When I was in primary school, TV was a relatively new technology: it was all black and white, and we were lucky to have two channels to choose from. My brothers and sisters and I rushed home from school to tune in for our daily dose of cartoons and kids shows, but many parents and others worried that it would damage our eyes and lead to moral decline in society.
In
"Horizon: How video games can change your brain," the
BBC says that contrary to the fears of some that video games can cause violent behaviour, there is mounting evidence that playing video games can be beneficial, developing motor and visual skills useful in such fields as surgery, as well as encouraging brain growth in the elderly and enhancing their mental sharpness (2015).
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Sonic the Hedgehog appears to
have benefited pensioners. |
One thing that distinguishes academic work from other pursuits is that whilst you are free to hold any opinion you want, in an academic environment, you are expected to be able to give solid support for your opinions, and to ditch them if they are proved wrong. I think I've been hearing for years people, usually older and with little hands on experience, warning of the dangers of video games, especially of violent, sex filled video games. In particular, that letting kids play them will cause an increase in violence in society. Like many opinions people have, this does sound plausible: surely, the things we look at and hear have an effect on us, and in the case of watching ultra-violent movies or playing video games full of murder, rape, war and other horrors, mustn't that effect be to make the watchers or players more likely to commit such acts themselves? But being plausible does not make an opinion true, and the evidence seems clear that watching films or playing games that include extreme sex and violence does not cause a personality shift towards greater violence, although there does seem to be some correlation between playing violent games and being violent. This surprised me a bit at first, but then other evidence more commonly available also supports that there is no causal link: Japan has very high rates of very violent, sex filled media, and is a remarkably non-violent society; similarly, as the amount of time teenagers and others have spent pursuing violent fantasies has increased, crime rates have dropped.
Thailand's murder rate, for example, reduced from 8.1 / 100,000 in 2000 to 5.4 in 2009 (there was a sharp rise in 2003, but that was due to the Thai government's massively popular and morally wrong War on Drugs). If violence in society is actually decreasing, it seems unlikely that more time spent playing violent games causes violent behaviour.
Of course, there might be other reasons to not want children to play such games, but that they cause violence can
not one of those reasons. And in fact, I'm not sure that there is any very solidly supported reason - my rather indulgent mother let me watch late night adult films, and I don't think they warped my moral sensibilities. They were, rather, more material to think about and use to form a balanced view of the world. The
BBC News article also uses the word
theory, which has at least two very different meanings in science. My theory is that as well as the neurological and skill enhancing benefits of violent games, they also help kids to get a realistic breadth of understanding as to what human behaviour encompasses, and to develop their own, usually healthy, sense of what is morally OK and not OK by giving them more examples of situations to think about.
That said, I find both TV and video games very boring, or at least not worth my time. I haven't watched TV for about 35 years, and I try games every now and then, but they just don't excite me. This is a great disappointment to my friend Yo's son Ea - none of my devices have any games on them except the very small and unexciting set that come preloaded. A worrying thought: Did watching adult TV in my youth turn me into a boring adult? Is that why most societies today are less violent than when I was a child addictively watching TV?
Horizon: How video games can change your brain. (2015, September 16).
BBC News. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34255492
In my response to the BBC News article, I briefly discuss the word theory. My response also uses the word opinion.
ReplyDeleteDo you agree with my opinion about the lack of a causal connection between violent video games and violent behaviour?
In your opinion, do violent video games cause personality changes that increase violence?
If we disagree, how can we decide whose opinion is right? Whose wrong? (Can we decide that one opinion is right and another wrong?)
What does this question ask? What does it mean?
I agree with you. I also have not yet seen those co-relation too but for closer topic like pornography or legal punishment and sexual violence that's opposite with the myth. Actually I think the technology like tablet or social media abuse more affect our learning and attention down deep than physical violence, while physical violence is related to impaired impulse and mood rather than stimulation from video game.
ReplyDeleteTo me, video games are both good and bad for different aspects for everybody (kids and adults).
ReplyDeleteWhy did I believe like that?
I feel that they is just physically bad for players who play inappropriately or too much, causing short-sighted eyes followed by headache, stiff neck or back, achy finger etc. Particularly, many players enjoy playing them on their smart phones which their sizes and button are relatively small compared to them on TV or computer. Therefore, this will significantly affect on their eye—even their fingers and wrists. In fact, even playing on TV or computer too long can cause negative effects in the similar way.
On the other hand, I myself, tend to believe that they is generally good, though some might disagree. One of the good examples is myself. I did play a lot of kinds of game (adventure, action, puzzle, strategy, sports games) during my childhood with both my brothers and friends almost every day. Yet, when growing up, they never offered me a negative impact for my morality or behavior at all. Rather, it seems to creatively develop and stimulate my brain and imagination. I’m convinced that someone who tried to commit a crime or violence in the way that they used to see or play on video games was not aroused by the video games, but this was because they were mentally ill or weak due to many possible causes such as family’s problem, drug addict, terrible surrounding and so on.