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Why do my kids waste hours watching millennials play video games on YouTube?

And that's pretty much my point. It's watching, not doing. Therefore, it's wasting time.

Published Fri, Oct 13, 2017 · 09:50 PM

    WHEN I was 12 or 13, I busied myself with a range of pursuits, from the dumb to the very dumb to the hugely and galactically dumb. Every month, I purchased a new issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. I memorised the entirety of Young MC's debut album, which contained Bust a Move and 12 songs that weren't Bust a Move. I got really, really into Dr. Mario (but I stand by that one, as over time I became startlingly good at it).

    When you're in those weird culturally formative years, you explore a lot of weird culturally formative options. So I understand that it is a middle-aged cliche to say that my kids' penchant for watching videos of bothersome millennials playing video games on YouTube is a remarkably idiotic waste of time.

    There is a monster cottage industry of millennials who record themselves playing video games, and my boys, ages 13 and 6, have plunged into it. Mild-mannered on most days, my children, when presented with these videos, spot-mutate into glassy-eyed replicants who draw the shades, hide under blankets and watch as many as they can before I dramatically stomp in and do my impression of the dad at the beginning of that Twisted Sister video.

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