So I was in class today and since it was the last day and all, it was pretty lax. So of course I’d pick up on the conversation going on between the substitute teacher and some of the students about how kids are sooo corrupted by games.
I just have to share this, partly for spite, partly to hear your comments, and partly to see if anyone knows there is any truth to this.
Apparently…<i>Apparently</i> when little kids play games they are far suited beyond their mentality, it drives into their mind so deep that it brainwashes them during schooling hours…and this happens as multiple, violent flashbacks, in a kids mind that is recalled in a constant, ever changing motion (example, like the hundreds of images come in go in a matter of less than one second, or maybe at the speed in which the kid mentally absorbed them). She seemed to suggest that in cases like these, kids shouldn’t be playing video games, and that the rating system doesn’t really help.
Actually, she just made it seem that if any kid were to get their hands on a…more complicated game, that they were highly prone to this “phenomena” and are well on their way to corruption.
Anyways, I just had to share that, because the statement seemed ridiculous at the time. Maybe not now that I think about it, but I’d like to hear some imput on this? I believe it’s a bit too…false coming from a middle aged woman who I assume has never touched a gaming console in her life (or else she would have presented more just material)
Tell me where this woman, is, I’d like to slic-err-speak with her.
But seriously, I don’t really think that’s possible, I"ve played video games that are beyond me since i was like, 6. Of all things, games made me smarter.
Any event that a person is unprepared for, or not mentally or physically suited for will have a profound impact on them. Examples of this are, a girl reacting to a stressful event through bulemia, a person in a car crash having flash backs. Any event can do this, can engrain its self into someone’s memory, and it can oftentimes result in, as your teacher mentioned “flashbacks” like, in this case, a student experiencing the light and motion of the videogame. This is not caused by a videogame. This is caused by the shock a person goes through when an event like this occurs.
In this case, a young child playing a videogame, i doubt that the child would have any SEVERE outburst or flashback caused by the game. Even if a child did have an outburst or flashback, it would not be what (i think) your teacher is implying, that the child would replicate the violent behavior of the game. More likely the child would have a seizure of sorts, recalling the lights or sounds the game showed him.
I actually think that there is already documented evidence of this happening. When “edutainment” companies started to advertise “baby” games, someone did a study on the effect playing a game would have on a baby. The baby did not have any problems with a reoccurance like your teacher is suggesting, but the baby COULD NOT distinguish the game from reality. Keep in mind this is a baby, but im sure a child would have a hard time telling a graphically realistic game like “Halo” from reality. Again, even when a realistic game was presented to the kids, and even when the game contained graphic material, the kids had NO instances of a reoccurance.
So, although your teachers suggestion of children being mentally effected by games, and having physcal flashbacks is true to SOME very vague sense, i think she is misinformed. Even in the most severe cases of someone being mentally shocked by something, the worst pyhsical reaction they have, is falling down and shaking violently. I doubt any child would flash back to “Tekken” and kick his teachers ass during schooling because he played a realistic game. Perhaps if he played a game with alot of flashes and bright light like “Starfox” he might flash back to the bright and repitive lights.
I wish i could remeber where i read this case study. It was pretty interesting.
One time, a friend of mine dropped a few hits of acid and went to class. Our teacher was wearing an outfit that was predominatly yellow - and my friend, being on acid, freaked out, thought the teacher was a rabid school bus that was trying to kill him. He screamed and ran out of the class room.
It sounds like she’s describing post traumatic stress disorder, and I think she’d be very hard pressed to find any evidence of a link between that and video games. In fact, I don’t think young kids experience flash backs even with PTSD… anyway, I think it’s pretty obvious (and everybody’s already pointed out) your teacher’s full of it.
Originally posted by Curtis I think that violent media is making kids more afraid of the world, because its giving them a false impression of what the world is like.
It’s making both them and their parents more afraid of the world - it’s just that the “violent media” their parents are most wrapped up in are sensationalist news media, though certainly violent movies and games have an impact on their psyches.
Originally posted by Ren Okay then, let me elaborate further. Let me see… It is safer than alcohol, and alcohol is tolerated by society, so gaming should be tolerated too.
Thanks guys, wasn’t sure if she was just talking out of her ass or not, and apparently she was. I was mad though, when she sad it, because it gives a bad impression. Sure, most people at RPGC are sane and smart enough not to have been affected by similar…experiences(hell I started playing when I was 9…) but some other kids do take it seriously, though from what Astral said, not in the ways of how the teacher was describing.
Originally posted by Ren Okay then, let me elaborate further. Let me see… It is safer than alcohol, and alcohol is tolerated by society, so gaming should be tolerated too.
Marijuana is safer than alcohol, but the paper lobbiests wouldn’t like it if we had marijuana, making it much easier for us to get paper from the hemp plant and reducing the amount of trees cut a year.
Politics is more about money than it is about safety or justice nowadays.
