With all this talk about causation behind violence ...

[mc5aw]

I can add my personal experience from working closely with teenagers as a middle school teacher for several years. One of the most popular video games of late is the "Call of Duty" series, grossing in the billions of $. It is ultra-realistic, and ultra-violent, incorporating military type weaponry for its characters to use for the sole purposes of killing as many BGs as possible. It is addictive for teens to play on their own, or in on-line communities around the world. I had students (13-14 year-olds) literally playing CoD all night, every night, week in, week out. The vast majority of my students were normal, decent kids ... a handful were troubled, and staring down equally troubled futures. Playing this game non-stop for hours and days on end created a collective desensitized attitude toward the game's carnage. To a student, not a single one I knew ever showed anything but pleasure at playing the game ... no remorse, no concern, no sense of anything negative. I saw the game, and I know how it was designed to mirror realism as closely as possible. There is no Buck Rogers fantasy stuff, it's realistic weapons (some I've owned) wreaking realistic damage. I don't care what you watch on the tube, but if you do it for 1/3 of the day all the time, it's going to have an affect. Is every kid who is a CoD addict destined to become a gun wielding fanatic? Absolutely not, but there is no doubt in my mind that the kids out there who are loners or oddballs or having mental problems, whose only sense of empowerment comes via a violent video game, are in a high risk group ... high risk to engage in anti-social behavior, or worse. Anyone remember Dungeons & Dragons? In high school it was all the rage, and I knew quite a few classmates who were into D&D way too deep, and began living out their game personas in daily life. As teenagers, we laughed about it at the time, because some 18 year-old acting like a medieval sorcerer was viewed as a joke. But you get a kid who spends his days non-stop killing video characters with AKs, ARs, BARs, RPGs, etc. and that teen is going to eventually have game-on-the-brain, where reality and fantasy can become distorted, then morph into some hybrid state of "surreality". These kids don't simply play games like CoD ... they become parts of the game, and literally have difficulty putting the controls down. Throw in some existing mental health issues, and now this young person is a ticking time bomb.

Are ultra-violent video games (coupled with equally ultra-violent films) the MAIN causative factor behind random people becoming unglued and acting out with malice and indifference? Maybe yes, maybe no ... but I can say without hesitation that these gratuitous killing games and films are a LEADING causative factor into what we're seeing over the past decade.

When I was a kid, I was raised to respect and enjoy firearms. Hunting, target shooting, etc. were fun activities, and even allowed for a little acting out, be it GI Joe or Jeremiah Johnson. I had healthy outlets for my childhood aggression and angst too ... sports, reading, music, arts & crafts ... NO VIDEO GAMES HAD BEEN INVENTED. If I had ever shown indifference to firearms, or set about acting aggressively with my .410, .22 pump, or 30-30, believe you me, my hide would have been tanned in quick time, and that would have been the end of my firearms ... permanently.

The antis will never acknowledge any of this, nor proactively take steps to rein it in simply because video game sales generate too many $, and liberal Hollywood would never look itself in the mirror and admit being complicit in any way. It's far easier to blame the "gun culture" and proliferation of firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens as the undermining of society. I'll say this though ... I've been active in shooting for over three decades, and any of my game playing students got more trigger time in a week than I did in a given year. Tell me that repetition and conditioning doesn't have an effect on the teenage mind.

Thanks for listening. Merry Christmas. Stay safe ... stay well.

 

[desi2358]

My upbringing was also one where I was taught respect and proper behavior, especially when it came to firearms. Guns were all around but they were tools for the hunt or target shooting or family relics. Our childhood games of war and cowboys were fantasizing reality not some graphic, realistic video game filled with gore. We also didn't do it endlessly, there were plenty of other things to do.

I have also suspected that these games (and also the incredibly graphic carnage of some movies) are having a disturbing effect on some of those youths who haven't had a solid upbringing or who may have mental problems. Add in the societies tendency to throw medications at the problem and you have a dangerous mix.

 

[NFrameFred]

The antis will never acknowledge any of this, nor proactively take steps to rein it in simply because video game sales generate too many $, and liberal Hollywood would never look itself in the mirror and admit being complicit in any way. It's far easier to blame the "gun culture" and proliferation of firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens as the undermining of society. I'll say this though ... I've been active in shooting for over three decades, and any of my game playing students got more trigger time in a week than I did in a given year. Tell me that repetition and conditioning doesn't have an effect on the teenage mind.

"The great tragedy of our time is the total denial of the truth when it runs contrary to popular social doctrine".

The late, great Colonel John (Jeff) Cooper

 

[Pointshoot]

We are social beings and it is extremely difficult for most people to kill another human close up. Militaries must use various conditioning techniques to get their soldiers to kill.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (US Army, ret) has written a great deal on this subject: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society: Dave Grossman: 9780316040938: Amazon.com: Books

Combine many hours in front of these very realistic simulations and the psychiatric medications given to so many kids today, and you have a very dangerous mix IMO.

 

[snubbyfan]

I remember when video games where a quater and were such things as Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Asteroids, etc. You'd go to the arcade play a few games and go home. They weren't ultra-realistic killing games, just fun. There were always horror movies and war movies but they weren't first person and 24/7 total saturation.
Kids now play these violent ultra-realistic video games at the exclusion of all else. First person total saturation. It's bound to have an effect. You're right, if a person has a mental ailment and has trouble seperating fantasy from reality then it's going to have a profound effect on this person. The mind of our youth's are still developing and if this is the kind of thing they're constantly exposed to it's going to effect how they see the world for the rest of their life.
This is something that needs to be addressed, our children are our future and if they're being raised to be sociopaths then it's a bleak future indeed.