United States President Barack Obama has warned that technology, including video games, and information from it can become a diversion to more important issues, such as education.
"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," said President Obama in a commencement address at Hampton University.
This is not the first time that the President has warned against the dangers of overindulging in technology and games. During his presidential campaign he told parents, "those video games are raising our kids. Across the board … kids are spending a huge amount of time, not on their studies, but on entertainment."
However, Obama has used games before as a means of advertising his presidential campaign via Madden NFL and Burnout Paradise. The New York Times also reported in December of 2009 that the President’s daughters had received a Nintendo Wii for Christmas.
Obama urged the Hampton graduates to adapt to the changes in technology and flow of information and stressed that education can help.
"Education… can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time," he said.
