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Violence On Television. Parents must have a tremendous power to moderate the influence of violence to their children. Parents can screen the TV program their children watch. They can actually restrict their childrens viewing habits to the shows that are only beneficial. (Anderson, 2004). The Video Game Technology and its Effects on Children The video game technology, like most technologies, has changed drastically in the last few years. Arcades may look much the same on the surface as they did a decade or two ago, but the games have become far more violent, sophisticated and addictive.
When one visits the video arcade it is not surprising to see children pointing and shooting something that looks suspiciously like a real weapon. If Pong or, for that matter, Pac-Man and Super Mario Brothers is ones point of reference, one needs to think again. What one assumes about the benign, outdated games of the 1970 s and the 1980 s, even of the early 1990 s, the research regarding them cannot be considered valid as video games put in the market in the last five years. It is a whole new world, and it is evolving at a rate that is hard for parents to keep pace with (Funk. Jeanne 1993).
How fast a rate? Consider this: During the last two decades interactive video games have emerged as one of the most popular forms of entertainment, particularly among teens. According to the non-profit organization, Media scope, Globally, annual video games revenues now exceed $ 18 billion. In the United States alone, video game revenues now exceed $ 10 billion annually, nearly double the amount Americans spend going to the movies. On average, American children who have home video game systems play with them about ninety minutes a day.
The kids are changing with the technology how could they not be? They are riding technology curve in a way we are not and never can. On many levels, its wonderful to have them exposed to this brave new cyber world: the opportunities for them to learn, the resources at their fingertips, are tremendous and hard to fathom. Some claim that video games are a mind controlling device (The World Wide Web is like a vast, almost limitless encyclopedia, and unlike Encyclopedia Britannica, kids can talk to it and it talks back. So its especially disconcerting to see armies of these very kids wandering through cyberspace mutilating and killing everything in their path and having a great time doing it. Its the dark side of heightened technology, but one to which we ought to be paying much closer attention (The First Fighting Game That Let You Just Be Friends).
Some say there are positive effects of video games and that there are hollow claims about fantasy violence. However, there are others who maintain that the general effect is negative and hazardous to children and adolescents in general. This paper looks at the positive and negative sides and attempts to put look the issue in the proper perspective. The debate over the effects of digital games is getter hotter. Many claim that people may not pay too much attention regarding the issue of digital games but they are now becoming a powerful cultural force (Secko, David).
This has become a powerful force since computer and video games sales topped $ 10 billion in the U. S. in 2004. Children spend more and more time working and playing with them. And some social theorists say society is gripped by a 'moral panic' over the effects of computer games (Secko, David). As some maintain, exposure to television violence results in violent actions in real life.
Several researchers have agreed that children extensively exposed to violence as projected on television tend to think that it is appropriate to act in violent ways (Hurst). Today, this has evolved into video games. Like most technologies, video game technology has changed drastically in the last few years. Some of the issues tied to this are those on values.
Values motivate behavior. Judgments about right and wrong or good and bad are moral judgments based on values. In the course of human interactions, there are many situations in which it is difficult to make a decision because values come into conflict. Conflict between moral values results is an ethical problem. Major influences on moral decision-making in cyber environment are personal, professional and organizational values. Values must be clarified if moral decisions are to be reached. "We are just beginning to understand that digital mediums are bringing us expressive forms comparable to the movies and the novel, " says Janet Murray, a Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Tech and author of Hamlet on the Holodeck (Lee, J. 2004.
p. 1375). Video gaming exists today as a symbiotic relationship among many self-preserving organisms. All must strike a gentle balance between exerting their will and killing their host. Even if others find it obsolete, the young must engage in values clarification to develop a decision-making process that fosters ethical behavior (Funk. Jeanne 1993).
More than any other aspect of these new video games, its the accuracy of the simulations the carnage, the blood, and the guts that is so advanced. Realism is the Holy Grail of the video game industry. And the latest technology leaves little to the imagination the simulations seem less fake, and therefore more effective. Add to this the fact that in the last few years, video game manufacturers have chosen to amplify gruesome violence (note that 49 percent of young teens indicate a preference for violent games, while only 2 percent prefer educational ones). (Funk, Jeanne 1993) to make it a mainstay in their products, seems a direct result of where the television and movie industry have taken their content. What worries most parents and educators here is the desensitizing effect on-screen violence has on kids, and how it fosters a need for more graphic real-life displays of carnage and mayhem to keep kids interested. Graphically violent video games like Doom, Postal, Duke Nukem, and Mortal Kombat are games way past the curve.
Some claim that these are mind control devices (Videogame- mind control? ).
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Research essay sample on Video Games Decision Making
