From
Wednesday,
February 06,
Italians, American, British Youth - Too
Much Video Fun To Consider Women's Ticking Clocks?
The
ANNOTICO Report
While
Kate Muit thinks that Italian men stay at
home with their mother; the British and Americans want to lead a life
like an endless episode of Friends.. Nielsen
Media Research surveyed American men aged 18 to 34 and found half of
not-so-young men spend nearly three hours a day video gaming.
Muir,
from a personal selfish standpoint, (and not touching on women's obsession with
shopping) states:
Perhaps
theres nothing to complain of about this man-teen era, unless
youre a woman with a ticking biological clock, waiting for someone " anyone " to grow up. (Which
means, give up your freedom, become entirely selfless, put the woman
on a pedestal, allow a woman to satisfy her "maternal instincts",
and have assume all kind of unfun responsibilities,
and being a provider) :)
As the academic
Kay S. Hymowitz writes in the latest edition of City
Journal, the young man "lingers "
happily" in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and
responsible self-reliance.
Perhaps the
man-teens retreat into a fantasy world of titans and totty
merely reflects his lack of comfort in the real world, where daring, muscle
and aggression (brutes and harassment) are no longer valued. (by who, and how did it get that way?) And how different is
it from women slipping off into chick lit? If there is a crisis in traditional
masculinity, perhaps the online game world provides a safe haven.
Computer gaming offers a convenient escape from the domestic into the
masculine, just as, last century, the gentlemens and working mens
clubs did.
For Hymowitz she was talking about an "escape"
from the wife/home. Muir is talking about guys reluctant to get into that
"trap". Yes, that does present a problem with women with "ticking
clocks" .And the answer????
And maybe, they
are being 25 cent psychologists, and should recognize that sometimes 'fun'
is REALLY just "Fun"!!!! Nothing more complicated.
The Dark Ages
From
At
my college evening class last week, two intelligent, thirtysomething
suited guys " solicitors or managers to
judge from their e-mail addresses " were talking about their new Xbox
360s and what transcendent joy was to be had from them. I eavesdropped more
attentively. Apparently, in Gears of War, the smallest details of the
largest battles were crystal clear, in widescreen! Surely they were discussing
their childrens computer games? Xboxes are toys, after all.
Further chat
revealed the professional gentlemen were childless. The Xboxes were toys for
very big boys indeed. Worried, I went unto Google and retrieved this trend for
you: Nielsen Media Research surveyed American men aged 18 to 34 and found 48 per
cent of them had used a games console recently, and on average, it was for 2
hours 43 minutes per day. Yes, half of not-so-young men spend nearly three
hours a day gaming.
Can this be true?
Are British chaps really spending their life outside work alone in their
bedrooms or living rooms with games on 50in LCD TVs? I assumed that, after
adolescence, young men put away childish things and played amateur football,
got amusingly drunk, instigated punch-ups, watched Big Brother or ineffectually pursued women. Yet here were men
holding down serious careers by day, but infantalised
by night in a virtual world.
I quizzed my
sons, aged 10 and 13. "Are fathers playing these games alone, without
their offspring as an excuse?" I asked. "Yes," they said.
They buy them for their kids, then play them
themselves." One banker dad they knew was always on Age of Empires and Civilization. As for the Wiis in other peoples houses " well, you couldnt get the adults off them, they said. Particularly the golf.
Its worse than
grown men building Hornby 00-gauge train sets in
their attics, or constructing battles with painted toy soldiers. Only a few men
did that, in secret, but now everyone is celebrating their inner geek.
Now, I recognise the amusement to be had strutting your stuff to Guitar
Hero III and I know whats in the Age of Empires, Second
Life, World of Warcraft- type
on-and-offline games, having been bored rigid over peoples shoulders, but
what of the "mature"-rated video games? Ive
heard of the rude ones, such as Leisure Suit Larry, where Larrys
object is to divest himself of his leisure suit. Or the
panting that goes on in the "Hot Coffee" patch in Grand Theft Auto.
But what of the solicitors and managers favourite
game, Gears of War.?
Off to the
Istillplaygames.com website. Fans of Gears of War write of the non-stop
assault course: "The bayonet is dead " long live
its replacement: the baby chainsaw." And: "The sounds of the
Locusts crying out as your chainsaw rips through them is one of the most
satisfying things Ive heard." Oh, yes. Look
closely from now on at your solicitor and check for the madness in his red,
screen-dry eyes.
Who knew that the
generation who first became addicted to Pac-Man and Super Mario would turn out to be boys who never grew up?
Man-teens sitting before their kiddy consoles like huge manatees.
But the games
addiction is only a symptom of the extended childhood of the 21st-century
hominid. Marriage, families and children are being delayed for as long as
possible, replaced by conspiratorial flatmates and microwaved gastropub ready meals.
Italian men stay at home with their mother; the British and Americans want to
lead a life like an endless episode of Friends.
Perhaps
theres nothing to complain of about this man-teen era, unless youre a
woman with a ticking biological clock, waiting for someone "anyone "
to grow up. As the academic Kay S. Hymowitz writes in
the latest edition of City Journal, the young man "lingers " happily " in a new hybrid state of
semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Decades in the
unfolding, this limbo may not seem like news to many, but, in fact, it is to
the early 21st century what adolescence was to the early 20th: a momentous
sociological development of profound economic and cultural import."
Perhaps the
man-teens retreat into a fantasy world of titans and totty
merely reflects his lack of comfort in the real world, where daring, muscle and
aggression are no longer valued. And how different is it from women slipping off
into chick lit? If there is a crisis in traditional masculinity, perhaps the
online game world provides a safe haven. Computer gaming offers a convenient
escape from the domestic into the masculine, just as, last century, the
gentlemens and working mens clubs did.
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
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Annotico
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