TVs, computers, and video games are consuming our family time, giving experts reason to worry
It was all so innocent, in the beginning╤before it took over his life. He began by indulging only occasionally.
Then he started trading with the fellows in the apartment building, and it got bigger and bigger. He dreaded leaving the house for church; he spent his lunch hours glued to the paddles; it was all he wanted to do.
He had Nintendo Obsession. He was 7. Then his mom hid the video game in his sister╒s closet.
David Gaull was not amused. He cried. He yelled. Jumped up and down in the throes of withdrawal. Now he╒s outside playing street hockey and playing with friends in his Scarborough neighborhood. Happy. Cold Turkey.
Picture the 19th-century family: Families clustered around the hearth spinning yarns, their hands busy at needlework and whittling, the fire throwing a warm orange light on the scene.
Flash forward to 1989: Families clustered around their electronic entertainment centre, hands busy with the channel hopper, video game guns, paddles, and computer keyboard, the boob tube dousing the room in harsh light.
These are high-tech high times.
It was 50 years ago this spring that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt televised the opening of the World╒s Fair, and so introduced the newfangled television set to North America.
Now, the television and its computerized comrades╤VCRs, big-screen projectors, VDTs and videogames╤have taken on a power of their own, drawing us to them like glowing magnets.
It has some experts concerned.
Used correctly, they say, an electronic plaything can be harmless, even educational. But more often it╒s an isolating activity╤the family of 1989 is interacting with machines instead of human beings╤and this bodes ill for coming generations.
David Gaull used to love sleeping late. With Nintendo, he began waking up at 6:30 a.m. to play his video game, says his mother Sharron. ╥And he wouldn╒t want to go to school until he played all the games╔It sounds silly but it╒s just like it got into his bloodstream, like some kind of addiction.╙
She pulled the plug on his obsession four weeks ago, and since then she says he doesn╒t seem as hyper any more. Nintendo Obsession is the latest quirk in the short but precocious history of the telly.
The colorful, entertaining game has become just about as popular as the hula hoop once was. But unlike the former fad, this toy is for kids of all ages (though at about $200, it╒s not for all incomes). And it╒s much more pervasive.
Some parents who once had to plea-bargain their kids away from the TV set are now arm wrestling them for use of the control paddles. Others are worried their family has become obsessed with the likes of Super Mario and the Ninja Kid.
In some families, electronic equipment peppers every room in the house. Others, like the couple in their 50s who live alone in their empty nest, own seven televisions╤one so portable she takes it with her on the golf course.
Then there are those who own TVs but seem almost ashamed. They╒ve cooked up creative ways to hide their habit and minimize its importance╤like electrically wired wall units and antique-looking armoires╤so their decor doesn╒t suffer and they can pretend they don╒t imbibe.
But imbibe we all do. Statistics Canada says 99 per cent of all households in Canada last year owned at least one TV set. And it╒s estimated each set is in use an average 6 1/2 hours a day.
Electronics is one of the fastest growth areas of the retail trade, says marketing consultant Leonard Kubas. Take the VCR: In 1986, 28 per cent of Canadian households had one. In 1989, about 60 per cent do and the number is even higher in urban centres, Kubas says.
No one is sure how much money the average family spends on electronic equipment, but it╒s increasing exponentially, Kubas says. ╥Most of these things have ravenous appetites for accessories and accoutrements.╙
Now there are even videos for babies. Studies show infants can watch television, respond to emotions portrayed and make sense of it even before they speak.
So now the under-2 set can watch tiny TV stars hug puppets, play peek-a-boo, and explore their toes. Parents say the videos teach the babies language and physical skills, how to connect TV images with the real world╤and they╒re handy little baby-sitters.
There╒s more ahead. Fax machines, home computers and printers are rapidly dropping in price and likely to move into more homes.
Last week, a Japanese company claimed it╒s about to market a home video game that offers sharper graphics, better sound and faster action than Nintendo╤at about twice the price.
NEC Canada Inc. says the game, TurboGrafx-16, will show detailed facial expressions, more moving objects and explosions of color, compact disc stereo sound capability and the ability to accommodate multiple players.
Top-selling Nintendo is adding to its arsenal too, with new games for adults, and a floor mat for more active participation. A high-tech free-for-all. The lowly telly now rules our recreation.
╥It brings the world to your house and caters to all tastes,╙ says John Twomey, a Ryerson radio and television arts professor.
But this horn of plenty packs plenty of problems, observers say. There are computer widows, widowers and orphans, VCR junkies and channel hoppers. The Nintendo phenomenon shows what happens when it╒s taken to extremes.
Some parents say they╒re worried about the amount of time it takes the kids away from the family, and the nervousness and tension it seems to cause.
Maureen Fornito, of Downsview, took the game away from her eldest son for two weeks because it kept him from his homework; now her boys, ages 14 and 11, must do their work after school before they can touch Nintendo.
╘Like a disease╒
Margaret Wilson is an East York shift worker and a Nintendo freak to her friends. Wilson, 50, plays almost every day. ╥I find I╒m rushing things to get done making my husband╒s dinner╔so I can play. I figure it╒s my only vice; I could do worse.╙
Margaret Brewster, of Scarborough, has an 18-year-old nephew who plays the game until 3 or 4 a.m.
╥He╒ll be in his pajamas and not even think of washing or getting himself something to eat. He doesn╒t hear anything that╒s going on around him. I╒ve never seen a kid so addicted in all my life,╙ says Brewster. ╥It╒s like a disease, like alcoholism or smoking.╙
╥It╒s almost becoming a cult phenomenon,╙ says Dr. Jeffrey Derevensky, a child psychologist at McGill University. ╥It╒s the major topic of discussion at school╔and kids who don╒t play become sort of social outcasts.╙
Claudine Goller, a Scarborough elementary school teacher and freelance consultant in media literacy, is concerned. ╥Anything that fascinating and interesting scares me╤when it attracts kids╒ attention and interest so much they want to exclude everything else.╙
Nintendo appeals to children╒s enjoyment of repetitive behavior and gives them a feeling of accomplishment, Derevensky says. But because the graphics are more interesting and the games are more sophisticated, he says, it can lead to an obsession and homework and social relationships suffer.
╥We╒re very much aware of the mania that exists out there,╙ say Ian Bradley, general manager of Mattel Canada, Canadian distributor of Nintendo. ╥Parental guidance is really required in the purchase of the product╔and whether it╒s Nintendo or television, parental supervision is required.╙
Subtle lesson
Some experts say there╒s a more subtle lesson being taught in Nintendo╤and most TV shows, videos and video games.
Dr. Thomas Radecki, psychiatric research director with the International Coalition Against Violent Entertainment, says 80 per cent of all video games are of a violent nature and 40 to 50 per cent of all video cassette rentals are more brutally violent than the regular fare on broadcast TV╤which is already excessively violent.
What╒s more, the average child spends 12 to 14 hours playing video games, and children see more than 1,000 murders on TV before they are 3 1/2 years old.
All that teaches people ╥it╒s a rough and tough world and if you don╒t do everyone else in, they╒ll do you in,╙ says Joan Denew, founder of Canadians Concerned about Violence in Entertainment.
Radecki says studies show increased TV viewing and video game activity decreases academic and reading performance.
A study released in April from the University of Washington compared similar white, middle-class populations between 1949 and 1974 in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa (which did not introduce TV until 1975). It noted an increase in homicides in the U.S. and Canada after the adult Western brought violence to the tube in 1956 and, as TV violence continued to increase through the ╘60s and ╘70s, so did homicides. The South African group, however, had no increase in homicides. The study suggests violent entertainment was a factor in 50 per cent of the North American murders.
Lead to isolation
Another Yale study showed those most harmfully affected by violent programs were those who watched them with their parents.
╥It╒s like your parents are approving of the value system portrayed on the screen,╙ Radecki says.
Dr. Ron Ragsdale, professor in computer applications at OISE and author of Permissible Computing in Education, warns electronic entertainment can lead to isolation.
Joan Denew agrees. Less talk leads to problems in language development, she says. ╥They╒re great at rehashing TV programs, but not so capable talking about their own experiences and what they╒ve seen.╙
But Heather-Jane Robertson, director of professional development with the Canadian Teachers Federation, has found some positive offshoots.
Ñ With a little practice, the abled and disabled, siblings of different ages, even parents and kids can play on a similar level.
Ñ Word processors can teach kids to write before they╒re able to print and motivate them more to learn to read so they can understand the instructions.
Ñ Video cameras can encourage creativity╤kids love to produce plays and puppet shows and replay them on TV.
There╒s nothing inherently wrong with the technology, adds Gerri Sinclair, an education professor at Simon Fraser University. ╥It comes down to what you do to it or what you allow it to do to you.╙
The Toronto Star
(Toronto, Canada)
June 3, 1989, pp. H1+
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