Can video games really to blame for violence among the younger generation?

[jtur88]

Videogames are no more violent than the Sock! Pow! comic books of the 50's, and have no more impact nor influence on the kids exposed to them.

There is one relevant factor, though. In the '50's, kids had to use their imagination to transpose the cartoon drawings into a semblance of real life. Consequently, they learned how to use their mimagination and other parts of the brain, so that when cerebration was called upon later in their lives, they had a responsive organ ready at hand.

I fear that today's crop of adolescents is getting much less exercise of that faculty, and their exposure to games prepares them for nothing mentally useful as their human lives unfold.

An interesting thought just struck me. I wonder of today's kids in Iraq are unfazed by what they are doing, because they think they are just killing Kenny over and over again, so they are not really being "you bastadrs".

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by wclac

I know these days, whenever young people or teens do something bad, parents and the media blame the video games for their problems. I mean, why do video games have to be blamed fro all the violence for the younger generation?

Because it's easier than blaming the parents who bought them the games.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by wclac

I know these days, whenever young people or teens do something bad, parents and the media blame the video games for their problems. I mean, why do video games have to be blamed fro all the violence for the younger generation?

So that the parents don't have to accept the responsibility.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by LauraC

Because it's easier than blaming the parents who bought them the games.

This raises a whole new issue. What is the emotional impact on kids who are deprived of a cultural constant in their childhood? How did it affect my playmates in the 50's whose parents refused to give them that weekly dime for a comic book? They read somebody else's, and resented their parents, and had to sneak around.. How healthy was that?