Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 21, 2012

I think the last handheld gaming device to actually use batteries was the original GameBoy (discontinued sometime in the 90’s). All new devices have sealed rechargeable batteries.

Just shows, you should keep a dead battery handy in case you need it.

Awe, that’s just mean….now he’s going to cranky the whole trip and his parents will have to suffer….Bad Frazz….

I thought he was going to drop it! Still achieves the same effect.

Reminds me of my grandson trying to teach me to play Mine Craft! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Didn’t have handheld games. I had action figures. Same concept really. Imagination and viewing the scenery may work for a little while, but quickly grows old. In the end the trip turns into how much of it can I sleep through because it is so boring. If I had handheld games back then I probably would have been playing with them as well.

Dull and stupid people can’t ‘get’ scenery. All the bright people I’ve known…many physicists, even football players, quick, productive minds…LOVED road trips. Electronic games? who needs a hypnotism device that makes you quick…and quickly ignorant? Jerks. Their souls have been sold to ads and artificial stare-targets to fixate attention and make them susceptible to bullsh#!…barely human, especially to the marketing departments who really design and tailor their wares…

Right on!!!

Wow, angry people. My kids are teens, and when we go on road trips, they pack their own entertainment- handheld games, yes, but also books, puzzle books, comic books, etc. Why is it either/or? Enjoy all the world has to offer.

Sharuniboy, lot’s of kids read books…Thick ones, too. The Twilight series, Harry Potter, lot’s of offshoots..Graphic novels etc…Many times a modern book will tie into the video games….Don’t worry about kids today, they’re doing fine…..

When my kid asked, “Are we there yet?”I always answered, “No, enjoy the ride.”Then it became a game to keep repeating it.We wanted to see who gave up first, or if my wife yelled first.She knew what we were doing and smiled. The kid usually won because I was focused on traffic.

I thought parents took us on long boring car trips so often because it contained the cage fights ’twixt my brother and me.

My dad’s idea of a two-week vacation was to spend 5 days driving somewhere, 4 days at the destination, and 5 days driving back. Man, I HATED that. And tigre1, I’m neither dull nor stupid but I don’t “get” scenery. Of course, I grew up in the Midwest, so on those 5-day drives my dad loved so much it took about 3 days before there was any “scenery” to speak of at all. So boredom on the trip was a definite problem, which is why my parents made sure we had books – first coloring books, then comic books, then “book” books.

On the other hand, my impression of today’s strip is that the kid planned on using his GameGizmo once they arrived at the destination, not just on the journey. It’s not specified either way, so that’s the interpretation I’m sticking with.

Being forced to interact with your own child, wow, how pathetic that no one see an upside to that. I always loved that time, it forces them to listen to family stories or better yet, you could always discuss safety tips in the event of the zombie apocalypse or alien invasion.

This is one of the few times that, even though I sympathize with Frazz, I think what he did was wrong. I certainly don’t envy that family.

I also grew up without electronic devices in the car. I entertained myself the same ways you did (and I love to read). But after 12 hrs in the car, everything starts to pall. My daughters can watch videos or play games on the iPad in the afternoon, in addition to the books and toys we bring. The electronic devices are only for the car, though.

People who claim games are bad for kids have never played games, never enjoyed the imagination they inspire, and they grow up into bitter, cranky old people who constantly complain about how games aren’t good for kids.

First off, re:video games. I often find that adults like to sit around in the evening, doesn’t matter what day and age, sitting around is nice. Pre AC my grandparents spent the evening sitting on the front porch, now my husband plays video games, my mother watches TV. One could argue that since the TV is passive and the video game is active (not to mention social when I join him) he’s really the better off. So video games are not in and of themselves something to nay say..That said, there is such as thing as too much, and that goes for books, comics, and games. I’d been driven to/across/thru every state west of the Mississippi (and the ones touching it) but the Dakotas, Idaho, Washington, & Montana by the time I was 8. Yes large parts of MANY of the western and midwestern states are vast emptinesses, but my favorite memories are of looking up through my dad’s hatchback at a sky full of STARS that you could never see near the city lights.

Actually adults are stupid when the kids prepare for a long boring trip and bring something to do, and the adults turn arround and insist that it be left behind.

Sorry, I grew up in that time but I had to deal with adults taking books away from me and handing me a comic book and telling me that was more my reading level. Besides not all videogames are shooting and killing. There are alot out there that require actual thinking. As for 20 questions, that gets old after the first hour. So did the rest of those games. Then you seem to forget the horror of the adults singing off key to some horrible song from when they were growing up.

Therapy is just another way of beating someone up for being an individual.

Also, in the kid’s defense, seeing the country from the interstate isn’t really seeing it at all; from that viewpoint it tends to be fairly homogenous. You really need to get off the freeway if you want to see anything that might make it worth the kid’s while to look up from his screen.