Stop teaching our
From the Blog PkColumnist.com: Stop teaching our - "Come on, finish your work quickly, or the toy shop will close," Said mum. "I will break the door of the toy shop," replied her four-year-old son. "You are not that strong, you don't even eat properly," she smiled. "I have special powers. I even have a gun and a sword." Mum was no longer amused. "What special powers? And what would you do with the gun and sword?" "I can change my appearance, grab the shopkeeper and shoot him. There will be blood on his body and he will die. Then I will take all the toys." "But good people don't hurt anyone." "Yes, they do. Good people kill bad people, like Obi Wun and Darth Vedar." This kind of conversation between mother and child isn't unusual for me. Of late I have been approached more and more by distraught mothers complaining of a growing display of aggressive behaviour by their children. Words like hitting, killing, shooting, murder, fire, punch, death, blood have become a part of children's everyday vocabulary. The games children play, their hobbies, their toys, the books they read, especially amongst boys, have changed alarmingly. Very few are interested in Snakes and Ladders, Bingo, Scrabble, Candyland, hide and seek. These games are now considered boring. If children are left unsupervised on play dates, their favourite pastime is interactive violent video games. While girls might still be collecting ornaments and dresses for their Barbies, boys are busy collecting guns, swords and gadgets that are shown in these games to inflict harm upon "the enemy." As girls add Princess tales and Hannah Montana to their reading collection, boys prefer Ben Ten, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Hulk and Mask. In short, they are spending much more time playing interactive video games, 90 per cent of them violent. It is instructive to study the downside of technology, especially technology that our children are using without supervision. During the last two decades video games have emerged as one of the most popular forms of entertainment among children and adolescents. Former US army psychologist David Grossman and Gloria Degaentano, CEO and founder of parent coaching, write in their book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: "On many levels it is wonderful to see them exposed to these brave new cyber worlds. The opportunities for them to learn; the resources at their fingertips are hard to fathom. The World Wide Web is like a vast, almost limitless encyclopaedia, unlike Encyclopaedia Britannica, they talk to it and it talks back. So it is especially disconcerting to see armies of these very kids, mutilating and killing everyone in their path – and having a great time doing it. It's the dark side of heightened technology, but one to which we ought to pay close attention to." What is alarming is the fact that the one who kills the most is the "Hero". The more you kill, the more rewards you get. The message being learnt is that it is "all right" to kill. In order to be a hero, you should have the power to kill. In the last few years, manufacturers have made these games so close to life that children have started dressing and pretending like these characters, personifying them as heroes in their daily lives. Exposure to violence has desensitised them. There is no feeling of remorse when they hit or hurt somebody, they don't feel anything. The use of aggression is becoming common and display of violence over trivial issues is increasing. Scientists and researchers, who were warning us against the harmful effects of watching too much television, are alarmed at the present situation. Television is two-dimensional and isn't conducive to learning in the same way, but this three-dimensional interactive technology gives the children a hands-on experience. And what are they learning – precision in killing. These violent video games are more popular amongst teenagers. David Grossman again mentions in his book that some of these games closely resemble military marksmanship training devices. Both teach the user to hit a target, both help rehearse the act of killing, both come complete with guns that have recoil – the side slams back when the trigger is pulled. No one wants to see these devices in the hands of civilians. While the video games industry boasts about the quality of their games, the military and law-enforcing agencies in the West are wondering why on earth such technology is on the streets. What further proof do we need that these games are anything but games? The children are taught to shoot every human figure that pops up their screen, just like the soldiers learn to fire at human silhouettes that pop up in their field of vision. The relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviour has been well documented. A study mentioned Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill was conducted on two groups of undergraduate students who played two different versions of the interactive virtual-reality video game Mortal Kombat – one more violent and the other less. Both the groups were tested and observed after they played. It was noted that the group that played the more violent version had a higher blood pressure, dizziness, nausea, and displayed aggressive behaviour. Another study showed that 49 per cent of teenage boys indicated a preference for violent video games as against only two per cent who preferred educational games. The entire world is reaping the bitter harvest of this dark side of technology. We read news of students all over the world killing their teachers and girlfriends on trivial matters. In Pakistan, the administrators of high schools, colleges and universities are increasingly faced with the problem of aggression. This is not to say that interactive violent video games are the only reason for eruption of violence, but they are definitely playing a major role in desensitising children to violence. Imagine the damage a young boy who has practised these games for endless hours can inflict if a real weapon is given in his hand. That's one reason why self-proclaimed righteousness and taking the law in your hands comes so easily, and even makes you a hero; why adrenaline levels are at their peak, terrorism has become so commonplace; life is no more sacred and weapons are within easy reach. Parents beware. . Read Full Post
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