Barack Obama: Video Games Are Hurting Our Democracy

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

I find it a bit curious that Obama says he doesn't know how to use an iPod or an iPad yet he's admitted to be a Blackberry junkie. Maybe he just hates Apple?

It's also a bit contradictory considering that as candidate for President, the Obama campaign took out plenty of in-game ads for the Xbox 360. The mixed message: video games suck, but if people insist on playing the stupid things, they might as well vote for him. 

Obama's campaign ads popped up in games like Burnout Paradise on Xbox Live in '08.

Now, that said, I think there is a valid point here that Obama is making that would be better served without singling out games as a primary evil. Not to bite the hand that feeds me, but there are few socially redeeming things about video games beyond a temporary escape and fun, a strengthening of your hand eye coordination and an outlet for sharing a social experience with friends. 

I think they can be part of the culture of "Amusing ourselves to death" as Neal Postman wrote 25 years ago, and can be a part of why Americans seems so apathetic in the face of wars, an economic collapse and widespread corruption in Wall Street and corporations and government.

But guess, what? So is reality television, celebrity magazines, trashy novels, terrible sitcoms, Top 40 radio, horror movies, comic books, and 95 percent of what is available on the Internet.

Video games aren't ruining America. They are a tool that be used to exacerbate problems in America that already existed if not used in moderation.

I'm GameSmith and I approved this message.