Last summer I expressed my belief that cell phones, computers and calculators should not be used in our elementary and high schools, which prompted a reader to call me a “luddite” for my opinion against technology.
I have never been against new technology but I am very much against how it is being used and its dramatic effects on society. Having these devices in school doesn’t allow children to develop their own abilities to write, reason or to give them a basic understanding of the world so they can rationalize their own opinions.
Since I wrote that column I started to notice many of the horrific mass killings that have taken place around the world and how so many are related to video gaming. As society tries to understand why these events are occurring with such regularity, the media points to guns, mental illness, terrorism or almost anything to blame something for this behaviour.
During this past winter I saw an interview on TV with a very educated and experienced gentleman who opened my eyes to another possibility, so I ordered his book, Assassination Generation, through Black Bond Books in Ladner. Most of the books I find interesting are historical and as a result I have read more than my share of the chronicles of war with all the atrocious records of man’s inhumanity to man, so I thought I was quite hardened to this kind of stuff, but I am a little more than halfway through this book and I am quite shocked.
This column is not to advance my opinion on technology but instead it’s to let parents and grandparents know about the effects of gaming, online or otherwise.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who along with this military experience, has been a West Point psychology professor. He has taught psychology to the FBI, ATF, CIA, Secret Service and various law enforcement agencies so that people can deal with the mental effects created by their jobs.
His book very graphically describes what these video games contain, what effect they have on our children and numerous connections to the tragic events that keep happening.
Here’s what his book has shown me:
- There is a direct link between violent video games and many of these mass murders.
- There are video games that coach the player through school shootings and driving a vehicle through crowds, awarding points for vicious killings.
- These types of killings were virtually non-existent before 1975 when these games started to come out.
- There are killings of this nature now happening all over the world.
- There are studies from all over the world that have supported the fact these games are damaging our children.
- If you wonder why the media isn’t all over this, follow the money. Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013 and in that year made more money than the entire global music industry.
- Why aren’t governments doing something?
The worst of these games not only coaches and rewards players for killing, but also makes them numb or indifferent to the reality of slaughter and the sanctity of life.
Greg Hoover is a project manager in industrial and commercial construction who has lived with Christina in Tsawwassen for 25 years.
