Blog #5: Violent Video Games

It's true that media has a way of influencing the minds of young kids.  If so, what exactly are violent video games teaching kids these days? According to a blog by Tom Stafford, "Do violent video games make teens 'eat and cheat' more?", "playing the violent video game Grand Theft Auto made teenagers more aggressive, more dishonest and lowered their self control".

He blogs about a research designed by using 172 Italian high school students, aging from 13 to 19 years old.  Half of the group were girls, and half of the group were boys.  They all took part in a video game that lasted 35 minutes.  Half of the group played Grand Theft Auto games, while the other half played pinball or a golf game.  They used M&M's to show self-control, opportunity to cheat during a quiz after playing their game to show dishonesty, and using unpleasant noises towards other player to show aggression.  The results showed that the students who played the violent video game had lower scores of self-control, cheated more, and were more aggressive to their fellow player.

Tom's intake in this was "you can't leap to conclusions from a single study...even a well designed one".  He says, "we should bear in mind the history of moral panics around new technology and media.  Today we're concerned with violent video games, 50 years ago it was comic books and jazz." I agree with what Tom has to say.  I do agree that video games have an influence in the minds of children, however I think it's extreme to blame them for increase in crimes.  Just like the problem with blaming guns, we can't fix "already crazy" people. As Tom says, "most people who play video games won't commit violent acts."  I know many who grow up around video games and are amazing people.  However, I'm not sure if I'd want my future kids to be playing it until they were old enough to differentiate from right and wrong.

What do you think?  Should we blame violent video games for increase in violent behavior?  What's your stance on video games?

Blog 4: Ouija Boards!

While reading a blog from mindhackers, "What makes the ouija board move" I began to feel a little more at ease about ghosts.  You may choose to continue to believe in the idea that ouija boards move due to spiritual contact, however according to the blog, "The mystery isn't a connection to the spirit world, but why we can make movements and yet not realise that we're making them."

It's crazy to think that we can unconsciously make body movements without realizing that we're doing them.  This ordinary magic of consciousness has led to cases of "facilitated communication".  This is where people believe that carers can help severely disabled children communicate with a keyboard, which the carers guide their fingers around.  In reality, they're the ones causing the movement, and were typing the messages on their own.  This phenomenon, strangely, can be traced back to how little kids can shout "It wasn't me!" when clearly they were the ones who did, but they don't feel like they did it. 

Although this is the scientific method of why ouija boards move, there are still unexplained stories about why people spell out certain things while using it.  There are many strange things in this world, in which not all science can make sense of.  This definitely made me feel a little better, but there's so many questions still left unaswered!!

What do you think? Do you agree? Scientific Explanation or Spiritual Contact???