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"Get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy"

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http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2006/12/computer_games.php

man, you gotta love Boris Johnson.

It's the snarl that gives the game away. It's the sobbing and the shrieking and the horrible pleading -- that's how you know your children are undergoing a sudden narcotic withdrawal. As the strobing colours die away and the screen goes black, you listen to the wail of protest from the offspring and you know that you have just turned off their drug, and you know that, to a greater or lesser extent, they are addicts.
...just say no to Nintendo. It is time to garrotte the Game Boy and paralyse the PlayStation, and it is about time, as a society, that we admitted the catastrophic effect these blasted gizmos are having on the literacy and the prospects of young males.
They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious. These machines teach them nothing.
Every child must have one, and what we fail to grasp is that these possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty.

Summon up all your strength, all your courage. Steel yourself for the screams and yank out that plug.And if they still kick up a fuss, then get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy

...presumably smashing the kid's head in?

I don't get what the problem is, kids read the manuals surely ;)

underneath the ranting of a mad man is a good point to make, but writing about it in such an extreme manner is kind of over the top and it shows up, once again, people's extreme lack of knowledge when it comes to the game things.

Still it does grab people's attention, and there is a good debate in the comments section, with some excellent points made that side with gaming, and just chat about it sensibly without resorting to insane lizard analogies... not that I have had time to wade through too much of it though, it is huuuge.

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Haha, Boris. As an English and American Literature graduate who spent his whole youth in the thrall of these 'hypnotic little machines', I take exception. I suppose he is typically picking and choosing, or more likely only aware of, certain kinds of games. Spending all your time with anything is not going to make you particularly well-rounded, but the bigger picture is always frustratingly absent from an article like this. If anything, some the first games I played may have resulted in me being more literate. I reckon they got me hooked on storytelling, actually spurred me on to read more and also to be a pretty creative youngster.

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Yes, he seems to shift all the blame on to video games with no real connection other than a hypothesis plucked from his own frustrated brain… What about watching TV? Is that not also to blame? If anything TV is far more mind ‘rotting’ as it involves 0 interaction.

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They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious.

Yeah, kids should be reading, they'd look way more active then.

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Every child must have one, and what we fail to grasp is that these possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty.

Yes, those kids with PS3s barely have enough to eat.

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Yeah, the Labour government frequently praises the UK games industry and is trying to help them taxwise. Not very well though.

Borris is almost unrecognisable in print, whithout his trademark stutter and fluster and all. What a blithering idiot.

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Goddamn I hate games which have the disclaimer on the back of the box which says "Basic reading ability is needed to fully enjoy this game". I mean, honestly. What's up with THAT?

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