Most people can make that kind of distinction. However, the recent stabbing of a 12 yr old by her friends so they could meet Slenderman says that some people are receptive to some media that is clearly fictional.
This is exactly what I was talking about with parenting though. If a 12 year old doesn't understand that people die and are gone forever when you stab them, mom and dad seriously dropped the ball. It's pretty obvious that that kid was raised by TV and video games. It's not the media's fault. It's not a video game's fault.
Or maybe he was just crazy/impulsive. The human psyche is extremely complex, and when you're talking about someone who has lost all sense of rational thought, the reasons behind what they do become even more difficult to understand. Humans always wish that things were so simple, that one thing caused something else. But its rarely that easy...
Humans always wish that things were so simple, that one thing caused something else. But its rarely that easy...
There's a lot of truth in that. It's part of the reason I think when the media actually reports on science, they almost do more harm than good. Most people just don't really understand how the world works in a scientific sense. I've got a degree in maths and physics and I still don't have a clue. But I know enough to spot when people are completely failing in how they digest information.
Most people can make that kind of distinction. However, the recent stabbing of a 12 yr old by her friends so they could meet Slenderman says that some people are receptive to some media that is clearly fictional.
This is exactly what I was talking about with parenting though. If a 12 year old doesn't understand that people die and are gone forever when you stab them, mom and dad seriously dropped the ball. It's pretty obvious that that kid was raised by TV and video games. It's not the media's fault. It's not a video game's fault.
I totally agree. The point is that in some very specific instances, certain media can have an influence on a particular individual. Does this mean we censor video games? No, absolutely not. I do believe that the video game causes violence argument is merely a political tool. However, we should concede that games and all forms of entertainment have some kind of effect and in certain cases negative. Parents need to be involved in what their children see, hear, and play.
This bizarre double standard has been brought home to me quite often on game review sites. One example was a review of Assassin's Creed 4. The reviewer went out of his way to warn players that there was some very controversial whale hunting in the game. I felt compelled to leave a fairly cheeky comment questioning why he didn't think the 24 (I counted) human deaths in the video were also controversial. Another example was when various reviewers were pointing out that there weren't very good female portrayals in GTA5. A game where the main activity is mass murder. A bizarre double standard to want gender portrayals to match your moral standards while you're gunning down thousands of innocent people.
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Topic: Violence in Video Games
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