The Video Game Generation

The other day, Jack said that he was bored. Now I realize I could have said, "Really? How about doing the dishes?" That is what our parents always said...but instead I said, "Why don't you play your new video game?"

"I finished it." He finished it. The game he got for Christmas 2 months ago, and he finished it.

"What do you mean you finished it?" I asked. "Can't you start over and play a new game?"

"No," says Jack..."I've finished all the levels."

Wow. A $60 video game he asked for, for months before it was released, and he is done with it? "Why cant you play it again and get better at it?" I asked him.

"No, it would be boring to do it again," he explained like I was the child.


I was thinking of this conversation later that day when thinking about how young people in the workforce behave these days. They truly are the video game generation. Short attention span and wanting a new game as soon as they finish the task at hand.

When we were kids there were two games: Pong and Space Invaders. The different "levels" were nothing more than the game just getting faster and faster. When you finished all the levels, you played it again because there just weren't any other games for you to play. By the time Pacman and Frogger came out, we had mastered Pong and Space Invaders. You could say we were beyond finished with them. But we still played them because we still only had four games!

This prepared us well for the workforce where you started on the bottom rung and you stayed there long after you had mastered the tasks, and "finished it." It prepared us well to do repetitive tasks for little thanks and to not always be looking out for the next big thing. After all, for most of us, even if there were more games, our parents would not have been able to afford the exhorbitant prices of them, and would have sent us outside to play instead.

Outside is where we learned to play games and to work as a team, and to understand that every game had a winner and a loser. It is always better to be the winner. The winner got the trophy. This prepared us for the workplace where only truly great performance is recognized, and mediocrity is tolerated, but not celebrated.

I think that these days we have prepared the video game generation to enter the workforce at the bottom, to master that "level" in no time, and to begin asking for praise and a raise. I cannot quite get used to how much feedback this generation requires. I have been told that it is for us to adapt to them, and to learn to praise them often and profusely, as they are used to getting trophies merely for playing the game, rather than for winning. They have been told by their parents how special and terrific they are at every turn, and when they hit the workforce and no one praises them simply for doing their jobs, they don't understand.

And after they master that first level, they want a promotion. Because it is all about making your way up the levels in the video game generation. Never mind that it took us years of toiling at the bottom to move up the ranks. For this generation, the bottom is not just a place to start, but it is the first level in the game. They dont seem to understand that you don't move automatically to the next level after you have mastered the first. In fact, you don't move to the next level until you employer decides that you can be of some other and better use to him. It really has nothing to do with your desire to move up at all. You might toil at the first level for years after you had mastered it, and then skip 2 levels simply because you are needed there. And no one gives you a "participant" ribbon just for showing up. Your praise is your paycheck!

I guess we have done our kids no favors, buying them all the latest games, driving them to soccer and telling them how great they are even if they stink at soccer and get C's in math. Perhaps we should have let them fight their own battles at school instead of interfering when a teacher gave them a bad grade. The world even has a name for us: helicopter parents. I've read that when employers recruit this video game generation, they also focus on the parents, who want to be sure junior gets time off for Aunt Lucy's wedding and has an ergonomic workstation so his carpel tunnel doesn't act up. Is the cafeteria peanut-free?

My parents never once called my employer...for any reason! I would have been mortified. I was an adult trying to impress other adults. The heli-mom thing would have blown my image as a responsible adult...after all, if I needed my mommy, I wouldn't have seemed very responsible, now would I? I guess that the video game generation has such high self-esteem that mommy coming along on the job interview doesn't bother them...

I guess I am just an old fart who doesn't want to get with the times, but I refuse to reward mediocrity, to pay more for less and deal with mama drama on the job! But what do I know? I was the one playing Pong for a full year straight. These kids can win the Vietnam, Korean and both Iraqi wars all within a year. Maybe I should just accept that it's "game over" for Gen X, and make way for the video game kids...and their mommies!