Chores

Taking care of your responsibilities around the house is a way of earning respect. It is difficult for me to respect someone who lets others vacuum, do the dishes, pick up clothes and papers, do the laundry, and other chores while he or she plays video games or watches television.

On the other hand, if someone were to volunteer, to proactively ask what could be done to help get the house in shape... that is someone who sees beyond herself or himself. That is someone who cares about others and knows how to maintain property. That is someone who is showing adult qualities, and is gaining the kind of respect that I give to respectable adults.

Chores also make a home an easier place to live. Things don't get lost as much when the house is clean. There is less mental stress when your eyes scan over clean floors and counters rather than taking in the many details of items strewn about.

Chores also allow you to get the most out of your home. When the house is in good shape, you can invite people to come over rather than paying to go out somewhere. You have a place to spread out and work on bigger projects when you need to.

Our standing rule is that chores must be done before you turn to the screen.

What would you rather have had me do?

I recently pointed out to a teenager that he had spent roughly 14 hours playing Star Wars Old Republic in the past two days. I must have had a disappointed tone in my voice, because he asked, "What would you rather have had me do?"

We live in a semi-rural area with long, cold winters, so perhaps the question has some validity. Although, this particular weekend offered the first few days of warm autumn sunshine after a week of rain and storms.

When hearing the question, my mind went back to conversations we'd had 10 years ago. I said that he should be careful about playing too many video games, because when you play, you're missing out on other activities.

In order to build a variety of interests, which will make life more enjoyable, interesting, and productive, you need to spend time learning and developing skills in a variety of topics and activities. If you play video games too much, the rest of the world may become less interesting. There will be a world of activities that you won't know about or know how to do.

The fact that he thought that asking whether there was anything else he could do was a legitimate question concerned me. My initial thought was to say, "That's the first step. Stop playing so that you can discover the world around you. You should be able to think a few minutes and come up with a dozen or more activities that you could do - activities that might help others, improve your future, or develop skills that are not developed during gaming.

I didn't press the issue because it would just turn into an argument and the accusation that I was not helping him. He's still in his room Star Warsing away, but I'm starting to think that it would be fun to come up with a list of activities that teens could do instead of playing video games or watching television.

Perhaps this blog could become Pablum that will help ween teens from their screens so they may rediscover non-virtual life. It may be water that helps prime the mental pump from which their own creative ideas will eventually flow.

I welcome ideas from teens, parents, teachers, anyone who is interested in offering constructive activities to show that the physical world has a lot to offer, that there are valid reasons for resisting the allure of the screen.

As a final point, I want to clarify that I am not against all screen use. I am advocating for moderate or light screen use. Digital natives should know how to speak, navigate, and exist in mediated environments. However, they should not do it to the extent that they neglect their duties, development, and enjoyment of the physical world.