Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Video Game Addicted Grandmothers

CNN's article "Grandma, let me play that video game!" paints the portrait of a 69-year old grandmother who is addicted to video games. It's sad, really. She's getting a lot of publicity ... why is that exactly? Because she's female? Because she's 69? What exactly is the big deal here? She plays video games for 10 hours a day and spends "a good part of her Social Security check on games".

Sounds to me like she is still in good enough shape to have a part time job or contribute to society in some way rather than wasting time and money on video games. The first sentence in the article says she's a heroine ... exactly why is that?? Further on, the article says that 19% of computer and video game players are 50+ years old. So what's so special about this grandma that she's getting publicity? I just don't get it.

1 comment:

beth said...

Well, one could say something Bill & Ted-esque about her age, but we'll leave it alone.

I imagine it's a combination of those factors -- age + gender. But yeah, kinda seems like a silly waste of ink.