Thursday, February 06, 2003

Confined children
I just took a little time to sit down and read prof. Henry Jenkins' article Complete Freedom of Movment, in From Barbie to Mortal Combat. While there are parts I don't recognize, such as his description of the gendered difference between playspaces, I guess those are as much social and cultural distinctions as gendered distinctions. After all, working-class girls and boys in Norway had pretty much the same duties and the same freedom. Apart from that I embrace fully the argument of how computergames and the passive consumption of media among children is not caused by the media, but by the development of our culture: towards a society where we restrict and control the free time of our children to the point that they have no freedom, no secret place in which their imagination can roam but their inner space.

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