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By deadkat

October 18, 2009

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Together In Antisocial Dreams

"A man goes to a party, gets out a book and starts reading it. Everyone at the party agrees he is very antisocial."

I have been left soggy with nostalgia by BBC4's Electric Dreams series. The premise of the programme is a family made to live through the technological progress of the 70s, 80s and 90s with each year represented by 1 day.

As a social experiment the program is supposed to educate us on how technology has affected home life over the past 40 years, but unfortunately (perhaps inevitably) its execution made it closer to a Cadbury's Smash advert, with the latest technology of the day being brought out of retirement to be laughed at by 12 year olds.

A recurring theme of the programme was the belief that modern technology (specifically videogames, mobile phones and the internet) are responsible for destroying quality family time in the 21st century and that going back to the 1970s would see a return to blissful family bonding.

The main proponent of this theory was the family's mother who blamed all things technological for the lack of communication between family members, with videogames (surprise, surprise) being the most reviled invention of the lot.

Ironically, her intense dislike of videogames for being antisocial was so strong that she banned any sort of videogame console from the main living room and into the children's bedrooms - therefore making it an antisocial activity.

Antisocial, antisocial, antisocial... it's not really the right word, is it?

antisocial [adj]
    1. avoiding the company of other people; unsociable
    2. contrary or injurious to the interests of society in general
[Collins English Dictionary]

Are videogames contrary or injurious to the interests of society in general?

Obviously the makers of Electric Dreams seem to think so - the programme's narration on the introduction of the Gameboy stated "we had never known technology so portable, addictive - or antisocial".

Really? I wonder how much consideration was given to the invention and rise in popularity of the (portable, addictive and antisocial) mass produced paperback book in the 1930s - no less of a technological breakthrough or social revolution in it's day.

"A man goes to a party, gets out a Gameboy and starts playing it. Everyone at the party agrees videogames are very antisocial."

Alex_V's picture
On October 22nd Alex_V said:

Nice post. Shame to see such a negative presentation of the medium on the BBC. Charlie Brooker's show at least admitted that games are enjoyable and varied. Gameboys anti-social? Sounds like these players just need a link cable!

deadkat's picture
On October 22nd deadkat said:



Thanks for the comment, but it makes me wonder if I have misrepresented the programme slightly.

The mother of the family was definitely anti videogames, but the programme was more neutral in that populist 'Daily Mail' way that tells the audience what it thinks they already believe.

The comment about Gameboys being antisocial is a classic example of this - the statement was made as a matter of fact (not somebody's opinion at the time) but no direct criticism was made.

In some ways this seems worse as it doesn't leave any room for debate, just reinforces existing prejudices.

Raul23's picture
On October 20th Raul23 said:

Currently, games are more antisocial than books, but it seems this is more due to a technical design deficiency rather than something inherent within games. For example, it's not an issue to look up from a book or stop reading it on a moment's notice--there's no risk of loss. With games, due to not being able to pause at every and any moment (cut scenes being some of the worst offenders; I like them a lot, but FF really needs to let you pause that business; it's really not very cool to risk missing out on the epic story, because you have more important matters to deal with (i.e., real people and real things)).

Add a pause anywhere, anytime feature to all games as a standard feature and we've cut down significantly on this.

deadkat's picture
On October 22nd deadkat said:



Thanks for the comment, but I don't think a pause function would change other people's perceptions of videogames being antisocial - it would just make it more convenient for the game player to be interrupted.

I think that reading is generally more acceptable because everyone can empathize with the activity. My own mother - a voracious reader - is suspicious of videogames for being 'addictive', but describe a book as a 'page turner' and she is immediately interested in reading that book.

What does the phrase 'page turner' mean to a book if not 'addictive' ?

M.Kelly's picture
On October 20th M.Kelly said:

How ironic that the subject of cultural acceptance comes up when nobody complains about a docusoap/reality show just because it's on BBC Four.

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly with the article- it's easy to criticise game(r)s for being anti-social when you see that it tends to be the geeky ones that are the less popular, usually due to being mocked and ostracised for liking something that isn't football.

If you're one of those who seem to think that gaming makes people anti-social, and more importantly feel the need to vocalise that to every gamer you meet, then really you have to ask yourself a question- is it that gamers don't want to socialise, or that they just don't want to socialise with you?