Nintendo DS
2008-06-07 11:31AM PDT/Home
We were thinking about getting the kids a Nintendo DS, mostly because Brain Age looked awfully cool. Ultimately we decided against it. But I'll go further, I've come to the conclusion that the Nintendo DS is just plain evil.
What I noticed about the DS, once I started paying attention, really wasn't pretty. At what would otherwise be very social situations, there seemed to be a couple kids not participating. Why? They were glued to their DS. At birthday parties. At dinner parties. It didn't seem to matter.
I know you could argue that if the parents wouldn't allow the DS to become an excuse for non-social behavior then it wouldn't be a problem. But with the DS non-social seems to be the path of least entropy. I would need to exert energy to make it not be a problem. And frankly I already have to exert enough energy to rein in Webkinz. Do I need another thing?
Maybe if I was regularly taking the kids on a couple hour drive, where they're stuck in the back seat and the alternative to playing on a DS is for them to torture each other and my wife and I just to amuse themselves. Okay, then, maybe I'll rethink DS. But until then, forget it.