Dear Joie,

After answering science questions all day, I like to play Mario. It’s relaxing to smash Goombas and zoom down pipes.

I asked my friend Dene Grigar if that’s wrecking my brain. She leads the Digital Technology and Culture program at Washington State University Vancouver.

She told me that sometimes people dismiss new things by calling them harmful.

That often happens with new technology or media. People reacted that way to railroads, telephones, cameras and television. People even freaked out about books. For a long time, books were hard to come by, and regular people couldn’t read. When that changed, folks worried about … » More …