Virtual Spaces of Childhood
Jenkins: Unlimited Freedom of Movement
Mitchell and Reid-Walsh: Researching Children’s Popular Culture, Chapter 5
Rosen, The Overprotected Child
Brown, Raising free-spirited black children in a world set on punishing them
“Video games constitute virtual playing spaces, which allow home-bound children … to extend their reach, to explore, manipulate, and interact with a more diverse range of imaginary places than constitute the often drab, predictable, and overly familiar spaces of their everyday life”
(Jenkins, p. 332).
In this week’s reading, we consider two worlds of children’s play — the analog, physical world, which according to Rosen and Jenkins has become dramatically limited, and the virtual world in the form of video games and websites created for children or by children.
For Rosen, children and childhoods in general have, in the past twenty years become dramatically over-regulated and over-supervised. She cites research (some of which Buckingham would surely critique) that suggests dire warnings about the psychological outcome of these changes. I think many of you might see similar things in news and in discussions of children.
What is perhaps most interesting about the article are the statistics that show that these changes have occurred and persist in spite of actual changes to children’s safety. It is adult perceptions of safety that have changed, not the realities of children’s safety itself. As we have explored this semester, even accounting for racial and socioeconomic differences, we are currently in one of the safest eras in U.S. history for children. And even acknowledging that sometimes bad things do happen to kids, this mom, who was herself molested as a kid, argues that over-protection is the wrong way to keep our kids safe.
What do you think?
While I tend to agree with Rosen (surely reflective of my own cultural preferences and privileges) that we don’t do kids any favors when we over-protect them and over-supervise them, there are other parts of Rosen’s piece that I find less palatable. Stacie Brown says, “I am acutely aware that ‘free-spirited’ means something quite different for a low-income black family than it does for a middle- or upper-class white one. For us, it isn’t merely representative of whimsy. It’s a last resort. Freedom of spirit is the only liberty we can guarantee our children.” Brown goes on to provide a biting critique of the privileges that accompany free range parenting, “There is no such thing as a free-range kid in low-income black families. They are more likely to be labeled as “abandoned” and “neglected” than as free.” She goes on to remind readers that for her child, autonomy cannot mean freedom of choice when those choices put her child in danger.
Free range parenting assumes a substantial amount of privilege. In my own research (Henward & MacGillivray, 2013) with working class black teachers in the Southern US, we found that the progressive understandings of free play and exploration would be severely limited by surroundings. These teachers knew that these kids were not always safe and that they would face dangerous circumstances by the very fact of being young black kids. They were far more restrictive of kids’ movement in the classroom.
Brown’s critique is of free range parenting, not adventure playgrounds, but it raises once again the assumption that all children and adults would have the same opportunities and experiences in such a site. While I may love many things about adventure playgrounds, at the very least, we need to be vigilant about something Rosen doesn’t seem to attend to – the ways that racism, classism, genderism, sexism, ableism and other societal discriminations would inevitably be brought in. As another example, look again at the Rosen piece. Look carefully at the photographs. At least so far is it is possible to tell, it looks like of the many children photographed for the piece, only two of them are girls. Reflecting on Jenkins, does this perhaps that the fantasy of the “adventure playground kid” is actually “an adventure playground boy”?
For Rosen, the rise of virtual worlds of play is surely a symptom of something being very wrong with our culture, which will translate into something being very wrong with children growing up in this culture. Jenkins, Mitchell and Reid-Walsh take a more measured view on virtual play. It is worth noting that they are researchers of children’s culture and are not only commenting on it from the distance of a reporter, as Rosen does. In other words, consistent with the theme of this entire class, Jenkins, Mitchell, and Reid-Walsh talk with kids and demonstrate some respect for what the kids have to say.
While it is easy to imagine that many kids might prefer the excitement of the adventure playgrounds described by Rosen, what do we make of the fact that many kids might equally prefer the excitement of virtual play even to the outdoor adventure of such playgrounds? Is it because childhood has been ruined? What might we say about the fact that memories of great amounts of outdoor play in our own childhoods might have to be tempered by the reality that our parents often had to force us outside? If we *never* (as so many claim) stayed inside watching television when we were kids, why do most of us remember so easily (and fondly) the theme songs to the commercials and shows that were popular in our day? And this short piece from NPR makes another important point — that the amount of screen time kids spend now is much connected to their parents’ fears of letting them out of their sight. In other words, this might at least in part be a classic case of adults complaining “kids these days” without acknowledging that it is a situation at least partly of their own making.
Although Jenkins’ piece is dated now, it is worth attending to his argument that contemporary children are not allowed the same access to the outdoors as some children were in the past. Parents are far more afraid today to leave their kids to unsupervised play, whether indoors or outdoors, and children are allowed far less outdoor play than even a generation ago. Check out this excellent piece from the Boston Globe from the perspective of a anxious mom who also acknowledges that we live in a very safe time. Given our discussions this semester about not parent-blaming, it is worth looking at it from her perspective.
There is also substantial limitations and regulations on parenting.
To add a further layer of complexity, we will learn in a few weeks that children in various social classes, urban and rural settings, and communities, have vastly different levels of access to outdoor spaces. Melissa Schore, in the Globe piece (above), cites Ta-Nehisi Coates to call outdoor play angst “hashtag #middleclassproblems.” Katz (who we will read the last week of class) will document the on-going elimination of public play spaces, especially for children living in urban environments in U.S.
Returning to our theme in Gallery 103 on the creation of maternal norms, take the time to read this piece from the NY Times, Motherhood in an Age of Fear, which acknowledges how all mothers make decisions not based on facts, but the policing of mothering norms and fear, and at the same, time, how the burden of this is further complicated by class and race.
n the face of all of this, Jenkins maintains that video game play retains many of the aspects of traditional outdoor play, including:
- opportunities to explore and discover;
- challenge and combat others of comparable skill;
- overcome problems;
- experience a heightened sense of belonging, ownership, power, and efficacy;
- and to experience a zone of relatively autonomy and expertise which contrasts to children’s usual interactions with adults.
One of the ways Jenkins’ article is dated is in his complaint that video games do not allow for social interaction and connection. Today’s games have very much overcome that problem and playing online while conversing with friends and with strangers is now the norm. This is — as are most things — a new form that has potential for both good and bad. That is, for many, this opportunity for socializing is an important positive. The complaint that video games isolate people is really not relevant. Although they may not be in the same room, groups of friends meeting up virtually to play a game and engage in social chat is a legitimate form of socializing. For example, take a couple of minutes to read this article from the Washington Post, entitled “Hey Parents, Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Fortnite”. Whether or not you agree with the premise of the article, the author makes some important -and true – points, including the fact that “Kids gather with their friends in ‘Fortnite’ the same way prior generations might have mustered themselves into an “E.T.”-style cycling gang — occupying sectors of the game’s ever-changing island map the way they once monopolized backyard courts and diamonds. They team up to make their way across a landscape of other players who may fight or flee or fortify, who represent challenges conquerable through improvisation and teamwork.” The author goes on to argue that when the creators made better killing tools in the game, kids were not interested. “Since then the developers have focused on jump pads, teleportation rifts, and drivable vehicles like golf carts and airplanes. “Fortnite” players want new ways to interact with and traverse the environment, not new ways to kill each other. The best players distinguish themselves not only with pristine aim but cunning and creativity.” Reading this, it made me think about the elaborate, hours long games of “kick the can” that used to happen in my neighborhood, which worked in much the same ways – coming up with elaborate group schemes to defeat the person guarding the can and free the prisoners.”
I may have told you, but I (Allison) am a parent to tween/ teens. I have for years watched my kids and their friends play Minecraft. They share a world/ platform and as it is often collaborative, are very involved in their language, strategy and decision making. I see strong similarities between this play and board games. If you are interested in this check our Karen Wohlwend’s and or Jim Gee’s work.
This excellent report from the Pew Research Institute substantiates the claim that video games are a “a potent opportunity for socializing for teens with new friends and old.” The report states that “Playing games can have the effect of reinforcing a sense of friendship and connectedness for teens who play online with friends. Nearly eight-in-ten online-gaming teens (78%) say they feel more connected to existing friends they play games with.” This report is particularly exemplary for being based in focus groups with teens who are gamers, rather than just being adults making judgements about gaming.
At the same time, being on teams with strangers can lead to aggressive and even abusive exchanges, as one player dislikes what another play has or hasn’t done. Lifehacker offers this advice for dealing with excessive trash talk in online games. Kotaku offers a guide for how to successfully trash talk, noting that it is best done among friends when it is understood as part of the shared play and not a personal attack. Unfortunately, many do not heed this advice. This site describes games that are notorious for the amount of trash talk that goes on.
For some players, the environment of trash talk leads to a strengthening of positive character, as they learn to respond critically to the sexist, racist, and homophobic harassment that can flow freely in these kinds of environments. When my son used to play Call of Duty, I could hear him responding to to this kind of trash talk. Not only did he respond with criticism to others using this kind of trash talk, but now he would say that hearing how awful people could be were the beginning of his commitments to anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia. Many teens argue that learning to deal with trash talk is an important form of socialization and that learning to manage frustration in pro-social ways is an important part of social development. For others — probably a minority – online gaming provides an environment to exercise ugly aggression. Here is another article from Kotaku, pointing out how easily this kind of talk wanders (or lunges) into unacceptable territory.
Before condemning the games, let’s take a step back into the themes of the class. What does the research actually say? Why do people react so differently to the same environment/opportunity? Does this stuff mean the same thing to everyone? What do kids have to say about their own play and how they think about and respond to this kind of talk?
Also, how do these platforms serve as a space of anxiety to which childhood might be ‘ruined’?
I take this excerpt from a recent paper (Henward, 2019) I published:
As Henry Jenkins (1998) notes,
too often our culture imagines childhood as a utopian space separate from adult cares and worries, free from sexuality, outside of social divisions, closer to nature and the primitive world, more fluid in its identity and its access to the realms of imagination, beyond historical change, more just, pure and innocent, and in the end waiting to be corrupted or protected by adults. (p. 3–4)
This underpinning assumes that to engage in a “natural” childhood, children must remain free from corrupting influences, and one of the most contemporarily salient is media. Yet, media risk and the associated anxiety, rather than infringing, more accurately help to construct and reinforce the concept of childhood, by “maintaining [sic] its boundaries—the specific risks from which children must be protected serve to define the characteristics of childhood and the nature of children themselves” (Jackson and Scott, 1999: 87). In ECEC, Woodrow (1999) notes that pervasive images of childhood innocence such as these have “tended to lurk as self-evident truths, encompassing a set of assumptions about shared values in relation to children and childhood, parents and parenting, education and schooling” (paragraph 1).
For Jenkins, as for Mitchell and Reid-Walsh, the quality of play is not confined to its physicality but is to be found in the imaginative interaction and in opportunities for children to be creators or inventors of the material of this simultaneously imagined and real world. In many ways, this argument should sit well with proponents of another activity that is relatively physically passive but is said to spark the imagination and allow for fantastic identifications: reading children’s literature. Indeed, given that gaming is often much more the territory of children and adolescents than adults, one might wonder if one of the ways that Rosen’s overprotected child escapes such intense supervision is through the world of virtual play.
Is Video Game Play Bad?
Before we proceed any further, let’s get start by examining the assumption that video game play is bad. Please read this article ALL THE WAY THROUGH: “Do Video Games Make Kids Saints or Psychopaths (and Why Is It So hard to Find Out?)”
Please keep these points in mind:
* In his video game research, Buckingham reports we need to be especially wary of studies carried out in lab settings where kids’ excitement (including trash talk) after playing the game is interpreted as aggression. Buckingham points out that what is missing in these studies are 1) the normal kinds of social controls that prevent people from actually acting out violence on one another; 2) they fail to take into account the role of aggression in just everyday kids’ play, meaning that aggression is not unique to video game play; and 3) even research that says there is an effect can demonstrate only tiny effect sizes and cannot determine whether the children who demonstrate an effect were more more depressed or aggressive to begin with.
* Does research demonstrate a link between video game play and long term, abnormal aggression? No. This point is clear in the research.
* Do video games give rise to copycat violence? Video games, when played by people who have much more complicated histories and circumstances that might already incline them to violence, can give ideas about the forms of violence but do not by themselves produce the violence.
*Do video games desensitize people to violence? Again, this is highly contested in the research. Buckingham’s research indicates that players are easily able to distinguish between fictive and real violence or disaster and that video game players react with the normal range of human emotions to real violence or disaster.
*Might video game playing have positive effects? There is a great deal of research about the positive, pro-social aspects of videogame play, including an increase in cooperation, teamwork, sharing, empathy, and problem solving skills. This research recognizes that when game play happens, something real is happening, and that is that the vast majority of gamers play with other people. Very little gaming occurs in isolation. It is an incredibly social undertaking. Does this good stuff predict the future? Again, the research is ambiguous.
*If you watch gamers, one thing that is evident is that it is not generally the violence in the game that gives rise to aggressive responses; it is frustration with how difficult the game is. I have seen my son throw the controller across the room yelling and screaming many times; in every case it was not because of the story line, but because his play wasn’t going as he hoped.
* One more interesting point – people who have never played video games (or played only minimally and were bad at it) are much more likely to believe that they are dangerous than those who have actually played them.
So given that it is far from clear that video game play is bad, how do we know how to respond? Will it come as any surprise that most of the authors we have read this semester would argue that these are conversations that have to take place with kids rather than about them.
Play as Gendered, Raced, and Classed
As Jenkins points out (and perhaps Rosen’s photos demonstrate), when we talk about outdoor play and video game play, we don’t imagine just any American child–we imagine a boy. From Jenkins:
Children’s access to spaces is structured around gender differences. Observing the use of space within 1970s suburban America, Hart (1979) found that boys enjoyed far greater mobility and range than girls of the same age and class background. In the course of an afternoon’s play, a typical 10-12 year old boy might travel a distance of 2,452 yards, while the average 10-12 year old girl might only travel 959 yards. For the most part, girls expanded their geographic range only to take on responsibilities and perform chores for the family, while parents often turned a blind eye to a boy’s movements into prohibited spaces.
(Jenkins, p. 336)
Further, if we consider this article entitled Playing While Black which points to research showing that the pretend play of black preschoolers is viewed as a problem by teachers, we have to account for the fact that play is idealized for white boys. The shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a Chicago park or the violent police intervention taking 15-year-old Dajerria Becton to the ground for being rowdy at a swimming pool or the arrest of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohammed for bringing a clock to school, not to mention the disappearance of public play space for children that we will be reading about in coming weeks, all strongly suggests a hostility toward activities that are tolerated if not considered normal and praised for white children and particularly for white boys.
Returning to Jenkin’s article, we read that historically, girl culture formed under closer maternal supervision and girls’ toys were designed to foster female-specific skills and competencies and prepare girls for their future domestic responsibilities as wives and mothers. (Jenkins, p. 336)
What E. Anthony Rotundo [1994) calls “boy culture” emerged in the context of the growing separation of the male public sphere and the female private sphere in the wake of the industrial revolution. Boys — and here we have to ask which boys this applies to — were cut off from the work life of their fathers and left under the care of their mothers. According to Rotundo, boys escaped from the home into the outdoors play space, freeing them to participate in a semi-autonomous “boy culture” which cast itself in opposition to maternal culture (Jenkins, p. 337).
Jenkins notes that these patterns have been repeated in video game design. Although some boys and girls have always played across gender lines, Jenkins argues that, for the most part, video and computer games have participated in transposing traditional “boy culture” and “girl culture” into the digital realm, furthering gender segregation.
If girls are going to develop the self confidence and competitive edge demanded of contemporary professional women, Jenkins contends that girls need to experience the “complete freedom of movement” promised by the boys’ games, if not all the time, then at least some of the time. In the words of a former best-seller, girls need to learn how to ‘run with the wolves’ and not just follow the butterflies along the secret paths. Girls must be able to play games where Barbie gets to kick some butt.”
Jenkins goes on to note that creating video games that allows for more aggression and adventure on the part of girls is only half the issue: “ Boys may need to play in secret gardens or toy towns just as much as girls need to explore adventure islands.” In other words, it is hardly a victory if “boys’ culture” is deemed as the thing both boys and girls need while “girls’ culture” is seen as the lesser form, the thing to be escaped. This would represent an untenable devaluation of the work, values, and relationships of the domestic sphere.
Although Jenkins article is showing its age, especially in relation to the games cited, there is much contemporary research that points to on-going gendered aspects of gaming. For example, have a look at these sites:
- On gendered differences in game play: http://radford.edu/~mzorrilla2/thesis/differencesinplay.html
- On the predominance of male players in the “core” and “hardcore” audience: http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/19/gender-inequality/view-all/
- This is a more contemporary history of the gendering of gaming than Jenkins, although its findings are much the same: http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/12/2/5143856/no-girls-allowed
- This rebuttal of many of the suppositions of GamerGate is really interesting: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/21/the_gender_games_part_2_videogames_meet_feminism_124375.html
- On women in the game design industry: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-video-game-gender-gap-20140823-story.html#page=1
- A female gamer’s perspective on aggressive behavior in multiplayer games: http://www.themarysue.com/a-field-experiment-on-gender-stereotypes-and-video-game-interactions/
Interestingly, the article above about “hardcore” gaming dismisses that female gamers are growing in numbers by dismissing the kind of gaming that many women seem to do, such as gaming on phones with apps like Candy Crush or Bubble Witch. The article following challenges that very dismissal as exactly the kind of gaming snobbery that tends to harden the gender divide.
Further, there are issues of racial representation in video games. For example, check out this Wikipedia list of black video game characters. As the article describes, while representation is proportional, the roles are limited and perhaps stereotyped. This thoughtful article from Salon argues that the gaming industry has yet to confront its own racist elements, while clarifying that it makes no sense to call gaming itself racist. In fact, this research article from Pew indicates that both Hispanic and black Americans are more likely than white Americans to identify as gamers. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to hold positive views of video games, saying that they promote teamwork and communication, and helped develop good problem solving and strategic thinking, while being more reserved about racial representations in the games. Here is a piece from The Guardian, written anonymously by gaming developers, arguing that the key representation issue in gaming has to do with diversity of experience and taste in video game development itself. In other words, they are arguing that the real issue lies in a lack of diversity in the industry, in who is employed as game developers. Here is a piece called Gaming While Black, in which the author names a cautious optimism about in some positive trends related to diversity in gaming development.
The representation issue is not to be dismissed. Still, this focus on stereotypes takes us back to the Mitchell and Reid-Walsh, who seem somewhat less concerned by the specific content of websites created for children in terms of the representations or the level or kinds of adventure or aggression involved. Rather, they argue that online interactions, which take place in domestic settings and are heavily community oriented, are already in some sense closer to girls’ culture than boys’ culture. They largely confine their concerns to questions about the interactivity of websites for children and particularly for girls, searching for sites that allow users to be active, to resist or subvert conventional or commercial message, and that allow them to create products, interact with others or have experiences that suit the user’s interests and desires. In other words, they are interesting in what girls can do with gaming — can they be active and creative or are they forced to be passive?
If we concede that both girls and boys are limited and indeed policed and disciplined by these boundaries, what then should we hope for in video games and other forms of children’s play? One suggestion is to try to create games that will appeal across a wide spectrum of users, and certainly such games do exist. However, Jenkins cites the research of sociologist Barrie Thorne (1993) that indicates that when boys and girls are forced together in the same play space, even spaces identified as gender neutral, they perform “border-work,” remaining resolutely separate and, if anything, exaggerating gender differences. One might suspect that the same is true of race. However, Thorne found, when children come together voluntarily as in neighborhood play, some of those distinctions broke down. Jenkins suggests that as we develop digital play spaces for boys and girls, we have to take care not create blue and pink ghettos inside the play space. How about racialized spaces? What kind of virtual space might allow for some of this same voluntary “neighborhood” play?
Finally, again thinking about the age of the articles we read, what evidence to you have that the “pink and blue ghettos” continue to exist or have been undone? For example, do massive online multiplayer games or games like Minecraft provide the kids of spaces that our authors are arguing for?
This is fascinating to consider virtual play space as an extension of the fantasy spaces originally introduced in the novel, as your Treasure Island book reminds us, and then to think of the moral panic that has ensued since the start of the video game in the early 1980s.
Did adults panic over the emergence of the novel in the same way that they have panicked over video games?
Curious, I googled “moral panic over the first novel” and sure enough, it was there!
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/medias-first-moral-panic#:~:text=Goethe's%20novel%2C%20The%20Sorrows%20of,that%20is%20with%20us%20still.
It seems that the emergence of any new technology will probably be met with panic, in one form or another. But, to what end?
Young people engage these new technologies and use them for their own purposes while a certain portion of the adult population freaks out about it. But as Mitchell and Reid-Walsh noted, “children themselves are likely to know something different from most adults about the culture under study” (p. 79), meaning that the adults are panicking over misconceptions of the technologies.
I find the “bad seed” argument in the Saints or Psychopaths article convincing. It seems reasonable to me that those who have a disposition that leans toward violence will be more attracted to violent play.
There are many non-gendered, non-violent video games that are really popular right now. In our household we recently got Kirby’s Dream Buffet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQqVCYDD3sA This kind of game that is just fun, with non-gendered characters having adventures in fantastical spaces, would be a great model for desegregating the pink and blue virtual play spaces.
Did adults panic over the emergence of the novel in the same way that they have panicked over video games?
This is a great question, Deanna. I never thought about it that way. It is very interesting to learn that the emergence of novels brought about panic. Some adults saw novel as corrupting influence for their children. It seems kind of strange to me that reading books were considered harmful. But I am sure that there were some novels that were inappropriate for children during that period as compared to some of the inappropriate video games we have today.
Thanks for sharing this thought. It was very informative.
Deanna,
That’s such an interesting example to look up the reaction to the first novel. My mind went right to panic surrounding the internet, but I love your example so much more. I wouldn’t have assumed that!
Also- I’ve heard of the Kirby game, too- and it reminds me of the games/websites I used ot use when I was growing up- I loved a game that involved Lilo and Stitch making sandwiches in a factory, lol. I think they had to balance all the ingredients in a growing stack, but not let them fall over- and ignore the gross nonfood items that would occasionally show up. (so that wasn’t a gendered game either!)
Deanna –
I like that you briefly brought up the “bad seed” argument. I remember learning about this in my Psychology class during my gen eds in my Undergraduate and I thought it was so fascinating. However, I have discovered through conversation throughout my career that people still debate that there is or isn’t proof of links between violence games and violence tendencies in humans regardless of their age. I am on the side of research that supports the “theory”.
The moral panic you brought up also made me ruminate on the panic adults felt when Dungeons & Dragons gained popularity. I think there’s truth to your comment that on one hand, while grown-ups will ultimately see the bad in new technology (maybe as. way to protect their children?) children, on the other hand, will use the technology/fantasy in some way irregardless. I think there’s also something to be said that the panic-inducing technology/books/games etcetera all have a similar component of fantasy/escapism to them. That is certainly a common theme worth exploring!
Akiva, the same moral panic occurred when Harry Potter first came out. Parents worried that their children would want to dabble in the occult or sorcery. They certainly had the “panic-inducing technology/books/games etcetera all have a similar component of fantasy/escapism to them” that you mention.
Deanna, I had no idea J. W. von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther had caused such a stir. Thanks for sharing this finding with us!
In viewing the video of Kirby’s Dream Buffet, I notice that colors are absolutely yummy. And I was not surprised to learn that the costumes and colors have really cool names (https://gamerant.com/kirbys-dream-buffet-new-costumes-colors-get-change-how-where/).
I also had the similar thoughts about novels (or anything new) causing similar feelings of panic. Thank you for sharing the game. I was happy to find some gender-neutral and non-violent games during my search. Although, it seems there were less of these types of games.
The society we live in today has given parents no choice but to keep their children indoors majority of the time. Do you blame parents for being helicopter parents? Every day we watch the news it feels like you are watching a horror movie. People have become so evil to the point where the value of human life means nothing. How can group of young children just shoot up at another group of young students? HOW? WHY? Personally, I am on edge when my kids are out or just walking from school, which is just few blocks from home. When my kids ask to meet their friends in the park, those meeting days are done on my day off from work so that I am also in the park with them. Until they are mature enough to understand their environment, I will remain a respectful helicopter mom. It is ridiculous that parents have to be worried and stress out about the security of their children. This is one of the main reasons why the digital world took over children’s outdoor entertainment. Notwithstanding, parents can balance out screen time for healthy growing habits by enforcing screen time limit, keeping screens out of the bedroom, taking breaks between screen time, and prioritizing other outdoor activities with parental supervision. With an authoritative parenting style, children can properly understand the real meaning of life, become confident, achieve academic success, and be great decision makers.
Question: What evidence to you have that the “pink and blue ghettos” continue to exist or have been undone?
The “pink and blue ghettos” dilemma might not be undone. If gender disparity is still observed in certain occupations, then that is evidence of the existence of “pink and blue ghettos.” Another piece of evidence is the wage gap between men and women. If women are concentrated in lower-paying jobs, it could be a sign of gender segregation in the workplace. For example, if many corporate policies do not promote gender equality, then gender segregation is still a problem. Also, we see that the wage gap is an issue in many workplaces. The same dilemma is represented in online games. Children video games sometimes reflect stereotypes. It is challenging when it comes to perpetuating traditional gender roles in games. Nevertheless, developers are doing all they can to create diverse characters in order to break away from gender expectations. So, parents again will have to monitor the games their children play to ensure that it is inclusive. Children’s video games play a major role in shaping perceptions. So, it is crucial for developers to continue striving for positive representation. Whether “pink and blue ghettos” have been undone or continue to exist, it is still a debate and complex issue that requires leadership to enforce policies to govern and eradicate such a difficult situation.
Reference:
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2009). The Effects of the Sexualization of Female Video Game Characters on Gender Stereotyping and Female Self-Concept. Sex Roles, 61(11–12), 808–823. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9683-8
Forni, D. (2020). Horizon Zero Dawn: The Educational Influence of Video Games in Counteracting Gender Stereotypes. Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, 5(1), 0. https://doi.org/10.26503/todigra.v5i1.111
Johansson, M. (2021). Beyond gender stereotypes narrative video games as a tool for fostering gender equality
https://www.tuni.fi/playlab/beyond-gender-stereotypes-narrative-video-games-as-a-tool-for-fostering-gender-equality/
Yassah, outdoor time and space have been a common theme I’ve seen/heard across several main & side exhibits this course. It goes without saying how beneficial this time is, and how heartbreaking not only the lack of space, but the unsafeness of the outdoor space that’s available, is. It’s no wonder that the rise of video games and video game culture have been so prominent. I think there’s something to be said for video games providing a safe haven that might not be as readily available for children and young adults.
Yassah, I appreciate your insights and naming of ways to balance screen time. Thanks for these resources. In Dalili Forni’s “Horizon Zero Dawn: The Educational Influence of Video Games in Counteracting Gender Stereotypes,” I think this statement gives us much food for thought: “To begin with, narration is a particularly influential tool in endorsing gender ideals” (81). Also, Forni mentions the website Feminist Frequency (86). In case anyone would like to check out the website, here’s a link:
https://feministfrequency.com/
Hi Yassah. I appreciate your perspective on screen time–“parents can balance out screen time for healthy growing habits by enforcing screen time limit, keeping screens out of the bedroom, taking breaks between screen time, and prioritizing other outdoor activities with parental supervision.” I believe that this kind of parental guidance is valuable. I remember telling one of my sons that it was my job to make sure that he grew up with a balance of experiences–he needed lots of different life experiences including academics, music, sports, spiritual influences, etc. I know people who are consumed with screen time. Your guidelines are a good way to help provide balance for a healthy life. gem stops
I will start by saying that I think there is a place for gaming. However, I am going to push back on some of the assertions in this week’s lesson. First, I think that calling computer games “dangerous” (above) is the wrong word. I think we can expose ourselves to positive or negative elements in entertainment. A game that graphically and realistically depicts shooting/killing people should make people uncomfortable with its negative depictions. Second, I understand that there is now an element of socialization in gaming. Despite being in different locations, people gather in a game and work together. However, as we come out of the pandemic there is a great deal of talk about the effects of isolation on people. This isolation did not stop gatherings in computer games. This isolation focuses on the loss of face-to-face in-person relationships. This implies that there is still a difference between online gaming types of relationships and in-person relationships. Knowing how to negotiate one-on-one in-person relationships is important. Gaming relationships cannot replace this. Gaming socialization has its limits. Third, the creativity found in gaming is a limited type of creativity. A person playing a computer game is engaging in an environment that someone else imagined and created. The possibilities are limited to what the true creator imagined and built. Finally, computer games intend to draw the player in and keep them there–moving from level to level or seeing/doing more and more. From my perspective, a negative aspect of computer games is that they consume the player for large amounts of time. If a child is playing computer games for 4 hours each day, what other life activities are being missed? I believe that gaming as a form of play and entertainment should be done in moderation. Due to the nature of these games in consuming the player, it is often an adult who will have to set limits on children.
Hey Marylynne- I really agree with what you wrote when you said “From my perspective, a negative aspect of computer games is that they consume the player for large amounts of time. ” I think this image of kids acting like zombies in front of technology pops into my head. I agree that that’s really a chief concern- I think to a certain extent people just want children to be well rounded- ie spend their time doing a variety of hobbies/tasks/activities. But of course there’s an additional negative connotation when the time warp is centered around technology- video games or also tv (though not the focus of this week, I know). As a side note- I take the train to work and it’s about a 40 minute ride. Even adults were consumed by their games (candy crush, a few games I don’t even recognize) for the entire 40 mins- totally and completley consumed. And those are adults!
Hi Lizzie. You make a good point that “people just want children to be well rounded- ie spend their time doing a variety of hobbies/tasks/activities.” I am also amazed that so many adults are consumed with screen games. I don’t understand the appeal or the time spent on these types of games.
Hi Lizzie. I think you are right that “people just want children to be well rounded- ie spend their time doing a variety of hobbies/tasks/activities.” I am also surprised at how many adults are consumed with their games. I don’t understand the appeal or the time spent on screen games.
Hi, Marylynne! I think you make some great points! Coming out of this pandemic where we are seeing higher amounts of isolation, the video games were and are offering positivity. But like you said, I still have many concerns with video gaming. When the person is online through the more conversation pieces of gaming, I often worry about the age differences. As a society, we know countless stories about a younger child on a video game call with an older adult. I worry about the safety in the nature of the communication. I also wonder what you mentioned that the creativity behind the game seems to be limited. The world that is created in the game is programmed. The gamer participating in the activity is playing a role in someone else’s programmed system. Lastly, to your question, I think a child sitting in front of a video game for four hours a day is missing many opportunities around them. I believe this would include physical activities like sports, creative arts, discovering a talent that naturally possess, etc. I also think they are missing out on social aspects like having playdates, interacting with the world around them (like family or other friends or adults). Lastly, I think they miss out on/struggle with mental aspects. This could be attention, emotional (dis)regulation, and expanding their intelligence. Great work!
Marylynne,
I LOVE that you say, “Third, the creativity found in gaming is a limited type of creativity. A person playing a computer game is engaging in an environment that someone else imagined and created.” This is very true. While we say that gaming can allow for creativity, what kind of creativity is it allowing? It seems very limited, unlike allowing a child to explore the outdoors. Virtual reality built in gaming involves using your imagination in someone else’s world. Why not allow kids to fully use their imagination without limitation? Thanks for sharing!
Marylynne,
I definitely agree that interactions in online gaming aren’t a substitution for in-person interactions. When people only communicate online, they don’t learn the nuances of reading body language or facial expressions. Also, I noticed gamers have a hard time making eye-contact and having conversations at a normal pace. It is important for kids to play together face-to-face, where they deal with conflict, learn how to joke and play, and interact with each other. However, there are games that are very creative. In our reading they brought up Sim City–while there are parameters in place, the player creates the city and how it runs. It reminds me of Minecraft; my son and daughter play this frequently, and they create where they live and what it looks like. The game depends on them mining, hunting, building, farming, building tools and even crafting elaborate machines. The options tend to be endless. They do all of this while fighting bad guys and playing at their own peril. There are consequences in the game, and it is interesting to see how they navigate all those issues.
I don’t see video games as a negative, but it is also important that children have time to interact with peers and play outside. Playing outside and navigating kid-dom helps with mental health and with building self-confidence for sure. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Carrie
When it comes to gaming I have seen the good and the bad. My brother used to play videogames so much that he wouldn’t go outside and spend hours on hours playing games. It isolated him significantly. On the other side, I can see it being a beneficial component. Now that my brother lives so far away he plays video games online with my niece and they have built a relationship based on those interactions. I think like with anything there has to be a balance. A balance of virtual and reality, a balance of good and bad.
Hi Lilyanna. I agree with your comment “there has to be a balance. A balance of virtual and reality, a balance of good and bad.” Although I do not have an interest in computer/video games, I think they have a place if done in moderation (like anything else). I do think it is good to recognize the pros and cons of video games, which is what sparked my post above. Thanks for your comments.
Hi Marylynne,
I appreciate the way you approached your evaluation of video games as neither good nor bad but as something that could go either way depending on a variety of factors. As someone who plays video games myself, I have to say that you often are creative with them. Animal Crossing for example requires the player to build up an island and design it how they want it to look. Minecraft gives you the blocks to use then the player builds what they want. Just some thoughts!
Great exhibit! I wanted to comment on the part of your work that says “we will learn in a few weeks that children in various social classes, urban and rural settings, and communities, have vastly different levels of access to outdoor spaces. Melissa Schore, in the Globe piece (above), cites Ta-Nehisi Coates to call outdoor play angst “hashtag #middleclassproblems.” Katz (who we will read the last week of class) will document the on-going elimination of public play spaces, especially for children living in urban environments in U.S.”
I live and teach in an urban environment, and I related to this statement and to the Jenkins reading. I teach in a very busy section of Philadelphia- and there’s very few green spaces available. In fact, for us to do fire drills (or god forbid a real emergency) we walk to the nearest park/green space there is by our school (our school doesn’t own outdoor space) and it’s a 0.7 mile walk to the large public park we use. So these drills take us like an hour- 40 mins of walking if you count the commute both ways. Of course not all the students live in this neighborhood where our school is (we’re a charter school, so kids come from all over the city), but this just is a good example of the lack of access that these authors are speaking about.
Lizzie,
I appreciate your comment as I do not have that unfortunate experience. I couldn’t imagine! But I am familiar with the city so it does make sense. I teach and live in a rural area. This is something I never would have thought about because I simply cannot relate. Jenkins reading was hard at times for me to focus because I couldn’t relate. However, Jenkins does bring up some valid, realistic points!
Lizzie, thank you so much for sharing your personal experiences in relation to this topic. Prior to reading Complete Freedom of Movement by Jenkins, I hadn’t thought about the role video games play in the lives of children who don’t have access to outdoor play spaces. One quote from the reading that really stuck out to me was, “the wild spaces are far more important than playgrounds which can only be used in sanctioned ways.” It made me think of my current students who enjoy playing on the open field much more than the playground and when they are on the playground they aren’t really using the equipment as they create their own games. It has allowed me to see the creativity and imagination that video games are exposing children to.
Hi, Lizzie! I am happy you commented in this and brought this issue to light. I work at a boarding school, so I am fortunate my students have access to nicely build playgrounds and outside spaces. However, the home lives of the students I work with are similar to what you described. The population is dominantly lower class, with high levels of poverty, abuse, and neglect. The communities my students call home are typically not safe spaces in the world. To speak to your point, many kids do not have an outdoor spot to go play and engage in the world. And if it is a rare case they do, it is by no means safe. A lot of the year (up until about January) is spent on how to play outside, how to play with each other, and how to even handle ourselves with resources. I am glad you brought this topic up in your reflection!
I find the whole discussion of video games as “bad” or “good” discursive in that video games have the ability to be both; and it’s usually up to the parents of children who play video games to decide not only the games the children are exposed to, but how long they spend playing them, too. That being said, I appreciate the recognition of the positive pro-social aspects of video-game play in children as pointed out in the ‘Are Video Games Bad’ section of this exhibit, and I think this can be taken a step further to make the argument that video games, like most things, when done in moderation, can have very healthy benefits towards the user. Conversely, video games, when done in excess, can also have negative ramifications on not only children, but entire families, too.
On a side note, there is research that shows violent video games can cause children to be more violent, and research that shows the opposite. It’s worth further exploration into. Much like how video games can cause social isolation as children lose themselves in online worlds, video games also have the ability to be worlds of escape for children who don’t fit in, and a welcome respite from a cruel and often scary world.
Hi Akiva. Thanks for your comments. I agree with your thoughts on moderation when it comes to playing computer/video games. The challenge is that the games intend to keep the player playing, making moderation challenging. Also, after reading through this lesson, I have been thinking about the influence of violence and aggression, and note that there are contradictory studies about this influence. We did not have a lot of screen time when my boys were growing up. But when my young boys saw a movie that featured aggression, I noticed they were visibly more aggressive afterward. I don’t know that violent computer/video games will turn someone into a killer, but I do think that feeding a mind with a steady diet of violence and aggression can influence a person to be more generally aggressive, even if only in attitude.
Akiva,
I love that you mention there are both pros and cons to video games. I personally am not a huge fan of them, but I know my middle schoolers LOVE them. There are many pros such as socialization and team work, but there are also cons including repetitive exposure to violence. Are they becoming desensitized to it? Are video games addictive, just like social media? Are kids spending less time outside using their imagination without limitation and socializing in person? Like you mention, pros and cons vary depending on what parents allow. Thanks for sharing!
Hey there Akiva! I found it interesting how you expanded on the way video games can be equally good and bad. I agree that excessive gameplay can be detrimental to children’s well-being.
Funny enough, my family had its fair share of violent videogames, including GTA, Mortal Kombat, and several other big-name games, but the game we would continually gather around as a family unit was The Bible Game. It was a game show-styled video game that walked its players through various Bible events through competition side games. We would spend hours on hours playing this game, laughing, and joking around. I learned from this that kids will play whatever they are exposed to, so it is up to the parents more than anyone else to what their child is exposed to within the confines of their home.
Hi Akiva,
I completely agree with you argument that “…video games, like most things, when done in moderation, can have very healthy benefits towards the user. Conversely, video games, when done in excess, can also have negative ramifications on not only children, but entire families, too.” Moderation is key! And yes, this goes for many other things as well!
You also commented: “Much like how video games can cause social isolation as children lose themselves in online worlds, video games also have the ability to be worlds of escape for children who don’t fit in, and a welcome respite from a cruel and often scary world.” This prompted me to think of how I made a similar argument for fantasy novels in my Fantasy Literature for Children course (LLED465).
Thanks for sharing!
There was a lot of reading material this week, but it was all interesting regardless of it being out dated or not. It sparked some good thoughts, conversation starters, and even debates. I am not really a video gamer and I wasn’t really growing up. I had young Parents (one was a senior in high school and one had just graduated high school) so most people assume that I grew up watching my Parents play video games – specifically my Dad. This assumption alone that I grew up watching a male playing video games is enough to relate to the material that we read this week. However, my Dad wasn’t one to play video games. He chose to spend his time drawing. He is very artistic and creative. This is what I remember during my early childhood – art! The first form of virtual play I remember is the good ole’ Paint Program on my big, bulky Windows 98 computer! While this isn’t exactly a video game, it does relate to the material that we have read this week in the sense that it was indeed “screen time” back in and it was indeed serving as a virtual playground for me to explore my creativity.
While I was reading the material as well as this exhibit, I thought about “In Person Game Night vs. Virtual Game Night”. Regardless of whichever version of “Game Night” you choose, you are still doing the following: socializing, interacting, engaging in play of some sort, communicating, problem solving, critically thinking, strategizing, and decision making. There is also, still banter. However, it is obvious that the banter might be more harsh via virtual because it is easier to say it when you cannot see the person and you aren’t physically there to read their body language.
While I was reading the material as well as this exhibit, I began to think about gender play. Back then, generations could support the stereotypes of boys playing video games and girls not. Back then, there weren’t too many video games geared towards specifically female audiences, however, there were some gender neutral video games. Now, the stereotypes are out dated as the new norm is for both genders to enjoy video games as technology is being more main stream and it is a different generation. Now, there are tons of video games that are geared towards specifically female audiences making it more inviting and common for females to play video games.
Hi Gabrielle! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and personal experiences with this topic. I agree with your statements regarding gender play and video games. While I do still think there are video games geared towards one gender or the other, there are so many that are gender neutral. So many of my students enjoy playing they same video games and are frequently discussing different aspects of the games among themselves regardless of ones gender. Which I think goes to show how far video games have come in creating a community that welcomes everyone and ultimately has something for everyone to enjoy.
“Young Canadians in a wired world” (Environics Research Group 2001) calculated that ninety-nine percent of children aged between seven and sixteen have access to the Internet, and eight in ten have access at home”(Mitchell and Reid-Walsh 141). The internet is prevalent in all of our lives, including our children. This is one way that child play has changed. Since the internet wasn’t as pronounced and advanced as it is today, our current youth is growing up differently than generations before. The internet and technology is everywhere and it is introduced early. When my niece and nephew are traveling on a long trip, my sister gives them their iPad to help keep them entertained and it works. However, when is it too much? Is there such a thing as too much virtual play? Seeing my middle school students very into their phones, social media, and video games sometimes concerns me. I have students that come in really exhausted because they stayed up until 4-5AM playing video games. Are video games addicting? Are children too young to know how much time is appropriate for gaming?
Mitchell and Reid-Walsh mention, “Faced with this world of faithful [imitative of adult realities] and complicated objects, the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as creator; he does not invent the world, he uses it: there are, prepared for him, actions, actions without adventure, without wonder, without joy (Barthes1972). This quote really made me stop and ponder the different types of play and how they serve our children. I think virtual play has a set of benefits for today’s youth, but does it allow our children to be creators of their own imagination or are they just living in an imaginative world built for them? What are the negative and positive outcomes to prolonged and unaccompanied exposure?
Check out this source below, which gave me some more food for thought on the positives on gaming. While my mind is hesitant around frequent use of video games with children, there can be some social and cognitive benefits. Weighing the pros and cons cannot be a universal conclusion since various types of games come with differing pros and cons. In all honesty, I hesitate to support the frequent use of games with a lot of violence. That is something I do get nervous about when children have frequent and unlimited access to it.
The Benefits of Playing Video Games by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels:
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf
Melissa, wow, I’m guessing these students who stayed up all night playing video games are falling asleep in class. This sounds potentially really damaging to their health, growth, and learning.
In your discussion about our reading from Mitchell & Reid-Walsh, I think your wondering about allowing children to be their own creators resonates with Marylynne’s discussion about “a limited type of creativity” found in gaming. This is such an intriguing topic! In Perry Nodelman and Mavis Reimer’s “The World of Children’s Culture” in their book The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, they write, “In Barthes’s terms, the more players can be made to believe they invent the world of their play, the more it has the opportunity to invent them” (139).
Thanks for sharing Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels’s “The Benefits of Playing Video Games”! It’s a thought-provoking resource. I think it’s such a creative approach that they begin with the quote from Benjamin Franklin’s “The Morals of Chess.” One of the statements that catches my eye especially is this one: “Game designers are wizards of engagement” (70). The References are extensive.
Nodelman, Perry and Mavis Reimer. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, 3rd Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
Although we read Huck’s Raft for past lessons, I cannot help but think about elements of that book here in this week’s lesson. Namely, I am thinking about the different methods of parenting and ideas that things are getting worse for every generation (when in reality, Mintz argues, it isn’t). I am not a helicopter parent and never have been. Maybe I just don’t have time. But I also don’t want to fix every single thing for my kids all the time. In her piece, Rosin talked about the way that the adventure playground she visited, free of parental supervision, allowed kids to argue and learn from each other. My kids have siblings as did I, so we all got that opportunity built into our lives in a way, but what about the kids who are only children or who don’t live with siblings or who are so much older or younger that the experience isn’t the same? They don’t get that chance. I appreciated the fact that the adventure playground Rosin visited gave kids that ability while still offering people to step in if things got really out of hand.
Switching gears completely, I focused primarily on the Jenkins piece when I was working on my project for this week (different gallery). And although it is old, there were still points to be made there that stood out for me. For me, Jenkins wasn’t just focused on space for kids to play, he was talking about creating neutral spaces that don’t have “blue and pink ghettos” (361). I was more focused on the ways that he was calling for less gendered play all around. Anyone else?
I found the readings included for this week to very insightful and thought provoking. I have never really been exposed to video games and didn’t have much of an interest in them during my childhood. So these readings were a way for me to begin to understand and shed light onto this world.
Over the course of this school year (teaching third grade) I have been able to observe a lot more about the world of video games. A large majority of my students speak about video games (and educational online games) that they engage with at home and even at school. It has allowed me to see the ability that video games have in connection making between students. For example, I have seen some of more shy students (and ones who don’t interact with their peers normally) get engaged in long conversations about every aspect of certain games. Another way I have seen video games positively impact my students is through their own creation of games at recess or in the classroom. I have a group of students who create their own games (using pencil/paper or just themselves) that have aspects pulled from several different video games. In doing so, I have seen how resourceful my students are and how they allow their imagination take them in all different directions just from starting at a game. These thoughts allowed me to make the connection to the quote, “video game technologies expand the space of their imagination” from The Game Design Reader. I think the initial exposure to the world of video games has allowed my students to further expand their creativity and imagination beyond online games.
I do think children need to be able to explore the world in their own way and make sense of different concepts as they encounter them, but with some limitations. As much as video games can positively impact children, I do think there is a negative aspect in regards to violence shown and depicted throughout games. While I don’t think parents need to ban video games, but maybe censor the ones children at certain ages are viewing.
Megan,
You make a good point about kids using video games as a way to make up games when they are playing. My son loved scavenger hunts due to a puzzle video game he used to play. My kids like to play games where they hide from each other and try to find home base without getting caught (which I did all the time as a kid), but they do it based off a video game they play together. It’s interesting to see how video games have evolved into games kids can play together. Thank you for sharing!
Carrie
Hey there Megan! I think that it is wonderful that your students have found gaming to be an avenue of expression. I also understand your perspective regarding violence in games. This is something that has been quite the debate regarding cartoons as well. I agree that certain age groups would better process more violent games than others.
Megan. I loved reading about how your students are creative in making their own “game” based on ideas that they have encountered in a video game. The interactions and negotiations in real-life play are terrific. I guess this also makes me think that if kids are imitating and expanding on games, it would good if the focus of the games didn’t emphasize negative elements, like violence and killing. Is there a difference between kids playing a shooting game and a shooting game that was spurred by very graphic violence they watched/played in a game?
Hi Megan,
I like that you brought in the perspective of a teacher with third graders. It’s so interesting to see the ways that video games can create connections.
Your comment about the violence of video games reminded me of Huck’s Raft when Mintz notes that parents thought television was making kids more violent/time wasters/etc. It seems to me that every generation beliefs the latest thing will create problems in and with the younger generation.
I found this lesson so interesting, as video games are a “hot topic” for children. Throughout this semester, I have enjoyed reading about childhood throughout the decades. Video games, while they have been around for awhile, I still consider them to be more of an activity of today. In high school, I remember discussing and debating the positive and negative aspects of video games, but that was the only time I have experienced structure around this topic, other than this lesson. In the reading debating the good and the bad around video games, one of the lines stuck out to me, “Hull worries about this latter model, which he dubs the ‘bad seed’ hypothesis. ‘This proposes that some kids are just born bad and this ‘badness’ first shows up as attraction to playing games of the type we examined,’ he said” (Barclay 2018). This was such an important piece to the puzzle, because whether we agree video games are good or bad, there is still the lingering question on if they develop future violence and aggression. The idea that is stated by Hull points to the person having existing violent thoughts and/or aggression. Because of these emotions already existing, the person is drawn to the violent video games to seek emotional fulfillment. The video game becomes an outlet that eventually could get confused with what is real-world and fake-world.
The other topic in this lesson that pulled me in was the article about over-parenting and over-protecting. In the article, the mom was molested. The stance the mom took to parenting later in life was the amount of trust we have in adults we know needs to be examined. The mom began to trust in her child to find safety and to allow him to make decisions based on who/what adult he would spend time with. While I think children cannot make all of the decisions, I like this perspective that we should be listening to the child and creating relationships and spaces they feel safe to be able to speak up when necessary. One question I am left with is will summer camps start to fade away as society continues to find issues with the coordinators of said summer camps? What will be the advancements made in our society for child-populated activities?
Reference:
Barclay, R. (2018, October 20). Do video games make kids saints or psychopaths (and why is it so. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/video-games-saints-or-psychopaths-082814
Antonina,
The first section of your post is the topic that I wrestle with, and I felt as though our readings helped me to see video gaming in a different light. My past experiences with video games have not been my own. While I played a game here or there, video games were never my “thing.” However, it always seemed like the boys in my class who were some of my bigger behavior problems, were also the boys who constantly talked about playing Fortnite and Call of Duty. So, naturally, I began linking them together. But, as the above museum piece points out, there are no definitive links between aggressive behaviors and video games. While those boys got in trouble for fighting a few times, the most common trend among all of them was how they were unable to stay awake during class. This was more than likely due to the hours playing well into the night unsupervised. The readings this week made me realize that boys play these games to fulfill that adventurous and exploratory side that is unable to do so because of their environments and/or the restrictions placed on them by their parents. So, whether there is definitive evidence or not that video games encourage violent behaviors, I firmly believe that parents need to monitor their child’s play time as well as have conversations about the appropriateness of the games.
Hi Antonina! Thanks for your thoughts on the exhibit. I agree with your point that we need to be focused on creating relationships and spaces where children feel safe enough to speak up when they are uncomfortable about something. Something our guidance counselor emphasizes when she comes into our classrooms to teach about consent/safe and unsafe touching is that it is OK to be rude when you feel you are not safe. When there is a power imbalance between an older child/adult and a young child, there is automatically pressure to go along with the older person so as to not be impolite. Teaching students to trust their instincts and empowering them to break societal expectations of politeness when necessary is so important for their well-being! Thanks again for your thoughts!
I always find the discussion about male and female video games very interesting. I grew up playing Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, and XBOX. I never really thought about male vs. female games. My son and daughter also play the same games (there is no distinction between male and female). I played Call of Duty (COD) online, and while I didn’t talk to strangers, I often talked to my friends while we played on teams together. I never faced people yelling at me or name calling. My son says that when he plays COD, women are called mean names or told they shouldn’t play because they are girls. He says it is a very toxic community, so he mutes people talking most of the time.
I thought our readings on boy spaces and girl spaces were very interesting as well: adventure vs. secret spaces. Boys apparently like games that are adventure focused like Super Mario Bros, and girls “wanted to create a place ‘where girls could explore, meet and take care of creatures, design and grow magical or fantastical plants'” (Jenkins, 1998). This reminded me of my daughter playing Animal Crossing, where she picks an island to travel to, finds a place to live, and builds a collaborative community to share resources in the game. She really doesn’t enjoy the game–she like Fortnite and Mario much better. It could be because her brother likes those games, but even when she plays alone, it’s what she prefers to do. It makes me wonder if boy and girl spaces exist or if there are just spaces that we put our own social constructs on. Boys like to play collaboratively and girls like to adventure. Are we defining them as boy and girl spaces, and so our children think of them the same way?
Carrie
Hey there Carrie! I appreciate you sharing your sons input regarding how girl players are treated in the online world of gaming. It is unfortunate when people “name call” regardless of the situation. I think you shared an interesting point about how your children enjoy the same type of game regardless of gender.
I think that companies and society has undergone a transition from pink and blue ghettos. One example that comes to mind is the video game Grand Theft Auto. Although this may have been seen as a primarily male oriented game, there is the option to play as a female character and this initial stigma has not stopped girls from playing this game. Although this game is for a higher age range of players this is one example of pulling away from one gender play place space and incorporating the inclusion of both. What also comes to mind is how there are gamer chairs, desks, etc., that are gauged towards girl players. I also think of games like Little Big Planet that can be played and customized regardless of gender. Games like Minecraft open the door for an all gender play space and work towards achieving what the authors are arguing for.
Hi Julia, I agree with your point that the video games which allow children to “customize” their experience in the game are critical for affirming all genders. As Jenkins stated on page 359, “Boys may need to play in secret gardens or toy towns just as much as girls need to explore adventure islands.” (Jenkins, H., p359) I have come to believe that the more that children can choose how to interact with their virtual environment and with people in that virtual environment, the more likely they are to have a healthy self-image and understanding of themselves.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Source: Jenkins, H. (1998). Complete freedom of movement: Video games as gendered play spaces. In J. Cassell and H. Jenkins, (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and computer games (pp. 262-297). Cambridge: MIT Press.
With so many references to children’s personal webpages and virtual spaces, this chapter of Mitchell & Reid-Walsh seemed outdated to me. Since my students often talk about what they watch on YouTube, I read it with that in mind and it made more sense. You can still identify the three types of sites Mitchell & Reid-Walsh mention – “targeted at children…children’s own homepages…and adult-organized sites [where] children have substantial input” (141). I am not a huge user of YouTube, but I believe there are settings to allow for public viewing or private viewing.
My experience with video games is very different from today’s youth. My parents bought an Atari gaming system when I was in high school, but never any other system after that. I played games at friends’ houses or at the local arcade. As I got older, I purchased my own CD-ROM games, many of which were the stereotypical “girl games” that Jenkins describes – “slower pace…less dangers…invite gradual investigation and discovery…search for secrets” (356). As an adult, I began to explore multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG), but only ones that were of a fantastical nature (ie. Harry Potter as opposed to Call of Duty).
I believe part of the disagreement over whether gaming is a positive or a negative influence comes from the judging of the virtual realm in the same manner as the physical realm. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Mitchell & Ried-Walsh talk about how the virtual world is “a different, more complex landscape of constraint versus freedom.” (168) Parents most likely know who their child meets in real life – family, neighbors, friends, teachers, etc. On the Web, a child is more likely to meet people from all over the world. Do they really know whether that person they are conversing with is another child or an adult? Using an actual identity or a false identity?
Rosin makes a good point by saying, “There is a big difference between avoiding major hazards and making every decision with the primary goal of optimizing child safety” (30). Mitchell & Ried-Walsh’s also make a good point that “adults need to accept that the Web can never be a “protected garden.” (170) However, M&R-W also state that “It is our duty as adults to support children’s knowledge in this area as well.” Parental knowledge of what sites their child is viewing/playing/reading/saying/visiting online is key.
Hi Diane! You make such a good point about updating the frame of reference to be Youtube! I wish I had read your comment before reading the chapter. 🙂 When I was growing up, it was the era of My Space and then Tumblr, but these were for teens and so they were gendered in a different way. I agree with you that the web is certainly not a protected garden…the expansiveness of it frightens me, but we owe it to our kids to support them in developing an understanding of the risks of this digital environment. (Just like we support them in understanding the risks of their physical environments!) Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Diane!
I can also say that childhood and video games was different than children’s childhood today. I grew up in the time where the first iPhone came out and the craze for kids at the time was the Nintendo DS. All of us had them and we would discuss the games we play and share games with our friends. Childhood today is definitely revolved around video games. Kids today rarely go outside to play, incorporate imaginary play, or play with toys.. everything is either on their phone or gaming system they have at home. In your last portion you mention the quote from Rosin about child safety. I agree with you that parental knowledge does play a big factor. In my school, I have kids discussing content they definitely should be be seeing as 4th and 5th graders. But then again, in my opinion, it falls back on the parents. Do they not monitor what their child has access to on the internet? Do they simply not care and see it as not being distracted by their child? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
When it comes to video games I can completely agree with the claim that they fall into “boy culture”. Growing up with three brothers, video games were very much the focal point of playtime and even dining room table conversation. To be completely honest, I always felt left out. I would try to play the games with my brothers, but they would sneakingly give me the detached controller so I was oblivious that I wasn’t actually playing. It wasn’t until Sims came out that I felt like I was really welcome to play. I think a lot of it has to do with Sims wasn’t geared towards a certain gender, whereas prior the games my brother would purchase (the only games I really knew about) were for “boys”. What makes video games so amazing is that it allowed me to connect with my brothers. We didn’t really have much in common growing up, given that I was the only girl I spent a lot of time alone because I wasn’t interested in what they were doing, but video games allowed us to connect and open up a relationship with one another that continued to flourish throughout our lives.
Hi Lilyanna, I appreciate your perspective from childhood. In my childhood, I never played video games, so your point of view adds new context to my understanding! Thank you!
My experience growing up with an older brother is completely parallel to yours! Video games allowed me to connect with my brother (even though my controller was detached from the gaming console) because of our massive age gap.
I will admit that when I began reading the material this week, I read it from the perspective of having already battled this territory with my son during his teenage years. I also brought to the readings my preconceived notions of video gaming and what I thought I was observing in student behavior. I can honestly say that I never could understand why parents let their children play video games for hours on end. For me, it hasn’t been so much aggressive behaviors, but a lack of initiative to do work that I’ve seen in students who constantly talk about staying up late playing games. Therefore, as I read the material this week, I found myself being swayed, especially since I began my readings with “The Overprotected Kid.” This article brought to light how the outdoor spaces I took for granted playing in as a child are no longer accessible for many children. Due to moral panics raised by the media over child abductions, and other dangers “lurking” out there that have the potential to endanger children, parents have become overprotective. In addition, Rosin argues that many of the play spaces we enjoyed playing in as children such as creeks, woods, backyards, etc. are being replaced by development, and children do not enjoy the same opportunities to explore outside as many of us did as children. Jenkins (1998) comparing his childhood to that of his son’s, points out in his essay that the wide-open spaces many of us remember as children have been converted to asphalt, making it difficult for children to explore.
While a couple of the articles did seem somewhat outdated in terms of their discussions of video games and how children interact with them (namely, the Jenkins article), several themes had me rethinking my stance on video games. As Jenkins (1998) points out, “Video games constitute virtual playing spaces” and can replace the “often drab, predictable, and overly familiar spaces of their everyday lives.” This is significant because of how it provides children with opportunities to explore, fantasize, and build social relationships with other children. I thought about the games that my son and many of my students enjoy playing, such as Minecraft. Games like these provide children with the opportunities to build and explore a different world other than the one they are living in. I know that many of my students play Fortnite together after school. I often hear them exchanging phone numbers and tips. Jenkins (1998) states that video games provide boys with the “basis for social interactions at home, and school.” While Jenkins probably didn’t foresee future children interacting virtually through gaming, the point he makes is an important one. Boys are finding ways to interact with one another on a different level – in a way that maybe they would have if they were allowed to explore outside.
After reading the material this week, I can understand the many advantages of playing video games, especially for those children who are unable to interact with outdoor spaces. However, I do think there needs to be some caution with playing violent games and the amount of time that is spent playing games.
Works Cited:
Jenkins, H.. Complete Freedom of Movement: Video games as gendered play spaces. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Cassell, J. and H. Jenkins. eds. Cambridge. MIT Pess. 1998. 0262032589. pp. 330-363. http://nideffer.net/classes/270-08/week_07_gender_economy/HenryJenkinsFreedomofMovementGenderedPlaySpace.pdf(7/10/2018).
Rosin, H. The Overprotected Kid. The Atlantic. April 2014. pp. 1-31.
Hi Beth,
I agree with you Beth that there should be some caution with playing violent games and the amount of time that is spent playing games. Although some might think that video games can improve hand-eye coordination and the ability to multitask, it is vital for parents to monitor their children’s gaming habits. If the child is having academic issues, experiencing physical health, obesity, and social isolation, then parents should immediately set a schedule to balance their children’s gaming with other activities and responsibilities.
Your point about boys socializing and bonding over games is a good one, and something I see play out often. Kids can connect over shared interests of all kinds, so it’s natural to include video games in this. Parents are often worried that video games will cut off their child’s socialization, but sometimes it can have the opposite effect!
Hi Beth, I agree there needs to be a monitoring of the amount of time children are spent playing games. But as The Atlantic article indicated, there are also issues with overprotecting a kid.
I already commented this week but I wanted to add something….
I was once asked to drop two local Amish teenagers off at a Sheetz gas station where they were meeting friends. My “English” fears kicked in and I told them I wouldn’t leave until their friends had arrived and I knew they’d be safe. Then this afternoon I had the opportunity to chat with an Amish mother/neighbor about whether or not they worry about letting their children run errands alone or scooter to friends’ houses to play, especially with the abduction and murder of Linda Stoltzfus that occurred in the summer of 2020. Her reply was that yes, sometimes she worries, but added that they believe in teaching responsibility from a young age and consider their children’s lives to be in God’s hands. Would that we all could feel that peace of mind.
There were numerous reading this week, but the one that I would like to reflect on here was linked to this main exhibition: “Do Video Games Make Kids Saints or Psychopaths (and Why Is It So Hard to Find Out?)” by Rachel Barclay. Throughout the article Barclay led us back and forth between studies that show contrasting statistics of the values and detriments of playing video games. The statement from this article that I keep returning to is that “(n)o one risk factor can be said to be ‘the’ cause,” Anderson told Healthline. “Risk factors accumulate.” I agree with this assertion because, while I do think video games may contribute to violent behaviors, they are just one risk factor. The real problem is that children, and society as a whole, are being bombarded with violence from all directions including the multitude of media sources we are exposed to on a daily basis. Unfortunately, there is also a current trend on social media that encourages abusive acts and behavior to others. Young children are idolizing people who glorify violence and showcases it as being “cool.” This brings me to another statement from this exhibition that I concur with: “So given that it is far from clear that video game play is bad, how do we know how to respond? Will it come as any surprise that most of the authors we have read this semester would argue that these are conversations that have to take place with kids rather than about them.” Agreed. Parents need to communicate with their children and be involved in positive ways to guide children through these turbulent times.
Karen, I agree with you that parents should discuss with their children. I think sometimes the impulse is to take away video games completely, but I wonder if it would be better for kids and parents alike if they had a discussion and moderated their exposure rather than cutting it off.
Karen,
I agree with your comments regarding the many factors that can contribute to aggressive behaviors in children. The social trends that are occurring through popular social media sites like TikTok are shocking to me. These types of behaviors are not “cool” and while I understand freedom of speech, I think that we have entered a period in our country that is on the precipice of no return. I know I sound a little pessimistic, but when I see the acts of violence committed by young children in such heinous ways, I can only wonder how much worse it is going to get. We do need to have these conversations with our children. However, the topics for cyber safety at school always revolve around how to be safe on the internet and cyber-bullying. The lessons never revolve around what is and is not appropriate when interacting with social media. If we can include these topics, then perhaps children will be able to make more informed decisions about their actions.
The question of video games – are they beneficial or harmful? – is central to today’s youth. I get this question from parents sometimes, and I find that generally they are very concerned that video games are making their kids violent. I see two sides to this question. Firstly, as pointed out in this gallery, video games can have positive effects. However I’ve also seen huge problems when an older sibling plays a violent game which a younger sibling then absorbs. Overall, I think video games have the potential to be positive influences, but I still think parents should exert some control, especially for young children.
Rahel, I completely agree on “parents exerting some control, especially for young children.” This crossover happens with movies as well. I’ve had discussions with my primary students (K-2) about why they know so much about Rated R horror movies (ie. Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street) and they tell me it’s because the adults or teenage siblings in their house were watching them. The age of appropriateness is so different now from when I was younger – movie theaters actually monitored who entered for Rated R movies and if you couldn’t prove you were 17+ they did not allow you to enter. Having so much available via television and the streaming services now does have its drawbacks.
Hi Rahel, I think it’s interesting that research has shown that even violent video games in moderation can be beneficial for adolescents as problem-solving mechanisms.
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT POINT! I COULDN’T AGREE MORE WITH YOUR STATEMENT OF “[P]arents should exert some control, especially for young children.” There has to be a true dialogue and understanding of what is appropriate content and exposure for children especially in the virtual space of play
I found Jenkins’ observations about the difference between his childhood and his children’s lives to be very interesting. One common concern nowadays is if children are able to spend enough time outside. Jenkins even indicates that he wishes his children would come home bloody and with scraped knees instead of carpet burns. As someone who also spent my childhood outside, I admit I have had the same thoughts about younger generations. I wonder if the “golden age” of childhood has come and went because of digital technology and social media.
The exhibition this week made me reminisce about my childhood experiences with virtual spaces and virtual play. As I found myself engulfed in nostalgia, the topic of gendered play emerged. From my personal gaming experience, all the games I played were centered around homemaking tasks. I also believe that the conversation about “outside” time needs to be emphasized more, especially in schools. It’s crucial not only to limit play to digital forms but also to cultivate and create space in our curriculum, specifically in high school, for experiencing outdoor play, as well as normalizing play for high schoolers.
Hello Khadyajah,
My childhood memories of virtual play spaces are similar to yours. I was only ever interested in the games that related to household tasks.
The food games were my only favorites, while the adventure games – where you have to wander around towns finding objects and figuring out mysteries – were unbearably dull to me.
This article about playful learning in high school just popped up in my social media scrolling the other day, maybe you’ve already seen it, but I’ll share here just in case you haven’t seen it yet….
https://www.edutopia.org/article/playful-learning-high-school/
The readings this week challenged my views on video games. While I still believe that the physical, embodied experiences of childhood are critical for children to develop self-confidence and autonomy (the research which Rosin cites by Sandseter with the 6 kinds of risky play resonated with me!), I no longer view video games as at odds with that development. Rather, I am seeing how there are unique opportunities in the digital spaces of video games and the internet to support children in safely exploring themselves and their world.
One example of the benefits of video games is that children may be more able to experiment in their identity and interests than when faced with real-life social situations and often highly-gendered spaces such as schools. Children can often select what gender of characters to play as, they can play individually/privately when they want to, and there are many video games now which offer both traditionally male and female adventures to embark on. If we think about Jenkins’ notion that video games allow children to experiment with aggression and “rough-and-tumble” play in a safer space than in real places, logically we can see how children could experiment with their gender more safely, as well. Perhaps they discover an affirmed sense of their gender identity or perhaps they are able to be more fluid than society would typically permit. Mitchell and Reid-Walsh even point out: “The possibility of assuming different identities is part of the adult appeal of the Internet, and must appeal to children as well” (Mitchell, C. & Reid-Walsh, J., 2002, p167).
Another example of a benefit of video games (albeit a tragic one…) is that digital spaces allow black and brown children who are more likely to face violence at the hands of law enforcement a safer way to engage in play. As Brown heart-wrenchingly notes in her article, “There is no such thing as a free-range kid in low-income black families. They are more likely to be labeled as “abandoned” and “neglected” than as free” (Brown, S., 2015). The danger black and brown children are facing is sickening and our society must address this head-on. However, perhaps video games can provide parents like Brown with temporary relief from the burden of always “manufacturing joy.”
Works Cited:
Brown, S. L. (2021, October 26). Raising free-spirited black children in a world set on punishing them. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/07/23/raising-free-spirited-black-children-in-a-world-set-on-punishing-them/
Jenkins, H. (1998). Complete freedom of movement: Video games as gendered play spaces. In J. Cassell and H. Jenkins, (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and computer games (pp. 262-297). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Mitchell, Claudia, and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh. Researching Children’s Popular Culture : The Cultural Spaces of Childhood, Taylor & Francis Group, 2002. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=242067.
Created from pensu on 2024-03-26 01:44:50.
Rosin, H. (2014, March 20). The overprotected kid. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/
Hi Cara,
I felt similarly about my previously held ideas being challenged by this week’s readings. I too have felt that digital game play was somehow less real or less valuable than physical play. It is interesting to learn that digital play spaces provide safe spaces to experiment with identity.
Thanks for your beautifully worded analysis here!
I found the readings from this week to be very interesting and made connections with my own childhood and children I work with. Growing up in the early 2000’s I definitely had an interesting childhood. I’m in the generation where we went from playing outside, board games, playing with other kids in the development to the first iPhone coming out and the Nintendo DS. Working in a school and seeing the childhood of my students, makes me wonder if video games are somewhat bad for them at their age. On the other hand, I also see why parents do not have their children outside. In today’s society you have child predators, school shootings, and the slow decline in education.
According to Jenkins, “Video games constitute virtual playing spaces” and can replace the “often drab, predictable, and overly familiar spaces of their everyday lives.” Yes children can play outside of their home, which is a familiar space but, parents still do not let their child play outside due to other external factors. They are not playing outside, imaginary play, or socializing with other kids. It truly does make me wonder what that generation will be like in high school and as adults. Are parents seeing video games as the ‘new childhood’ where kids can play online, talk, and see each other while working through the game? I see both sides of the discussion of video games being “bad” or “good.” However, I would like to know the potential repercussions it will have on child development, if any.