11 year old college grad says Video Games are "a waste of time"

I don't want to help humanity, well just half and it takes a lot of batteries when i do.

I never knew having fun was a waste of time... what  a dumb little kid.

The interesting fact is that anyone would put any stock in the opinion of an 11 year old. Despite having clear academic abilities that are extremely impressive he is still an 11 year old. I have an 11 year old child myself and can testify that at 11 children are not capable of rationalization at particularly complex level. They normally simply parrot things that they have been told and have problems with understanding grey areas and reasonings behind moral choices. Its the norm at this stage of development and should be this way, hell most of us don't grasp these skills until we are well into adulthood properly.

The fact of the matter is that anything can be considered a waste of time if benefiting Humanity is your quantification of something that is not. I have a limited time on this planet and I choose to spend a portion of my time in appreciation of interactive entertainment. Why? Because I enjoy it.

Is this a waste of my time? Well I find that I enjoy myself and feel happy when I am doing so. Wouldn't enjoying myself be considered a useful application of my time? 

Exactly why should I dedicate my entire life only to Benefiting Humanity? If we all subscribed to this policy then we no longer have use for Painting, Music and any other kind of artistic endeavor. As how can looking at a Painting be considered time spent Benefiting Humanity? How can listening to a song be considered Benefiting Humanity? How can sitting watching the most beautiful play that was ever written be considered Benefiting Humanity?

That time you spent looking at that painting could have been spent on attempting to cure cancer! 

That time you spent watching that play could have been spent building homes for the homeless!

Thus without people to appreciate the arts we have no need to create them. 

Now what this child is really doing is expressing an idea of which forms of Artistic expression have value. Not that Video Games are a waste of time but that he (or most likely his parents) believe that they are without artistic merit. 

I happen to believe that  he (his parents) are completely wrong and that spending your life engaged in enjoying any activity is fully with merit and in-fact the very reason we should be on this planet in the first place. Yes those of us who can should spend time doing things that help others enjoy life, as we help others we help ourselves and create a world where if we need help we have the right to ask for and expect to receive.

It is an immature thought to expect that all activities should have more than the simple consequence of making someone feel happy. 

But then do we really expect to get more than an underdeveloped childlike view of the world from...  well, a child?

Find your own values in life and spend time doing the things you enjoy, if that is starting forum threads on the opinions of children then I guess you have interests that lie in different areas to my own. 

Possibly because I get to hear 11 year old opinions on a constant basis, try taking a long car trip with the kids in the back.  :D

Well, he can tell that to the hundreds of paraplegics and other disabled persons keeping themselves sane by playing Second life, also to the numerous psychological and anthropological studies carried out in Second Life. Also gaming is the driving force behind many forms of technology (Virtual reality and Human-to-Technology Interfacing). He should probably also mention that to the soldiers who are overcoming PTSD by using (ironically) a reconstruction in virtual format of Iraq to gradually overcome PTSD and normalise their reactions to day to day living.

Also, eat shit kid.

The parents probably raised him not to like video games that much.

I am not gonna take advice from a kid that couldnt even figure out how to be a kid.

If this kid wants to revolutionise the world in his life then sure.But inventing things improves comfort in life.So you have more chances to enjoy it.And this kid just doesnt want to enjoy life.

dollars to donuts, I could beat up this kid and I have no martial arts training.   And yes it would be one of the proudest moments of my life to beat up a little kid.

Wait a minute! hes a child prodigy but he only went to community college? not good enough to get into harvard or yale then?

They are a waste of time, but a lot of things are - he probably just doesn't understand what he's saying yet. 

It would help if I knew why you were bringing it to our attention.

I think it's great if he's able to keep up his workload, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't slaughter his own meat or grow his own food.  So there's still a bunch of people around him who work hard to help him and other people like him stay alive while they do their work.

Also, I've heard other people knock gaming as niche entertainment, but really, there are benefits.  One gains emotional well being through the sense of accomplishment, their mind expands by exploring new worlds, their reflexes get a bit of a workout, their expression (greatly increases (ha!)) through construction kits, their brains grow through the puzzles.  It depends on the game, but entertainment has never just been about wasting time.

If he has no use for it, that's great, and he's right about it not pushing humanity forward in any broad-spectrum way, but it does help individuals, which I still think is significant.  It sounds like the kid's plate is full anyway, so I don't blame him for not even picking up a controller. 

Also, since the kid's 11, he's barely outside of the black-and-white thinking curve humans go through as they develop.  As he develops more nuanced degrees of thought, as most of us do when we grow, he might change his mind.  If he doesn't, it doesn't really bother me a whole lot! :)  I just hope the kid doesn't have a burnout.  A lot of the fully realized geniuses of our time get too much stuff piled on them, and they wind up buckling under the pressure or having it wreck other aspects of development. 

If anything, your post makes me feel sorry for the kid.

He thinks he's being so clever saying that, but really, he is stating the obvious. Yeah video games are a waste of time, but so is everything in life. Really, life is just wasting time before death. Life is a waste of time.

looks like this little kid needs to come over to my house for a spanking

I admire that kid, and I agree. Games are not helping humanity, and neither is TV, music, radio.....

So, is martial arts helping humanity?

SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, SAYS SOMETHING I DON'T AGREE WITH!!

pfft i'd rather spend my childhood playing goldeneye than going to college any day

And nobody will give him serious consideration of employment, or admission to actual university, until he's at least 15-16. I think if anything this is only a testament to the quality of our state-run schools and colleges, that an 11 year old kid can get a degree. That kid must have some messed up parents for letting him throw his childhood away for a waste of time like this.

Would love to see the kids parents i bet that they control every aspect of his life

We'll get this duder on our side with project Natal.

Because they are? Doesn't mean they aren't fun or a way to kill the time. Plenty of people waste time with many various hobbies, so who cares. Kid is 11 with no social experience in their life. He can cure cancer, and i'll prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

as i say each to there own opinion but its not gonna stop me playing games

Below is the total contribution amount for the charity of Child's Play, a charity in which people donate money but also games and consoles to be allocated to children's hospitals around the world. Nuff' said.

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted"

I learned more from playing games than I learned from school. Heck, it even teached me how to speak english!

11 year old fool. so we shouldn't go bowling either, it doesn't help humanity. and any form of entertainment should be substituded by hard work.

I bet this kid also think a girlfriend is a waste of time  and everything else other than education.

What a suprise! An overachieving chinese kid with no life. I'll bet he badly practices playing the piano with the windows open so I can hear it when I'm outside, and takes part in a bunch of stupid clubs, and takes business courses. The jokes on him.

He's not Chinese; with a name like Moshe, he's probably Jewish. Similar parental philosophies though.

Fair enough, the child is entitled to his own opinion.

The kid may have graduated college but that doesn't mean his brain is fully developed and capable of making logical opinions.

Why does anyone even care?  There are lots of people that share his opinion.  There are also lots of things out there that don't help humanity in anyway.  I don't see that as a good reason to call anything a waste of time.  I wonder what this kid does for fun.

The kid will realise that true wisdom comes from keeping your mouth shut.