Violence and video games

*note added Nov.7, 2008: This is what I'm worried will happen when people don't do their homework regarding methodology. I agree that we need to parent our children but the conclusion is to facile considering the faults of the study.*

My wife noted last night that I hadn't played a violent video game in a long time. She was not a fan of GTA Vice City. And she likely has cause to be concerned. I am now the father of young children and simply do not have the time to immerse myself in the game world.

Yet another study has come out that co-relates video game violence and aggression. I'm sympathetic to the argument though as argued here, the methodology of the study does leave a lot to be desired.

I'm currently taking an empirical research methods class and I wonder if our intentions are right when it comes to studying violence and video games but our methods are wrong. Quantitative studies like this one will never really get at how young people construct meaning in their world and in their relationships. Shouldn't we abandon the quixotic quest of trying to go for the statistically causal relationship and simply switch methods to qualitative? Shouldn't we look at how actual gamers shape their realities in relation to games? There are oodles of valid research methods other than quantitative ones. Why don't we use them? Better yet, why doesn't someone fund me to do the study? Then I could move past the retro gamer I am into a whole new level of hipness.

Inspiration for Twilight

Is it not a little sad that Meyer names 12 artifacts as inspirational for her books but only two are books? Jane Eyre and Lucy Maud Montgomery. I have to be a little happy I suppose that a Canadian made the list but still, not Mary Shelly? No Bram Stoker? Not even Anne Rice?

As well, I'm a little disappointed that Buffy wasn't one of the movies listed. As great as Tina Fey is, how does she rate above Joss Wheadon?

Stodgy No More

In case you think the ALA (American Library Association) is a tad stodgy in their list generation (they narrowed the nominations down so that young people could vote on a slate prepared by adults) you can click over to the Cybils.

The list is long and I definitely don't have time or money to look at the whole thing but I love the fact that the Internet has allowed disparate readers to gather together. As a young person, I would have loved to have had conversations about books but wouldn't want to be a geek in my own school. The Cybils represent a great new way of thinking about reading.

Top Ten Teen Books

The American Library Association has a teen read week every year and they allow young people to choose the past year's top ten books. Here they are (apparently over 8000 votes):

1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
4. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
7. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
9. Before I Die by Jenny Downham
10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Why care? First, unless high school English has changed a lot, none of these books are assigned reading. There is clearly a disconnect between the lists of what young people want to read vs. what adults think they should read.

Second, since there is such a disconnect, I've got to wonder whether young people employ different ways of reading for 'pleasure' vs reading for class. I'm thinking that young people are learning to read in one way (analytical) but are choosing another way to read outside of the school context. Should we not help young people integrate the two?

Third, I know Romeo and Juliet a whole lot better than I know the Twilight series. If I hope to talk to young people about reading, I better get cracking at reading about adolescent vampires.

Morality and youth

You may not agree with who they promote but the sentiment is bang on - voting is a moral action for young people and we need to treat it as such. Of course they are making fun of anti-drug PSA but that is the point. Adults get obsessed about the wrong moral issues, like drugs, and leave aside the most important ones, like who is the next president of the largest military power in the world.

Book lists

I'm ramping up a project on trying to figure out how young people read. I know that the physical process is similar for everyone but there are so many things different about young people - their developmental stage, the culture they are immersed in, the schools they learn to read in - that I'm betting that they read in a different way than people in other developmental, cultural or educational contexts.

Saying that, I've been combing the Internet for interesting places to find young people reading. One of the things that I've been interested in is lists of books that people now believe were important for them to read as young people. Jeff Keuss, who I met over the weekend, has such a list in his "book shrine." While I will never agree that Mill on the Floss should be required reading for young people, I wouldn't mind if my daughter read it as a young person.

All of this is to say, any lists out there? Any push back on Jeff's? He has no comments in relation to the post so who knows, maybe people don't care about books.

Nerd Girls

A friend emailed me this week about a talk he was giving. The group were claiming "nerd" as a badge of honour. Thought that he might appreciate this:

reading is good for your body

According to this article in the NYT (you may need to register to follow the link - it's free and easy) girls reading a particular book with an overweight heroine lost more weight than girls who did not read the book. Sedentary lifestyles, like mine, apparently aren't making me get blobbo.

yo yo guru

Marko found this. I'm convinced it is my new PTS colleague Stephen Cady as a middle schooler.

Do Hard Things

Marko pointed this meme out to me through his blog. I wasn't aware of these guys before but I think that they are entirely correct in their assessment that young people are significantly more competent and able to deal with challenge than the "mook" or "mid riff" image of adolescence promotes.

Tie this into one of the questions asked by an elderly man from Chicago at last night's Presidential debate. "What sacrifices, other than military service, are you willing to ask Americans to make?" (I'm paraphrasing). Obama started to get it although I thought that his answer wasn't as strong as it could have been. He should have gone the direction that the Harris twins go - life has more meaning than consumption and we need s to step up and start to claim meaningful challenges for the young people in their lives.

New Blog

I recently found a new blog that ties into my interest in how young people read - Guys Lit Wire. It is mostly written by those who are invested in the YA genre but who aren't young people (largely, there does seem to be some young reviewers). To that extent you get an alternative take on YA lit, alternative that is from the industry but not alternative as in from young people themselves. Still, worth checking out, especially if you want to help a young male in your life find interesting things to read.

Mixed Race and Risky Behaviour

I'm sure its because of Obama that the Atlantic drew attention to this piece of research but, regardless of motivation, it is an interesting look at why mixed race young people seem to engage in riskier behaviours than their peers.

Student Polling info

First, I'm happy about this piece for its content. I'm glad that students don't like Palin. I'm not sure that it is all that significant considering how few students there are and who vote but it is still encouraging.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I'm envious of the US. I deplore the electoral cycle and the money that it consumes here in the US. I like the Canadian electoral cycle, its brevity and its relative cost. What I do miss is regular polling information about particular demographics. Specifically, how do young people feel about politics. I've done some cursory searches but I can't find equivalent data for Canada as I can for the US. I'm sure this is a factor of the very things I deplore. The US has more time and more money to study these things. Not worth the trade off but I think it would still be worth it for Canadians to have a greater sense of how young people are or are not engaged politically.

Framing the Election

In part as an effort to move away from my opinions about the current US election and moving the discussion towards a more neutral ground that includes some of my interests such as media literacy and young people, I offer the following link. Henry Jenkins provides a sustained analysis of the two presidential candidates bio videos. (By sustained I mean too long but it is worth touching down in a bunch of places). He uses George Lakoff's theory of how the two nt parties "frame" their presentation in such a way as to appeal to two different types of people. What I like about this piece is that Jenkins is using it specifically to talk to young people about how the media shapes our vision of the world.

I think that we often confuse being technologically savvy with being media savvy. There are always young people who are skeptical about the media that they consume but there are a larger number who are not as critical as they should be. Take for instance, Jenkins comment that his students typically view these bios as objective history and do not inquire into who and why they were produced. I look forward to the next installment which deals with the Vice Presidential candidates.

No Pregnancy Pact

In my recent class with some parents here at St. Andrew's the issue of teenage imitation of movies came up. Specifically, the "Juno" effect of teens wanting to get pregnant like her (as if getting pregnant would make them as witty and funny and loved as she was portrayed). One parent mentioned the Gloucester pact which apparently didn't even exist.

Reminds me of the Lost Children of Rockdale County piece that Frontline did a number of years ago. Seems to me that the excitement about "rainbow parties" was significantly exaggerated, just as the "pregnancy pact" was exaggerated. The generalizations from a small sample to a national epidemic makes for great Oprah but very bad actual decisions regarding adolescent sexual behaviour.

I wish that I could find a comment from Mark Regnerus on this topic as his book Forbidden Fruit was very revealing and statistically significant.

Young Swimming Phenom's Sister

SI had a bit about young athletes. Garrett at the moment is not particularly athletic. It doesn't stress me out. He can swim and likes people. I'm not going to ask for much more. I automatically think of him when it comes to sports because he is my only child old enough to participate.

What I found interesting about the article however was its exclusive focus on the parents and the young phenom. What of siblings? If Garrett becomes a world class swimmer (not likely but let's just go with that) what does that mean for Sage? We spend all of our time and money on Garrett, how could it not change our relationship with our other child? Or the relationship that they have?

All parents must maintain some balance but when something like professional sports enters the picture, I'm sure that messes things up. The article didn't strike me as particularly profound but it was worth reading.