Wii had a blast
I do love the Wii Fit which Rosa got me for my birthday last year. We have had a scream playing on it – enjoying it as a family and ending up really competitive on the leader board.
It is obviously fast becoming the centre of family fun for others too. Flickr is full of images tagged as ‘Family’ and ‘Wii’ and there are marvellous shots of people having a great time – many of whom you would imagine were not ‘into’ technology. Such as this.And this.
There are some fabulous groups for people to put their Wii photos in as well. One of my favourites is Wii Motion here.
Of course if you are not satisfied with the aesthetics of still photography, YouTube has some classic shorts now. Take for example the much loved bowling one.
Tragic.
Oh No. It just seems so real when you are playing:
It seems that schools have cottoned on to the fact that people who don’t normally play sport, will actually participate in Wii activities. The Mail has this piece today, talking about how one school is allowing kids who are too embarrassed to do ‘conventional’ PE lessons will do Wii Fit stuff. I am interested mainly in the comments that follow this piece; they vary from those commending the school, saying that PE lessons in the past have often been of a bullying mach nature (etc ) and that this is a welcome change – to the ‘they have it too good these days’ type of approach. For example we have Beckie from Bristol saying:
Oh diddums – when I was a kid we HAD to do physical exercise – PE. Like it or not you did it and no excuses. Forgot your kit – no worries, the school always had spares. Funny thing happened – no fatties back then
While Derek says:
At least it’s a constructive approach, when I was at school the games teachers were a byword for sadism and sarcasm unbridled by any notion of their true value which was a big zero.
I love it that you can make comments on news reports these days and I also love it that you can vote for which comments you agree with.
Despite the fact that many commentators worry about new technologies making for isolated individuals who have nothing to do with each other, I see a lot of evidence that technology aids participation. This is confirmed By Pew’s report about Technology and Social Isolation.
Looks like Derek had the same PE teacher as me. Wonderfully satirised by Barry Hines with superb acting from Brian Glover in the film Kes.
Gareth
2 Dec 09 at 3:00 pm
I love your blog on “Wii had a blast” though I am not a Wii owner or user, from the youtubes I’ve seen, I can get a good handle on what’s happening. I think it is interesting that some schools are trying it out – though I’ve also been told that the Wii requires the player to insert your age and weight, so how would that possibly help stop the bullying from traditional PE settings? I would only imagine it would add more fire to the flame. And really, is it exercising more of your brain or your body? The old adage sometimes seems fine “there’s nothing like the real thing” but then again, in a technological age where virtual realities can seem real, what is truly real –and what will be considered real in the future digital world?
Laura Abbruzzese
5 Dec 09 at 5:07 pm