Violence Is No Longer Unacceptable
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"It appears that individuals who play violent video games habituate, or 'get used to' all the violence and eventually become physiologically numb to it. The modern entertainment media landscape could accurately be described as an effective systematic violence-desensitization tool," wrote study leader Nicholas Carnagey and his colleagues in a report published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Violence does not shock kids. It doesn't affect them. It's almost a new immunity.
This disturbs me. It would be like Starbucks disappearing off the radar everywhere and no adult flinching. No adult in his right mind, at least.
Why is this happening?
I believe that over exposure to violence has made it second nature to us. If I watched spiders on TV nonstop, I probably wouldn't panic as much if I saw a baby one in my bathroom. If fires were all I heard about on the radio, I most likely wouldn't be surprised if yet another fire popped up in Southern California. And if apples no longer showed up in the grocery store because oranges became the new "it" thing, my sister might not even cry. Hmmm... that could be more shocking than Starbucks disappearing.
Violence is not only shown on TV but is also in video games. Video games, you ask? What's the big deal? Kids need to have fun... remember Mario Bros? Oh yes, I do. Not what I'm referring to, however AND unfortunately.
The Presbyterian Church made a list of what's found in today's games including:
• Animated Blood - Discolored and/or unrealistic depictions of blood
• Blood - Depictions of blood
• Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
• Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like situations and characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted
• Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from
• Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve
extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death
• Mild Violence - Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe and/or violent situations
• Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other sexual acts
• Strong Language - Explicit and/or frequent use of profanity
Video games can be fun. They can bring joy to a child, true. I am not saying that video games should be banned from households. What I am trying to share with you is that violence has become second nature.
What once was a terrible and shocking thing, is now not so terrible and shocking. Perhaps violence doesn't disturb us so much because we see it everywhere. Perhaps children don't care so much about one another--or dare I say, they don't react to gang violence the same way (or can even walk past a gang rape) because they're desensitized.
A USA Today study involving males who play video games found, "When viewing the most violent sections of the video game, as contrasted to those that involved searching for a target rather than active violence, there were changes in an area of the brain, the anterior cingulate cortex, that indicated a separation of thinking or judgment vs. emotion. This suggests that the repeated playing of violent video interactions leads to a desensitization to the infliction of pain and suffering as portrayed in the video game."
So, I ask: Are we really surprised that our society is the way it is when we allow such horrible things to become a central part of our kids' entertainment? Do we have the space to complain about children not caring? If we aren't surprised and think we do have the space, what are we going to do about it? What are you going to do about it?
