Violent Video Games or Real Fun?

Violent video games in my viewpoint do inspire positive emotions whilst intending violent acts. Children, youth and adults (mostly male) enjoy these games and often state it doesn’t cause aggression. Yet on many occasions I have watched people watching violence on the news and not reacting. I recall a US researcher coming to Australia and speaking to the Conflict Studies Group, of which I was involved, and talking about her research into violence on television when TV first started in the US. She found that statistics of violent crime increased and also apathy after exposure to violence on television.

For me, what you put yourself in front of influences you one way or another. It may make you immune to violent acts, as you have seen many on television, at the movies or in a game. It may escalate your fear, becoming frightened to be alone, that someone will come and kill you (I heard a boy saying that who plays). He was deeply insecure. Or you become desensitised, killing and stealing seems like nothing, however as you are engaged in it as a game or through negative words at home, violence becomes acceptable on some level as a problem solver. Interestingly, when there are images of soldiers in Afghanistan scanning for Taliban as part of the news, this becomes similar to the game where you have a weapon and you are scanning for enemies, there is a relatedness, it appears normal, rather than shocking. I don’t watch violence and when I see it I physically react, as I am not desensitized. I am deeply disturbed by it and I do not see it as normal, I see violence as a failed response to problems. I spoke to a former policeman the other night, he told me he was with a SWAT team, he says violence fails. He was saying to me he is interested in a World Kindness Day. I really loved to hear this.

So going back to violent video games, it is not hard to connect the dots that violence becomes acceptable. It is what men and boys do. It is the little socialisation boys get from fathers who aren’t around much these days. Boys don’t have rituals into manhood, they think being a man is being violent. So the games become a form of role model. I have spoken to soldiers and they have told me war is disgusting and some feel so wounded from their experience psychologically, as it runs counter to their humanity. Yet the greatest men I feel are gentle and compassionate, yet you would never guess that from the news or movies. The hero is often depicted as violent and tough.

The image of violent games being acceptable is given credence as the games are sold openly in shops as just games, even though some of them have the most violent images contained within. Society has given the green light, its endorsed. I recall some months ago going into a library and watching young children playing a violent game and in the game the child was the soldier choosing his gun and then reloading his gun (always male). The child was sheepish when I asked questions about the game. The child talked about getting points, but you had to clean the area (that is kill everything). It hardly promotes conflict resolution, problem solving or peace to minds that are forming ideas about what the world is about. They see clearly it is about defending yourself, and being more violent then the opponent, that is called winning and this is the very competition that is at the base of violence. The messages are winners are grinners, don’t be a loser, destroy others, the inferior are weak. Indeed the feminine images are now becoming violent, so we will see more aggression in females as they come to see it as strength and power. They don’t want to be seen as a weak female. Yet the feminine reflects gentleness and compassionate feeling for others and crying is an expression of deeper emotion, which is natural and deeply connecting. This is strength. Pent up emotions only creates frustration and disconnection. People become deeply alone.

In this type of violent forum any humanitarian feeling is seen as weak. To be a man you don’t feel just find the target and destroy it, is the underlying message. For me strength is always in love and kindness. The real heroes in war were the ones who saved their friends or sacrificed themselves to save someone, that was where they won the battle for their humanity. I see nothing strong in violence. It promotes weakness as it ignores problem solving in favour of power over. I have seen this in workplaces where people block their feelings and attempt to control and hurt others, showing no compassion for the ‘other’. We are calling this workplace bullying and when there is no feeling at all they are labelled as workplace psychopaths. They justify their hurtful actions by playing by the rules of the game of power. It does not promote a balanced, healthy or peaceful society

The very discriminations we promote in games, movies and television, some teachers and parents try to attempt to reverse. In my own teaching I have tried to promote cooperation, inclusivity, responsibility, empathy for others, and to deal with bullying by saying it is not ok, getting help or intervening to mediate. I have taught that power over is the result of a powerless person trying to take power. A powerful person has power and does not need to bully to get it. Bullying has inherent within it the desire to hurt. In violent games there is no such signal or ethical consideration, just a simple law of the jungle with the objective of killing the other.

So if you want a peaceful world, you may want to think about what entertains you or what you allow your children to be exposed to. For me, I don’t even have a television anymore. I recall when living in London I stopped watching television for 6 months and found my fear levels dropped. I started walking at night, a female by myself. If I saw a man walking towards me, I didn’t cross the road (unless intuitively I felt to). I faced fear by not fearing others and not being afraid to walk alone. Today I don’t watch television at all and I still walk at night, I have no fear at all, I feel incredible peace. My mother raised her fears to me, after watching a show talking about people being attacked, she reported to me the awful things that happened. I told her to stop watching, just live your life in peace. I told her I travelled the world, nothing happened, it was fine. If I was meant to experience violence, then it will be, I am not living in fear of something imagined that may or may not happen. Deal with the reality if it comes, which in my experience, hasn’t. I found people to be peaceful in my experience, only a few are violent, but usually you can tell. I am going to enjoy the night air and see the moon and stars, get some exercise, I am not going to worry about the fears of those watching television or living in fear. I am not vulnerable.

In truth, those playing these games don’t realise it but they escalate their own fear and that limits the real fun they could be having with friends, exploring forests, going clowning (like me), travelling the world, writing stories, painting, playing music, making your own films, watching documentaries about the extraordinary planet they are living on and getting involved in sustainabilty. I guess life becomes a choice you can live in the cyber world or the real world. Without fear, it is amazingly magical.

In the future, awareness will be raised as people realise that violence doesn’t work as it just escalates problems. We will move into a consciousness of peacefulness and harmony. No longer will children be exposed to violence but will be taught by example how to resolve conflict in the home, the school, workplace and in society. That will be the first step of taking responsiblity and learning effective communication that deals with frustrations and seek out wise solutions. We will start to understand that real power is love and compassion and that truth enables us to explore what has not worked and what has. Denial will be seen as untruth. Moreover, the feminine exists in both men and women, and when men are able to accept the feminine in themselves they will no longer see the feminine as weak. They will explore their feelings, resolve their own conflicts with family and friends and join with women in a deeper relationship. The same applies to women who are in denial of the feminine or masculine within themselves. As aspects of self are accepted this will bring a closer unity between the genders and violence will disappear.

Here is information from the University of Missouri on violent video games.

http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/news/violent-video-games-increase-aggressive-behaviour/16289

Violent video games increase aggressive behaviour

Scientists have known for years that playing violent video games causes players to become more aggressive. The findings of a new University of Missouri (MU) study provide one explanation for why this occurs: the brains of violent video game players become less responsive to violence, and this diminished brain response predicts an increase in aggression.

“Many researchers have believed that becoming desensitised to violence leads to increased human aggression. Until our study, however, this causal association had never been demonstrated experimentally,” said Bruce Bartholow, associate professor of psychology in the MU College of Arts and Science.

During the study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a violent video game for 25 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the researchers measured brain responses as participants viewed a series of neutral photos, such as a man on a bike, and violent photos, such as a man holding a gun in another man’s mouth. Finally, participants competed against an opponent in a task that allowed them to give their opponent a controllable blast of loud noise. The level of noise blast the participants set for their opponent was the measure of aggression.

The researchers found that participants who played one of several popular violent games, such as Call of Duty, Hitman, Killzone and Grand Theft Auto, set louder noise blasts for their opponents during the competitive task – that is, they were more aggressive – than participants who played a nonviolent game. In addition, for participants that had not played many violent video games before completing the study, playing a violent game in the lab caused a reduced brain response to the photos of violence – an indicator of desensitisation. Moreover, this reduced brain response predicted participants’ aggression levels: the smaller the brain response to violent photos, the more aggressive participants were. Participants who had already spent a lot of time playing violent video games before the study showed small brain response to the violent photos, regardless of which type of game they played in the lab.

“The fact that video game exposure did not affect the brain activity of participants who already had been highly exposed to violent games is interesting and suggests a number of possibilities,” Bartholow said. “It could be that those individuals are already so desensitised to violence from habitually playing violent video games that an additional exposure in the lab has very little effect on their brain responses. There also could be an unmeasured factor that causes both a preference for violent video games and a smaller brain response to violence. In either case, there are additional measures to consider.”

Bartholow said that future research should focus on ways to moderate media violence effects, especially among individuals who are habitually exposed. He cites surveys that indicate that the average elementary school child spends more than 40 hours a week playing video games – more than any other activity besides sleeping. As young children spend more time with video games than any other forms of media, the researchers say children could become accustomed to violent behaviour as their brains are forming.

“More than any other media, these video games encourage active participation in violence,” said Bartholow. “From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behaviour. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behaviour is violence.”

(Source: University of Missouri: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology)