Pblic Educatoin and Gaming addiction (Video post)

Gaming is the opium of the masses?

The landscape of video gaming is astoundingly different to what is was five years ago. Video game publishers don't want you to buy games, instead they demand loyal devotion to them. The video game market is booming. Gaming is a billion dollar industry. Where there is money there is marketing. Video game marketing is brilliantly deceptive; keeping gamers paying for the pain. 

The recent phenomenon of free to play games is a worm; attacking smartphone bank accounts. Access to games has never been easier thanks to smartphones; spreading like cancer into ever wider markets. The key to the free to play money making machine is micro transactions. Consumers the world over are nickle and dimed when playing free games. Little by little free to play games bleed the bank dry.

Free to play games are addictive. Deliberate design keeps consumers playing and paying to reach aloof goals. The expertise of behavioral scientists make free to play games irresistible. Consumers satisfy the craving to play anytime and anywhere; the drug is in their pockets. 

 

Women in technical sciences

The extremely low number of women in Computer Science is not alarming. There is nothing holding women back from a successful career in technical sciences. Is it alarming that far less men graduate in nursing than women? Absolutely not. If stereotypes were holding women back from technical majors it is due to choice, not oppression.  

Real cathedrals are beautiful; software cathedrals are ugly

Cathedrals are mystic, perplexing, and ancient. When code is mystic, perplexing, and ancient; it's a train wreck. Flexibility is paramount when writing software. Obstinate code is costly and infuriating; wrestling with it is like getting blood from a stone. Adept programmers write software as sharp as themselves, when they keep code flexible. Software should be like a pencil, simple, intuitive and versatile.

Gospel connections and distractions

The LDS church has supernatural ability to organize people. During the Proposition 8 voting in California; the LDS church was critical in organizing a consortium of churches to raise public awareness, concerning Proposition 8. The key to their supernatural ability is their use of technology. Their worldwide membership is connected like no other Christian church.

The leaders of the LDS church are encouraging their congregations to be computer literate, to engage in social media, and use technology to spread the gospel. These petitions are given with a warning; don't let the technology distract from the goal.

The dichotomy of computers is that they are able to connect us across the globe, and at the same time, we can be lose ourselves in a deluge of brain numbing entertainment and worthless information. Technology presents us with a fantastic opportunity and challenge; it should not go to waste, but be weary of wasting your life away.