Losing Touch with Reality

I'm a video gamer. I was fortunate enough to have parents who supported our desire to have video games in the house so I was proud to own everything from an Atari 2600 when they first came out. Years later I still have a somewhat childish predeliction for the occasional foray into the video game world simply because I find it to be a good outlet for relaxing after a particularly hard day. However, that being said, I don't consider myself one of those who lives to play video games all the time. While I do play occasionally I don't play nearly as much as some people. Some people complain that there are those who play video games incessantly for hours on end. These are the people who sometimes begin to lose their touch with reality and that can lead to tragic results as was the case with 27-year-old Tyrone Spellman of Philadelphia.

Spellman was recently convicted of killing his 17-month-old daughter in an apparent fit of rage over the fact that the toddler entered the room where Spellman was playing video games (on the XBox to be more precise) and proceeded to pull the game system off the shelf and onto the floor. Angered by this, Spellman proceeded to apparently beat his daughter to death while the girl's pregnant mother slept on in the next room. Spellman confessed to the crime the next day and was recently convicted for third-degree murder and child endangerment. According to Spellman's attorney he confessed to the crime to protect the dead girl's mother but the jury didn't buy that arguement although he was acquitted of being charged with murder in the first. Still, Spellman, speaking through his attorney, stated that he was unhappy with the jury's rejection of his explanation but accepted his sentence.

Already the opponents to the entertainment industry must be readying themselves for the inevitable discussions within the media about the link between video games and violence. And again I state that while the violence in video games may be a catalyst in some instances, I don't think it's the only cause. How can I say that? Well let's think about it. Video games have been around for a few decades while mankind has been around for numerous centuries. In that time are we to believe that there was never any violence? Hardly! In fact human history has always been full of stories of violence against any and all, no one group has ever been spared the ravages of violence for any appreciable time. At that time what was it blamed on? Most likely religious intolerance and dissenting opinions on government most likely. So then how can we conclusively link video games to violent tendencies?

I agree with people who say that violence in video games and in the media in general is a bad thing. Kids are being exposed to these things on a fairly regular basis and with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's hard to avoid the topic of violence. Still, I would say that it's our society, and I mean the global society, that is geared towards violence and not just one industry leading the charge. If group A doesn't like group B then a war of words usually begins and when words end then violence ensues. To paraphrase Karl Von Clausewitz, "war is the continuation of diplomacy through other means". If we are to accept that statement then does that mean that violence in some instances is justified while it isn't in others? The world has been at odds with itself for centuries in one form or another and our society has always been ready for it.

All video games have done is to provide a good scapegoat for the violence. Remember smoking before it became a universally banned activity? At one point it was considered the best thing to do and even doctors were signed on to pitch the quality of one company over another. Now when it's apparent that smoking is bad for you, despite old ads by doctors exhorting the benefits of doing it, no one blames the real cause for rising lung cancer cases which is the smoker themself, not the industry. If you are educated about the potential dangers of smoking then you can't push the blame off on someone else, you yourself are responsible. On the same side, if you feel that violence in video games is bad then don't let kids (or even adults) play them if you think it's being a bad influence. But the underlying cause is still the same, the person themself and those kids (or adults) who have an innate violent nature will be violent no matter what they are exposed to.