My post is a response to the post about the banning of violent video games because of the potential implications of witnessing violence, or playing violent video games.
I have a couple of succinct (I hope) points, which I am going to preface by saying, this is entirely my own opinion & obviously this is a highly contested and debated issue.
The point about not being positive about violent video games if I was affected directly by them (ie. if someone I know got hurt as a direct result) is a hard one. There's more to it than that. A person's psyche for one, their childhood experiences, adult experiences, socio economic status, employment, un-employment, lack of opportunities, frustration, social alienation, abuse they themselves might have suffered and so on. I argue that you cannot actually blame one single element of a person's life for an action they might take - but this is only my opinion.
Whenever new media develops it seems to be met with scepticism, disdain & suspicion about it's lack of 'morals' or its potential to 'harm' so I think we have to just take a step back & actually decide whether banning games would solve the issues. Or do we need to ban movies, music, books with violent material, television shows?
Are we actually saying, let's take away every opportunity for human beings to use their own rational thought processes to determine whether they should act in a certain way, because they really can't be trusted to know what they're doing?
If so, aren't we just a modern day version of the hypodermic model?
I totally agree. I think our society loves to control by fear. The hypodermic model is used constantly in regards to TV, Films, and now video games. I think if you are pre-disposed to violence then perhaps video games could affect you negatively, just as if you are afraid of heights you probably shouldn't jump out of an airplane. But jumping out of planes shouldn't be banned because there are a few out there who are pre-disposed to acrophobia. I think it should be treated in the same regard as alcohol: enjoy responsibly.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Nice analogy too : )
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