Original Post: Monday, March 31, 2008
On the PBS site in the article, "Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked," it is stated that, it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives." Our staff book club is currently reading a book called Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence by Deborah Prothrow Stith and Howard R. Spivak. The entire premise of this book is that the rise in violence by girls is directly linked to images of females referred to in the above quote. I guess what goes around comes around! The article, however, appears to be well-researched and cited.
Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games - in the YALSA podcast Storm says he plays Second Life Library for twelve hours a day! Does it concern anyone else that teens are existing for twelve hours a day in entirely made up worlds? Why do we need to add school time in the library on school computers playing games? It sounds as if they get more than plenty of this when they are not in school. They talk about these worlds as if they are reality. John, Storm, and Kelly claim that there is no danger in the Second Life world, that they are "super savvy" and wouldn't give out information that would lead a predator to them. Perhaps there is not danger from predators, but there are other types of concerns. Teens can't manipulate reality in the way that they manipulate the Second Life world. Kelly does say that teens learn skills in Second Life that they can carry into the real world such as leadership and event planning. I don't doubt that these kids are highly intelligent, but I have concerns. I did appreciate the Ohio University video that discussed some of the positives of Second Life - the use of the imagination, exploration, dreaming, and discovering. I appreciate that these skills are exercised and developed in this virtual world. But I fear that the lines between what is real and what is imagined get blurred.
Posted by bookthief at 3:36 PM 0 comments
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment