Back in my day...

Article - Is Ben feeling his age?

Old people suck, on the whole at least - let's not forget that. Can there be any more depressing ways to spend an evening than sitting with old folk harping on about how things were so much better when they were younger? How kids would show their elders respect, how they could leave their front doors unlocked and how a pint of milk cost something stupid like half a penny. I mean, half a penny? That's just daft. Kids have always been utter bastards and if someone decided that they were going to rob my house it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference if the front door was locked or otherwise. People have been beating up and robbing other people ever since the dawn of people, it's just that before they weren't told about it on the TV.

This sentiment rang particularly true recently when late mid-week I found myself sitting drunk in a late-night kebab house in Mitcham. I found myself reading that most sordid and depressing of publications, the British tabloid newspaper. Though I was not in a fit state of mind to fully comprehend the somewhat wobbly words sat before me, I do at least recall the jist of the article. It was drawing reference to some survey, which claimed that British kids are turning into a generation of loners. The reason for this? Not poor parenting (no, parents couldn't possibly be held responsible for the actions of their children in today's litigation-heavy society). The culprit, it somewhat ignorantly claimed, was that evil invention we call the "video game".

Apparently, a high percentage of children today (forgive me for not remembering the actual number) are shunning friends and "real" social interaction with their peers in favour of a lone night in with the games console. Weird, isn't it, that so often we hear about the vile, crime ridden streets and how it's turning our youth into a race of beer-swilling, drug abusing, crime obsessed street urchins, yet at the same time the moment we hear that they want to stay in and do something else every right-wing forty-something shouts outcries of anger and disbelief.

In truth I think it's fair to assume that, in part at least, the article is based in reality. Video games are now more popular than ever, so it's natural to then assume that more children are staying in to play them than used to. However, the age-old British tendency to dwell on past traditions and resist forward progress is also perfectly evident. It's hard to believe sometimes that in modern Britain people live longer, that there's less poverty and more jobs than ever before. You'd think the Britain of ages past must have been a joyous place. I mean, how often do you hear about how wonderful it was for children to play innocently in the street without fear of passing paedophiles kidnapping them, or of roaming gangs of yobs stabbing them for drugs money? The truth is nothing more sinister that the changing of certain cultural norms, and at the heart of it is communication.

Now for one moment let's ignore the fact that lots of children do still in fact socialise with their friends. Not everyone plays video games and even those that do still have plenty of mates. This truth, however, goes against the fear-inducing spirit of the article so let's simply ignore it. It is true though the way in which we all communicate is now very different to what it once was, and children are no different. We have e-mail, chat rooms, messenger and text messages, not to mention mobile phones. Whereas in ye olde days if you wanted to talk with someone you had to go and see them, now this is not the case. Even when I was younger (ouch, I'm too young to start feeling old!) the mates I saw in a typical evening were those that lived in my street. There would be a group of five or six of us and we'd hang out with each other every night, rarely seeing anyone else (and often playing Mario Kart, though that is beside the point). Nowadays kids can interact with dozens of other people in a single evening. Maybe it's in a chat room, maybe over text messages and sometimes in online gaming.

The reasons why this is often ignored is two fold. Firstly, the old folk that both commission and write these pieces of "journalism" are simply too out of touch to understand this. For them, such nuances are either totally ignored or massively misunderstood. When they were young they played in the rubbish on the streets. Their children, however, play video games indoors with their chums. This is what causes the second issue. They don't understand it, so they reject it. For as long as there have ever been people, us humans are naturally scared of change. It's an evolutionary norm to want to maintain the status quo, to take shelter in the safety of the familiar. When new things come along, they pose a threat (in a pre-historic hunter-gatherer sense) and we fear them. This fear manifests itself in the demonisation of the issue in question. Thus, we convince ourselves that this new state of affairs is bad.

I guess I go out less than I used to, but the truth is that I probably "socialise" more than ever. Of course, this all depends on how you interpret the word "socialise". If by that you mean getting out there and hanging about with other people within a close physical proximity, then yes, I'm a repulsively sad loner and the rightful subject of both your ridicule and verbal abuse. If, however, you see "socialisation" as the exchanging of ideas, conversation and opinion, then I'm not only social, but I'm social in a very promiscuous and frequent sense. After all, what is the fundamental difference between chatting to someone face-to-face or instead over a screen of text or microphone online? In fact, when face-to-face with people you're perhaps more likely to sit silently staring at the TV, or in a sorry, drunken near-consciousness at a bar.

The formats of text and telecommunication require a higher frequency of informative exchange. Not only that, but when I play Star Wars Battlefront or Burnout 3 on Xbox Live (or soon, Pro Evolution 4... ah, the joy) I can often be chatting with several people at a time. Many are the debates I've had about FIFA or the Playstation 2 whilst enjoying a bit of capture the flag or crash mode. Within the space of an hour I might have had an MSN chat with my pal that's a freelance Manga artist, a brief video-conference with the parents, replied to an e-mail from my editor here at Ferrago (lovely bloke, of course) exchanged some texts with the girlfriend and TK'd my supervisor in the back on Day of Defeat. It's really quite extraordinary when you stop to think about it.

I'd even go as far as to say that the sociable opportunities presented by such an ease of information exchange are in fact far richer than socialising in the traditional sense. I'm certainly exposed to a greater number of ideas than before, as well as a greater number of cultures. In one sitting I can be conversing with people from several continents, all with different opinions and values. Years ago it would have certainly been inconceivable that a bunch of Europeans could spend the night communally mocking an unfortunate lone pro-Bush American whilst indulging in a spot of Project Gotham or Counter Strike.

Now, though, it's really quite the norm and I really can't see why it's such a bad thing. Times change, the world moves on - deal with it. Granted, all of this is very new and for some people it can be quite baffling, but that alone is no reason to object to it outright. And even if after the argument presented here you still don't think playing games is healthy then remember that kids still go to school and whilst there they do nothing but hang around with other children. It's not like they spend all day hooked up by some neural interface to some sort of mother-brain esque computer, never leaving the confines of their life-sustaining coma-like pod. Parents, do not fear gaming. Tony Blair, bubonic plague, the undead - fear those things, but not gaming. Be pleased that your kids rack up huge phone bills on chat rooms and texting; at least it means they're communicating. Okay, it might be with paedophiles and terrorists, but come on now, let's not pick hairs... (errm - Ed).