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It’s the gift-giving season and most of us have someone on our list that would like a video game or a DVD or a game player of some kind including perhaps membership to a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game). I would encourage you to think about fulfilling that gift before you do so. Let me provide some reasons why I think it is worth withholding some gifts, especially for young people, but first allow me to set it up with a short history of video games and violent media.
In 1972 the first video entertainment game of kind stormed onto the scene and most of us, who are old enough to remember it, played it—Pong. Two players used video paddles to hit the ball back and forth much like a ping-pong game would be played. In the late ‘80’s and early ‘90s one on one fighting games arrived on the scene. Among them was the game Mortal Combat. This game raised the violence bar. In 1992 the game Wolfenstein was the first major 3D first person shooter and the effect of this game was to place the player in the game fighting, killing and being killed. The realism in Wolfenstein rose to a new level as well with enemies falling and bleeding on the floor. This provoked a revolution in games.
In 1993 the game Doom arrived including much blood and gore and allowing players to hunt and kill each other. As the technical and graphical capability increased, the games became more and more graphic and real. Today games of this nature, such as Soldier of Fortune, “respond realistically to different shots depending on where in the body they are shot, with what weapons and from what distance.” (Anderson 2006)
Okay, most have the wrong idea of who plays games for the average gamer is not some teenager. No, it’s actually a 35 year-old overweight man who is aggressive, introverted and often depressed according to the Centers for Disease Control. Many also believe that war games honor our veterans and yet the veterans themselves say the opposite. In a conversation recently with radio host Jason Spiess, he pointed out that when he asked veterans on Veterans Day, “How do we honor you?” The nearly unanimous answer was, “Find ways to resolve conflict peacefully.” They went on to point out that war games dishonor their service because they not only tend to glamorize the matter but to distort the reality of it all. Indeed, the proposed new game, Six Days in Fallujah has met with public opposition by veteran groups for precisely these reasons.
Now to some facts I want you to consider. First person shooter games have been linked to an increase in hostile aggressive behavior and a reduction in prosocial behaviors such as charitable giving, volunteer work, and overall helping behaviors. “Video games account for one-third of the average monthly core entertainment spending in the U. S. 45% of the heavy video game players and nearly a third of the avid gamers are in the 6 to 17 year old age group.” (MediaWise.org 2009)
Further, when men were assigned to play “Grand Theft Auto” their blood pressure increased and they reported more permissive attitudes toward drugs and alcohol and uncooperative behavior. {Ibid}
Adolescents who play more than one hour a day manifest more intense symptoms of ADHD. Game usage has been linked to lower performance or scores on SAT tests and grade point averages. “Those who play MMORPGs report more hours spent playing, worse health, worse sleep quality, and greater interference in ‘real-life socializing and academic work verses those playing other types of video games.” {Ibid}
PET scans show that when young men played a video game in which they moved a tank around through a battlefield to destroy the enemy that the neurotransmitter dopamine was released in the brain. Dopamine is involved with feelings of reward and was released from the men’s brain striatum as the men played. “This and other studies suggest that the release of dopamine and stress hormones may be related not only to ideas of violence and harm, but also to motivation.” (Gentile 2009)
Still other studies employing eMRI have shown us exactly what areas of the brain are involved when playing violent video games. Researchers have found that immediately before firing a weapon, players displayed greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulated cortex. This area controls cognitive control and planning among other functions. While firing a weapon and shortly afterward, players showed less activity in the rostral anterior cingulated cortex and amygdala. Because interaction between these brain areas is associated with resolving emotional conflict, their decreased functioning could indicate a suppression of the emotional response to witnessing the results of taking violent action.” {Ibid}
This kind of desensitization leads to a systematic desensitization and that leads to a general numbing of empathy to say nothing of the direct correlation with the increase in hostile aggressive behavior. Add this to the television and entertainment that is often consumed and by the time you have a young adult, they have seen over 200,000 commercials and over 30,000 homicides. (Taylor 2009)
The fact is, well over 1000 studies including reports from the National Institutes of Health and the U. S. Surgeon General’s office suggest overwhelmingly that there is a definite causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some. I think of it this way, take young people and put them in simulators designed to teach them to kill without emotion. Show them all the blood and gore and reward them for a successful kill. Add greater and greater rewards to enhance their killing ability. Soon, you have trained killers free of the guilt, the remorse or the nagging conscience. We train pilots in flight simulators and some of our enemies train in flight simulators and carry out their missions as a result--what on earth do we think we are doing to our younger generation?
Okay, I covered much of this in my books Mind Programming and Choices and Illusions, but then not all of you have read them yet. As such, I did want to remind you of the long-term possible ramifications to satisfying someone’s idea of fun with a violent video game.
I do want to wish all of you a wonderful Holiday Season!
Thanks for the read, Eldon
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Eldon's Blog
