Video Games

The amount of video games that kids play these days is insane.  When I was in 6th grade, my parents bought me a Nintendo 64.  I absolutely loved that system.  I would play it all of the time.  When I was older, I sold it, then eventually bought it back, sold it again, and then bought it back.  I still have it somewhere, but it is missing a wire so it doesn't work.  I never got into any of those violent Halo games or any of that garbage like my brother does with his Playstation 2 and 3, XBox and XBox 360.  When Guitar Hero came out, I played that all of the time.  I didn't even play many sports video games, as shocking as that might sound.  I did play a college basketball game a lot when I was younger with my brother.  Other than that, no sports games.  I haven't played video games in a number of years.  I know that many people my age still play video games.  I'm just not into it.  I guess I'm a loser because I prefer to read and write with my "free time".  I wish kids would play less video games.  I have students that I help in a homework club two days a week.  One of them is way more concerned with his XBox 360 than he is with how he does in school.  When I was his age, I was outside playing all of the time and not playing as much video games.  Yes, I had my N64, but I didn't play it all hours of the day.  If kids spent less times on video games, social networks, and cell phones, they would do much better in school.  I had one 6th grader tell me the other day that she used 3.7 GB of data last month in texts alone.  I'm sure that she is exaggerating because I don't even think that's possible.  I am allotted 200 MB of data each month and have come close to using all of it only once in my almost 3 years of having my phone.  It's amazing how much the world of technology has changed since I was a kid.  It's only going to get more distracting to kids as the years go on.