Wii-motes Causing a Stir

No less than a year after Nintendo's Wii console hit store shelves, some in the medical industry have dubbed it unsafe for use. Apparently, prolonged use of the awesome motion-sensing Wii controllers, lovingly called "Wii-motes" by their users, can cause injury, especially in the shoulders. The problem? Kids and adults alike are playing the video games for stretches of time that far exceed the length of time that they would be participating in that sport in the "real" world. So, while you may be exhausted after one hour of playing tennis on a real-live tennis court, the Wii console and Wii Sports (the video game that comes prepackaged with the console upon purchase) together, have made it possible to have a knock-down drag-out tennis marathon that lasts until (pardon the pun) the Wii hours of the morning.

Forgive me if this all sounds a little upsetting to me. Growing up as a card -carrying member of the Nintendo generation, weren't my parents always on my case to get up and move around for a little while, instead of playing Tetris for hours on end? And now, Nintendo comes out with a console that enables me to do just that, whilst still enjoying watching my Mii character run from one side of the screen to the other, and doctors must burst my bubble by telling me not to mock-box my fiancée into a Wii oblivion, or else my shoulder might become inflamed.

As someone who comes from a family of athletes, I understand that injuries happen as a result of exerting yourself. My sister, at the tender age of eighteen, who loves softball, must undergo reparative back surgery in the spring due to sport-s related injury. I myself, an avid hiker, must regularly alternate between applying heat or ice to my left knee. These are the spoils of doing something that one enjoys. So, will I let a possible shoulder strain stop me from letting my Mii character feel the sweet warmth of victory as she crushes another opponent in a long deathmatch to the finish? Likely not.