On Computer Games

Today, I came across a thread on Amazon, where a 12 year old kid very honestly said that his Mom is against him playing shooting computer games, because "it's against her values" and what do the folks out there think? He said he's not trying to play so that he'd shoot someone in real life, that his Mom even trusts him with her credit card and doesn't seem to trust him with this issue. It made me think...and here are some of my thoughts on this.

The Generations

First of all, I feel horribly old writing this, because I honestly never played a computer or video game. I never felt the need, nor saw any attraction to these. But I remember my outrage at the cinema, where they wouldn't let us see Amadeus, which was rated as "not under 12 years old" movie. To this day, I'm trying to think what was it that made an Oscar-winning film about music not suitable for minors, as there was no killing, violence, not even any hot sex scenes - not counting Mozart chasing his girlfriend under the banquet tables, which was more funny than sexy. I managed to sneak in and this film had opened the world of classical music to me. So, we all have ways to feel injustice as 12 year olds.

But this kid at Amazon.com stunned me. For one he didn't know how to spell. It seems to me, that kids should know how to spell before they learn how to shoot, even in simulation. I have recently heard comedian Steve Harvey talking about his foundation to support inner city kids in the U.S. He said he went to a poor-neighborhood school in L.A. and found a classroom with 38 children, 23 desks and 8 textbooks. This is completely stunning to me, as an European. And especially so as an Eastern European. This simply couldn't happen in my end of the world. We may be "too socialistic" but at least our kids have schoolbooks and know how to read and write by they time they get out of the basic school. None-the-less our kids love computer games too.

The Society

I see this issue in the larger context. There are whole generations of people growing up dumbed down by things like TV and computer games. It became socially acceptable to spend us time invested in things other than us. People talk about TV heroes as if they were real, they're actually concerned about their destinies in the next episode! The best selling newspapers are tabloids, so we can be sure that the population knows about every superstar's new relationship, but nothing about the one they have at home. The reality of "us against them" thinking is ever present - in media, in politics, in churches, in schools AND in those computer games. It's all an illusion and that's old news too. Way old, like 6th century B.C. or so. Do the kids know that?

Anyone who's travelled will tell you that "people are the same everywhere" ... that is unless they're a politician trying to tell you that "everywhere but Iraq (Iran, Lebanon ... you name your country of target at the moment) people are the same". Somehow, the 12 year olds in the US want to play computer games against a fictional enemy while their President created a fictional enemy, played games and now he's killing 12 year olds in Iraq. I can't but see a correlation.

When I was growing up in the communist Czechoslovakia, the U.S. had 8 nuclear warheads pointed at Prague - a civilian city of 1.000.000 people. As if one warhead wouldn't do. And if the Cold War got a little outta hand, I would be a shadow. So would my friends and family ... everyone I know. Not only that, the incredibly beautiful Prague, that took about 1000 years to build to would become a pile or rubble. This city is so spectacular that even Hitler made sure it wasn't destroyed. Were we that dangerous not even 20 years ago? I doubt it, but it served someones political and financial interest to make us sound dangerous. Someone cashed the money for those 8 nuclear warheads ... well I hope they're enjoying their private yacht on their private beach in peace.

The Way Life Goes

Now, having said that, I know that this is the way life goes, the way politics have been played for thousands of years, so nothing new there. What is relatively new is the impact of media and computers, the removal of human-to-human communication on many levels. The part where I see a room for improvement is in the alternatives to "entertainment".

A friend of mine had written a book about loosing weight. His philosophy was - you don't substract, you add. Instead of saying don't eat this, don't do this, he says did you ever taste this? Like it? Fine, eat it every day. And oh yes, it's also good for you and low calorie. Oh yes, and you are most likely eating this instead of some of the junk food you used to eat - simply because it's better and real. I think that the same could or should be done with kids who want to play computer games. Give them something else - fun, adventurous, challenging and potentially dangerous.

One thing that fits this description is philosophy, the real hands-on philosophy. Learning to debate, learning to "think on your own", learning to explore their own mental capabilities, your abilities to love fellow beings. If you have the right teacher, it can be fun, it's certainly adventurous, because for most kids, it's entering a brand new ground. Challenging - you bet! And potentially dangerous ... oh yes, very very dangerous, because it has to potential to completely turn around who you are, it may challenge you to become someone else, someone new ... most likely someone who's life is so interesting that they don't even think of playing a computer game. And that's a really scary tought to most 12 year olds.

Responsibility

This kid at Amazon.com was honestly searching for an answer for why he isn't allowed to play computer games. It somehow wouldn't occur to him to ask his Mother about those "values" she keeps mentioning. Would she know what she means by that, other than the fact, that she always envisioned having a "good boy" and a kid playing shooter games doesn't fit this picture? How does she practice love, peace and understanding? Does she play by her own rules? Most likely not, which is where the whole thing fails. Mom is most likely a busy accountant who spends way too much on her wardrobe and anti-ageing creams.

One thing keeps missing in the education that I see children receive - by this I mean both by schools and the rest of our society. It's the idea of responsibility for ones thinking. Most people have the approach "I can think whatever I want, it doesn't matter anyway." ... but that's our main failure. It DOES matter. Most truly creative people would tell you about their creative process, about how thoughts and ideas occur, how they're sparked by seemingly unrelated things ... there is process to it all. A teachable process that we don't teach.

What you engage in and who you hang out with has the power to shape who you are. The way you think has the power to shape the world around you - both personally and globally. Look at issues like animal rights or voting rights. There is an entire process that has been well described, which caused the overall societal change. Starting from a seed idea, then culminating events, then stabilization of the idea, then more culminating events until the final acceptance of the idea ... to a point of having a new generation who would be simply outraged if things were otherwise.

Just check out how we percieve the current animal abuse in China, unable to make a connection to those humans who behave (in our current view) inhumanely. It's not "them Chinese" it's us some mere 40 years ago. Our societies did the same things, their development is just a little delayed in this respect, that's all. There are no enemies, there are just people with different opinions, people with not enough information, people with love of power and radical thinking ... but hey, we got those too!

It takes a lot of work to bring about social changes and for as long as people intend to discuss "safe" issues such as TV series heroes, these changes will not proceed. All our friends back in the U.S. keep telling us, how it became "politically incorrect to discuss politics", because the country became so utterly polarized and the stakes are so big that people aren't willing to get "shredded into pieces" for saying the wrong thing in the wrong group. We had such political climate here in Europe a while ago. It brought about the World War II.

Wouldn't you think that with all this information available, all this mingling of races and nations we've had, the multicultural societies ... wouldn't you think we'd know how to TALK about things we don't agree on? How to enrich one another with different points of view? Well, we don't. And as long as 12 year old kids will be told that figthing imaginary enemies is OK, while the real enemies are messing with their heads through media and propaganda, we won't.

My Message to the Gamers

So, here is my little message to the gamers. I doubt it's the same as their Mother's, but that's probably good.

• If your Mom doesn't let you play, question her reasons. Is it just her fear that you will turn into a killer in real life or it a legitimate set of values she lives by?

• If she doesn't live what she preaches, try to find someone who preaches basically the same things but does live by them. It may be hard. If you find them, ask them what they've done to get there? This may help you realize just how hard it is to live by high values and that there may be something that you could learn from this after all.

• Face the fact, that gaming is addictive and like all addictions, it can destroy you. Also like all addictions, there is no way to tell who will become addicted and who won't. My friend Jeremy had written a song about a teenage girl who was drug addicted while her friends were only "trying things out". It says: "We're standing in water up to our knees watching Alison drown." That's probably your Mother's biggest fear and a completely legitimate one. There is no bigger pain in life than to watch someone you love, more so someone you gave life to and work very hard to bring up, being destroyed by a power you can't influence. You nor anyone else knows how your psychology will respond to the triggers of gaming. If it hits the wrong button and stops being just fun, there is no way out from a downward spiral.

• Define and live a life where there is no reason to waste time - in any way, may it be computer games, stupid TV or negative movies. Life is infinitely more fun when you live it than when you watch someone else live theirs or pretend to be a superhero.

• Negative thinking will produce negative result, sooner or later. It's that simple - action and reaction. If you spend too much time fighting imaginary problems, you won't learn how to fight the real ones and end up without "weapons". Then it really stops being fun.

• There is an infinite amount of real-life playgrounds, situations that bring challenges, test your abilities, where the dangers are real, because they involve you, not your avatar in the safety of your room. Walk into the closest hospital and you'll find the real heroes, people fighting for their lives, people in need of someone's time. And apparently, you have time to spare. You can go read them a book or paper, you can just go tell them what the weather is like out there. There are plenty volunteer organizations, plenty of old neighbors who might appreciate your care. You will come out of it with knowledge, power and skills in communication. You may also find people there, who have been in the real war and you may not want to play shooting games of any kind after that.

• Wasting your time means clipping your own wings. Computer games are what they are. They bring you an adrenaline rush, they require your attention and problem solving abilities. But they rob you of your own experiences, they stop your creativity instead of developing it. The real life challenge is to love yourself enough to grow your wings instead of clipping them, to understand you're worth more than the time wasted.

• Another things that computer games and TV rob you off is one very important skill - the famous attention span. Life is not reduced to sound-bites. Life is complex set of circumstances, places, stories, cultural histories, approaches and opinions. Without the ability to concentrate, to read books or go through a lot of not-too-interesting but necessary "fill in" information, you will never see the whole picture. You'll be like a horse pulling a cart with his eyes covered so that he can only see forward. You will be making short sighted decisions that will bring you immediate solution but will hurt you in the long run. All this is now happening in society big time. You can be a rebel by learning how to concentrate, how to comprehend complex issues, how to listen to many opinions before making decision. If you learn history, you'll be able to tell when we repeat it and maybe contribute to stopping the deadly cycle in some way. Being able to focus is your biggest power, so don't let anyone take it away and cover your eyes.

• Games and television serve you complete alternate worlds that someone else made up, instead of letting your own fantasy fly in making up your own worlds. If you don't practice dreaming up stuff as a kid, you won't be able to have dreams as an adult. If you can't dream on your own, you'll end up following someone else's dream (your boss', your spouse's...) and never feel satisfied even when it comes true. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in life. A quick check - look up at a cloludy sky. Do you see creatures and landscapes or just clouds? There is a world up there, if you care to look up.