Abby Schachter on the War on Fun

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Abby Schachter reviews Bad for You: Exposing the War on Fun, a nonfiction comic book by Kevin C. Pyle and Scott Cunningham, which shows that virtually every popular amusement was considered dangerous before it was widely understood and accepted. Chess was going to distract kids. Comic books would turn kids against their parents and cause "reading disorders." TV was going to "hurt radio, conversation, reading and the patterns of family life." Video games would make kids more violent. The Internet would "scatter" the users' "attention." Parents do not, by and large, want to deny their children fun, but as this comic illustrates, it's easy to fear what's new and to wind up working against your kids' best interests.