It’s been a favorite topic of the media for quite some time to explain that the rise of gaming is going to do nothing but cause more and more harm to society. Most recently it was first-person shooters. Before that, some argued that Pac-Man would bring about the downfall of our youth. Before gaming, it was rock music that was the evil vice of young people, and Elvis was decried as a “corrupting influence”.

I have no doubt that adult cavemen complained that “all this ‘walking around with animal skins on’ stuff is not the way a proper person should behave” before loping out to stun a buffalo with a rock.

But now, thanks in part to the increasing visibility of the genre’, it’s time for the MMORPG to get some attention…first up, Fox News:

Massively multiplayer online games — or MMOGs, as they’re called — can foster more vulnerability than there might be on other virtual meeting spaces such as dating and social networking sites, where participants are inclined to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior from the start.

Fox News continues :

The common goal of annihilating the foe can bring out a belligerence that sometimes spills over into real-world interactions, especially within those who become addicted to what they’re playing, said Robert McCrie, a professor in the law and police science department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

But wait…that’s not all. Did you know that Runescape is bringing about the downfall of today’s youth? No, really.

Runescape is ruining the youth of today. There a thousands upon thousands of sweet popular kids that got sucked into the very addicting game of Runescape. It is pretty sad when one of the top searches are a video game. Runescape has caused kids to be cramped up in there house, days on end. Runescape and many other games are slowly, but surely damaging the youth of today.

And also…

However, for others, it can be destructive. In a way, we are giving kids an early head start at developing an ego. They think at a young age they are better than everybody else…

Sorry…that’s how televising high school sports is ruining our youth. Let me try again…

Its ruining the youth, its making them unsocial, unimaginative, in fact unproductive. What do they produce actually …nothing.

Whoops. Missed again. That’s how Business Process Outsourcing is ruining the youth of India.

I could continue with more examples of the various things that “trusted sources” say are ruining our youth, but hopefully by now you see my point…everything our children are involved in is ruining them, and making the possibility of their leading a healthy lifestyle become more remote with every passing day. At least, in someone’s eyes.

(Insert a healthy rolling of the eyes here.)

My personal feeling on what’s ruining the youth today?

Constantly having “You’re being ruined by (fill in the blank)…you don’t stand a chance of making it!” screamed in their face every damn day.

I would say “enough with the righteous indignation already…you saw Elvis swivel his hips, and you turned out just fine, despite what your parents thought was going to happen to you as a result”, but as I pointed out at the beginning, it’s been going on for decades (if not centuries), so I will lead by example and not scream useless crap at a group that’s not going to modify their behavior, no matter what I say.

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