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Add to FavoritesVideo games are played by almost every child. Many of these games are of an aggressive and violent nature
involving martial arts, military combat and space wars as their themes. Role play is often used and the games can be addictive. They may seem like harmless fun or even an outlet for aggressive feelings for children and young adults but are they really so innocuous?
The minds of young humans are sensitive and impressionable. This is why they are able to learn new things quickly and absorb information. They are free minds, uncluttered with responsibilities and the hard realities of life. They are hungry minds seeking adventure and stimulation and they rely,to some extent for the adults in the world to provide the mind fodder they need. Computers are an easily accessible source of this nourishment and games are particularly appealing.
It is no coincidence that computer games are also used for training purposes by sportsmen, the police force, the military, airlines and other organisations. They are recognised to be a useful tool for programming minds to think strategically, develop leadership skills and make decisions. The link between
video games and mind training is established and is used in a controlled, supervised manner as a part of
carefully planned education and development programmes by responsible and experienced adult teachers.
The majority of young people currently using video games, however, are doing so unsupervised, often to excess and in a way which is completely separate from any other context. It is mind training out of control.
There is now a generation of young adults who have played these games since childhood. They have been desensitised to violence by exposure to graphic images on film and television and filled their leisure hours with endless shooting, bombing, karate chopping, stabbing and striking on combat type games.
If we think that the brain food consumed by our kids is no less influential on the adults they become
than the food we put into their bodies then we are making a big mistake.
So many young people of this generation are killing each other, by reckless driving, stabbing and shooting. Can we really say this has nothing whatsoever to do with the racing games and the killing games they have played everyday throughout their formative years? it is well known that play is all a preparation for adult life. The previous generation played doctors and nurses, cowboys and Indians,
cops and robbers. The difference is that they acted our these games physically, so the energy generated by the fantasy was used up in the game. Using computer games stimulates the fantasy but leaves the physical responses unexpressed. A charge builds up within the body. It may not be until there is a little alcohol added to the equation to remove the natural inhibitions but eventually, when the right buttons are pushed these stored responses will demand expression.
It would be wrong to say that because a person plays on a tennis game they will become a pro tennis player as an adult. But it might not be wrong to suggest that if that individual found themselves on a tennis court playing a match that they may not have learned some useful moves from their game playing.
We live in a society that is under great pressure. Circumstances arise on the roads, in the school playground, within the family and social groups where frustrations surface with force. This is when the
player remembers the moves he has absorbed in his fantasy game playing.
If the world of video games were more balanced with a healthy selection of games concerned with the
promotion of peace , healing and the creation of harmony and beauty it would be more acceptable. As hing are it is world filled with violence and aggression which is distorting the sensitive developing mindsets of young people the world over. The society of the future depends on these young minds. The society of the future will show us if the diet we have allowed the potentially beautiful minds to consume
has been a healthy one and whether video games have been an outlet for aggression or trained a whole generation to "Finish Him!"
Learn more about this author, margaret hillcroft.
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No
In Aristotle's Poetics, the ancient Greek philosopher emits the theory that the viewing of certain drama pieces that confer the viewer strong emotions such as sorrow, fear, pity or hatred will deliver the viewer from these emotions and will ultimately render him more adept at facing these emotions when they resurface in common life. He calls this process "Catharsis" which in a literal translation means "purge". The ancient Greeks believed that by viewing dramatic theatre where strong emotions are lived the viewer finds himself purged of that same emotion.
Violence is part of video games, and thus gamers who are constantly exposed to this type of material, will also be exposed with violence. Some believe that when you see something repetitively, you are more likely to replicate it in real life. This notion is not without logic, and accordingly those same believers will think that violence in video games contribute to real life violence.
I, for one disagree, following the philosophy of Aristotle and Catharsis, we can come to the conclusion that the violence in video games will not lead to actual real life violence and will actually contribute to diminish it. A person keeps on killing zombies over and over, when he is confronted with the same situation in real life, except this time with a human, he might feel hatred, the fact that he has felt fear an acute number of times will permit him to "zone out" this hatred as something he has already experienced too much times before, thus it will have less influence on his decisions and he is then less likely prone to violence.
An example can be taken from eating spicy, when someone has spicy foods regularly in his diet he will eventually grow accustomed to the taste. His taste buds will be less impacted by a spicy food, compared to someone who never took spices in his life who takes the same spice will feel a much more penetrating sensation.
For violence in video games it is the same, the act of violence itself is not what will prone someone to violence, it is rather the emotion behind it. when someone is faced repeatedly with the same emotion, that emotion will have a "washed out" feeling and he will be less influenced by it.
Another thing we have to differentiate is the actual influence of video games and the people who play it. It might be that some who play these type of video games are mentally-imbalanced and are more prone to violence than others, in that case video games have nothing to do with the violence as the cause is mostly in the mental instability of the player. A "normal" person playing such a game will not be feel the urge to commit violence, he will rather get the "purging" feeling, and the realization of what violence really is.
Learn more about this author, Luohan Wei.
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