for my first post on this blog I want to talk about the possible dangers of the internet.
Our class spoke a week or so ago about the people becoming addicted to technology and how we need to be aware of the amount of time that children spend on the net.
I absolutely agree with the idea that children need to have limits on the amount of time they spend plugged in to technology. However, I also think that some people are projecting a negative view of new technology on to their children based on their own ignorant beliefs.
I can remember hearing parents and teachers urging children to minimize the amount of time they spend playing with technology based on the belief that the child will never find a career playing video games or talking on facebook. Well people get paid ridicules amounts of money to be good at sports, and I guarantee that many people originally laughed at the idea of paying someone to play a game. yet in 2008 the average salary oh NHL hockey player was $1,906,793 (http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=240324). who is laughing now?
the following link I think serves as proof that we really don't know what kind of future we have created for our children.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm
the main part of this link I hope people notice is that a person with an on line avatar named Anshe Chung owns online (not real/pretend) property that is valued at $250000 real dollars. suddenly the all time Anshe Chung spent playing on line games doesn't seem like a waste.
I am not saying that excessive on line gaming pays off. I just find that passion and persistence more than anything else attributes to success. Malcome Gladwell when referring to people like Bill Gates talks about a 10,000-hour rule. this rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, you will see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years at 4 hours a day http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/11/news/companies/secretsofsuccess_gladwell.fortune/index.htm.
So I say if a kid is passionate about video games, let him/her be. Because we really don't know where that passion will take them.
