Video games become an adult pursuit. I say grow up Generation X!
It seems that it’s not just Baby Boomers who don’t want to grow old; Generation X is just as bad. A new study from Nielsen//NetRatings reveals that more than one third of US adults (36.5%) in the US own a games console, and 15.9% own a portable game console.
According to report, the majority of console owners (71%) are married, and 66% have at least one child in the household. In many househoulds game consoles are becoming an integral part of home entertainment systems. This suggests that many of these so called “adults” are actually members of Generation X — that generation of no hopers that were teenagers in the 1980s and 1990s when computer games were starting to take over youngsters lives.
“As game consoles have become increasingly sophisticated, families have incorporated them into their centralized home media centers, which include the television, digital recording device, digital music player, and the PC,” said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings.
“Video game technology will only benefit other media, since what makes a video game fun and exciting brings life to movies and music as well. Companies that can leverage these new technologies across a number of products will have a distinct advantage in the competitive marketplace.”
Besides playing video games, the most popular personal interests among console owners was attending theme parks, collecting comic books, and collecting dolls and other figurines. The most popular vacation activities in this group was theme parks, water sports, and major sporting events.
Whatever happened to growing up, getting a job, getting married, having a kid, and leaving your childhood behind? No, it seems that Generation X is reading comic books and collecting dolls and figurines, and spending quality time with their games consoles instead of their partners and kids.
Perhaps nowadays playing with your kids means playing console games with them, and talking with your partner, means telling him or her how about how you almost got that damn frog accross the road in Frogger.
Call me old fashioned, but somehow that doesn’t seem too adult to me.
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March 15th, 2007
For starters: Yes, you might be old fashioned…
I’m from Generation X.
I grew up, have a job, used to be married, have a son and didn’t leave my entire childhood behind.
For instance, I’m still in the mood to hook up the old turntable and listen to some of the records from the “young years” (I’m not into collecting old comic books or figurines…) – put on Bryan Adams’ “In The Heat Of The Night” and I’m certainly among those screaming along…
I’m still in the mood to play arcade classics like Pacman, Dig Dug, Penta, Moon Patrol and Defender.
I have a playstation that I occasionally must “fight” with the son and his friends to get access to (they always win…).
That doesn’t mean I’m not able to spend time with my loved ones.
That doesn’t mean I cannot find time to goto Legoland for an entire day with my son (whooopss…a theme park, sort of, which apparently is in the “gray zone” in the context above).
That doesn’t mean I’m unable to play soccer with my son, my friends (and their sons/daughters) on a summer day…
My point is that “growing up” shouldn’t necessarily cut one off from doing things you used to love – and still might love to do on an OCCASIONAL basis. The opposite would be really old-fashioned, from my point of view.
But then again – I’m from Gen. X and it seems like it’s not considered “appropriate” to do things you used to love…
Of course theres a limit of these “childhood” activities, – they cannot (and shouldn’t) take up too much time/space, so other things/tasks – like taking care of the household and going to work – gets lower priority.
If that was the point in the article, I couldn’t agree more.
March 15th, 2007
The need to grow up
I honestly couldn’t help but laugh when I came across this. The basic gist of the article appears to be that rather than continue to play Video Games and buy “childish” material we should all be getting loans for suits we can’t …
July 12th, 2007
How about those good ol’ days? Those days when considerably more fathers used to drink copiously and beat the hell out of their kids for real instead of in Halo, good times those days were. I’m quite grateful that my father hangs out with me and plays a little Halo or Champions of Norath instead of leaving the house, getting hammered, having an affair or any one of the other unscrupulous extracurriculars he could be involved in. Honestly, give the industry a break and give dad’s everywhere a break. There’s nothing wrong with a forty year old dad hanging out with his 14 year old son, doing something besides bitching about the state of the lawn. There’s my two cents.
October 14th, 2009
Perhaps the problem in America today is that the
Generation-X Grungers weren’t beaten enough by their fathers.
When one considers the totality of damage that GENERATION-X has visited upon the world, an infinite amount of beating would still be insufficient.