Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Video Games Will Save Society?



I think the premise from the TED talk given by Jane McGonigal in which she states that in order to “survive” the next century, we will have to up the amount of time we spend playing video games to 21 billion hours is probably one of the craziest things I have ever heard – for a number of reasons.  She offers the idea that video games help our critical thinking skills, and in turn will be able to help us solve larger social problems with these new and finely tuned skills.  It also supposedly teaches us about teamwork and working together, with people who have similar skill sets and gives us goals we are capable of achieving, given this skill set.  I wonder however if she considered the idea that if we were successful in getting people to play 21 billion hours of video games, if we would be able to get them to stop long enough to change or solve any social problems.  I think addiction to video games is already a real thing and by her promoting video games and saying they are “good” for you, it will only further hinder, NOT help, our society as a whole.

The other, and more important issue that I have with her argument is that she specifically says that we need to play more video games in order to “survive” the next century and yet does not address the fact of all the energy and electricity that will be used if we do increase our video game time.  In an interview of the former CEO of the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority on October 28, 2013, he stated, “Energy is the main source of pollution. I don't think enough people make that connection. They think of pollution as giant industries spewing smoke into the air, but in reality it mainly comes from the energy that we use everyday-- driving our cars, lighting our houses, even that camera you're using.”  By the time we have reached Jane’s goal of playing 21 billion hours of video games, and (assuming she is right) we finally have the skills to solve the energy crisis, it may already be too late.

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