see a lot of room for disappointment. There are going to be a lot of times when if you lose, you do not get another chance. You do not simply hit “Retry” and play the level over. And this can cause some serious problems, especially in the realm of self worth. If you have trained yourself that whenever you fail, you can try again, when you do not get the chance, it can be nothing but a crushing blow. Also, if you have an unlimited number of chances, why try as hard? You are bound to get it right… eventually.
The reason I brought up video games is because one of the sources of this mentality (I thought back to when I saw him playing this snowboarding game and he just replayed the same level over and over) is video games. People attribute a lot of problems to the games. Yeah, video games can definitely be a conditioning tool. However, it is the mind of the child that is conditioned and a child is given a good understanding of how things work, they will not be negatively conditioned by the game. One child can turn this tool into a strength while another will waste it.
There is a lesson to be learned in everything, if you will allow yourself to learn it.