Culture Shock

When politicians and other public figures criticize video games on cultural merits (or a perceived lack thereof), many gamers shrug it off with a comparison to early reactions to rock and roll. Of course, a lot more than rock and roll has taken similar criticism for allegedly corrupting the minds and souls of fragile youth, and Wired has a short article up highlighting some of the more noteworthy ones. For example, on the subject of that great storytelling form, the novel:

"The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge. Parents take care to feed their children with wholesome diet; and yet how unconcerned about the provision for the mind, whether they are furnished with salutary food, or with trash, chaff, or poison?" - Reverend Enos Hitchcock, Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, 1790