ARE we becoming too remote from reality?

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by spoonybard

Basically, the media has nothing to do with it, rather the person's morality; in the end, it is your choice whether you actually do something or not.

Actually... I disagree.

The media doesn't have nothing to do with it.

Though you are correct when it comes to people having a conscience and can tell the difference between real life and a video game.

The biggest thing media does is desensitize us to violence. It's easy to dismiss this finding when comparing carjacking someone in GTA and a regular day at high school. But what about when it comes to the large grey area that is life?

Let's say you have a stressful day at school/work. Let's say you see your ex-gf with your best friend.... or just imagine something that might stress you out.

Now of course you aren't going to go on a shooting rampage and kill the people who have caused the stress (though of course this has happened before) but because you are desenstized to violence in general.. a somewhat violent response is more likely if you have been playing violent video games or consuming violent media.

[evanny]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

Years ago there was a programme showing how Japanese youth who watched or played violent games on PLAY station etc were becoming aggressive and actually reenacting the parts of aggressors.

.

dude. if you were actually worried then you would know that violent crimes have dropped 50% !!!! 50%!!!!!! since 80's amongst youth in big thanks to violent video games. biggest school killing ever didnt include guns! show me a violent teen who doesn't have a pc and ill show you a guy playing wow in his basement grabbing his penis who isnt making any problems for anyone.

and what do you expect? bad news sell so theyll show us blood and violance because thats what public wants so stop pretending with this "holier than thou" attitude that everyone is made to feel greatest compassion for someone on the other side of the planet getting beaten up or killed.

look at it this way.there is 7 billion of us. maybe when people see someone killed they feel more special. no one cares in animals/resources that are wildly available. diamonds are rare - so everyone wants them so its natural to want to feel more special - the less of us there is the more special we become.
kids arent dumb and they can see the difference between reality and fantasy. everyone of you make me sick - lets find things that caused kids to go shoot up school and etc....what the hell happened with plain old crazy? a? you think everything is soooo connected like "ai..he had an xbox - thats what caused him to kill people"!!!!! WELL ITS NOT!


o!!!! 665 people have died and thousands injured because of football. so maybe we shouldn't ban video games, huh? because real ones kill more off than fantasy.

[Japania]

In Spain they did another experiment some years ago and they discovered that people were more willing to help a woman that fainted if it happened in a non-crowded area than if it happened in a crowded area (the centre of Madrid).
I think that when people live in a crowded city and/or are surrounded by a lot of information their getting “anesthetized” is a defence mechanism. Feeling deeply others’ suffering all time would be unbearable.
However, there are differences among individuals (originated genetically and educationally) and sensitive people are more conscious of what happens around them and are more empathetic, capable to put theirselves in others' shoes, to understand others' feelings, to treat others as they would like to be treated.
I’d like to know the opinion of Darwin about it.

[Sangetsu]

It is nothing new. Violence is, has been, and will always be part of human nature. It is that way because life in general is violent. People have an animal nature which is territorial and competitive, it is a part of the natural-selection process, and such a nature cannot be psychoanalyzed out of us.

Kids have played war games for as long as humankind has existed. I did when I was young, as did my father, grandfather, etc. Modern games are more graphic, but they are not fundamentally different than the games which have existed since people learned to throw rocks and swing sticks. Nowadays kids have it easy, they can sit back and play video games. When I was a kid I often returned from war games with bumps, bruises, and bleeding.

I guess no one here realizes that even the Olympic Games are military in origin, and the early Olympian athletes were soldiers. Even in the early 20th century, many, if not most Olympic athletes were soldiers. The original events were the javelin, shut put, hammer, running, relay, hurdles, and wrestling, which were military training exercises in the time of the Greeks.

In past centuries such play was encouraged, it made kids tough and strong, and in those times it was quite likely that children would fight in a war or battle at some time in their lives; the younger they started learning to fight, the better. As was said of the Romans "they maintained peace by constantly preparing for war".

One might think that nowadays such games are a waste of time because only a tiny percentage of modern children will one day become soldiers, but that isn't necessarily so. Modern life may be relatively free of the wars which plagued earlier generations, but even modern life is extremely competitive (for those who wish to be successful), and the desire to win can be instilled by such games.

[MMM]

I think you put it together quite well, Sangetsu.

I don't think it is the media that desensitizes us to violence, but violence desensitizes us to violence. Although we have access to violent and realistic video games, very few are not able to distinguish the games from reality.

Compared to many civilizations throughout history, ours is pretty violence free.

[manganimefan227]

Probably since these days when you get mad you can simply put in SSBB and FALCO, PUNCH! a dude 50,000 times

^_^

[TalnSG]

Originally Posted by MMM

I think you put it together quite well, Sangetsu.

I don't think it is the media that desensitizes us to violence, but violence desensitizes us to violence. Although we have access to violent and realistic video games, very few are not able to distinguish the games from reality.

Compared to many civilizations throughout history, ours is pretty violence free.

I would agree that it is not the media, only to the extent that the media is only dramatizing what is already in society. They are to blame for their part in the increased saturation levels and glorification of it.

I think the numbers of children who cannot distinguish between the appropriateness of violence as a response, or means to an end increases, as the age and socialization levels decrease. Unfortunately younger and younger children are being babysat by video games instead of interacting with people, so there is less and less input from other non-violence sources.
The result is the violent, hitting and kicking fits I witness from children from 4-8 yrs old in the hall outside my office when they are told "no" when they scream till their voices give out for candy from the vending machine. Years ago you might see and hear that once in a while, but these days its the norm. When they don't get their way they resort to what little violence they can extert. There size and strength seem to be the only limiting factors - not discipline, not rationality. We are talking the old "terrible twos", these are children we once considered "old enough to know better".

Just who and when are they going to be taught that the entertaining destruction of people and property they are amused by daily is not acceptable in real life. The lesson is being taught later and later in life - if at all.

[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

I would agree that it is not the media, only to the extent that the media is only dramatizing what is already in society. They are to blame for their part in the increased saturation levels and glorification of it.

I think the numbers of children who cannot distinguish between the appropriateness of violence as a response, or means to an end increases, as the age and socialization levels decrease. Unfortunately younger and younger children are being babysat by video games instead of interacting with people, so there is less and less input from other non-violence sources.
The result is the violent, hitting and kicking fits I witness from children from 4-8 yrs old in the hall outside my office when they are told "no" when they scream till their voices give out for candy from the vending machine. Years ago you might see and hear that once in a while, but these days its the norm. When they don't get their way they resort to what little violence they can extert. There size and strength seem to be the only limiting factors - not discipline, not rationality. We are talking the old "terrible twos", these are children we once considered "old enough to know better".

Just who and when are they going to be taught that the entertaining destruction of people and property they are amused by daily is not acceptable in real life. The lesson is being taught later and later in life - if at all.

I'm sleepy and it's late, so forgive me if I've missed the point a little. It sounds like you're saying that from what you've seen in children the increased exposure to violent games has left them more violent, and whilst I would agree that children are more violent, I disagree that it's the exposure to violent media. Kids 4-8 aren't going to (usually) be playing Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto, or watching Halloween or Saw. . . they play Pokemon and watch Twilight and (at the risk of sounding old) whatever else kids today watch

As a general reply to some of the other posts, I think violence in children and adults is a result of society and the expectations we have. Media may desensitise us, but it doesn't influence us. I don't play violent games, but I've watched horror films since I was twelve and haven't once commited a single violent act, and students I've taught are obssessed with Twilight, and not one of them has wanted to sparkle in the sun or fall in love with a vampire :P Media and entertainment have very limited effects in my opinion.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

I would agree that it is not the media, only to the extent that the media is only dramatizing what is already in society. They are to blame for their part in the increased saturation levels and glorification of it.

I think the numbers of children who cannot distinguish between the appropriateness of violence as a response, or means to an end increases, as the age and socialization levels decrease. Unfortunately younger and younger children are being babysat by video games instead of interacting with people, so there is less and less input from other non-violence sources.
The result is the violent, hitting and kicking fits I witness from children from 4-8 yrs old in the hall outside my office when they are told "no" when they scream till their voices give out for candy from the vending machine. Years ago you might see and hear that once in a while, but these days its the norm. When they don't get their way they resort to what little violence they can extert. There size and strength seem to be the only limiting factors - not discipline, not rationality. We are talking the old "terrible twos", these are children we once considered "old enough to know better".

Just who and when are they going to be taught that the entertaining destruction of people and property they are amused by daily is not acceptable in real life. The lesson is being taught later and later in life - if at all.

Every generation sees younger generations going to hell in a handbasket. Are 4 year olds playing violent video games?

I am not sure where you work, but public meltdowns by young children is nothing new. Brain development in children has not slowed across the generations, but has gotten quicker. Girls are starting their "cycles" younger and younger.

A recent showed that college-aged people that play shooters were better at making quick rational decisions than those that didn't.

And although I think the number of children that are "babysat" by video games is higher than it was a generation ago, what was the last generation babysat by? The TV set. It wasn't like all these kids were doing volunteer work for homeless people, and then video games came along.

I am not necessarily disagreeing with all you say, Taln, just inserting a different perspective.

[spoonybard]

It's nice to finally see people agreeing with me. I read a comment from another site that doesn't involve videogames or TV; it involved an incident at a school where they were supposed to be showing the benefits of donating blood, but... well, read the comment I am going to paste here. The reason why I'm posting it is because it can be applied to every instance of finger pointing:

"This isn't news. This also isn't a lawsuit worthy event. Twenty years ago people would have gotten outraged and the employee would probably have been fired. That would have been that. Now it's all about the money you can milk out of people for supposed 'trauma'... because they were subjected to gay porn for 30 seconds? Seriously? This is exactly what is wrong with America today, too many babies wearing adult bodies."

Mind you, Australia is worse than the US when it comes to restrictions, and the UK isn't that fantastic either. What's curious is that the way people tend to feel towards games(and TV, and movies), is the way that people felt when comics first came to existence(in an attempt to get rid of comics, somebody accused Batman and Robin of being homosexuals @_@).

These are people who don't like certain things, and because they don't like them, they do what they can to get rid of it, including using it as a skapegoat rather than doing something to correct the actual problem(or focus attention on something that merits attention, there are rating systems for a reason). Again, it's too easy to blame something/someone you don't like.