murder

Mind-altering media

Another good article from New Scientist was ‘Mind-altering media’.  This is something that touches me personally as I’ve worked in the computer games industry. Myself, I find it very hard to believe that players and viewers of violent videogames and movies make for violent people. I think if you’re violent it will come up regardless of experiencing modern media. What I don’t like to see is violent games sold to underage children, someone somewhere needs to take responsibility for misselling these games. You can’t let a 12 year old play an 18 certificate game! A child will imitate, far more than an adult, what they experience, if they interact with a violent game then they are more likely to copycat the experience in real-life.

The article is mainly inconclusive, the one thing it seems to conclude is the more exposure to modern media the greater the change in our minds, especially at a younger age. It makes us smarter and better at some tasks, for example, more complex pre-planning and problem solving is required with the increasing complexity of media presentations and games and their multiple plots and sophisticated layers, but makes us dumber and worse at others. It also says that we can’t get away from the fact that on screen violence fosters off-screen violence. One media it doesn’t mention is music. Music has been said to alter our minds too (for good and for bad) but this, as well as art, are not within this article, shame:

Games:

Regular computer gamers have improved visual attention and can take in more information. They are better able to pay attention to things further apart or rapidly changing and can switch attention more quickly. They have a reduced brain response to, suggesting people begin to see such imagery as more normal. And young people are more emotional aroused when playing violent videogames (though it doesn’t say what emotion, good or bad). Children learn best by demonstration and then imitation, with rewards for getting things right. By way of interaction this is exactly what video games do.

TV:

People are more educated from watching TV programmes, yes even soap operas teach us things (!). A large study confirms previous small studies that high levels of TV viewing when young may contribute to elevated levels of verbal and physical aggression, difficulties with sleep, obesity and long-term risk for obesity-related health problems from a lack of physical exercise and attention and learning difficulties. Basically the more TV watched as a child the more aggressive acts committed as an adult.

Internet:

The Internet amplifies are natural personality traits. The extroverts get even more social and introverts more isolated but it is hard to assess the effect of the Internet on us as it is so varied. We might become more isolated socially but then become more open within online forums.

You are who you are largely because of the way the brain cells wire up in response to the environment and the things you do. If you change the wiring you will change how we think. Young, developing brains are affected the most. But there is no real way to prove anything. The ideal experiment would be to divide a large number of children into groups, expose the different groups to different types or varying amounts of TV or computer games for several years while keeping all other experiences identical, and then follow their progress in life. This will never be possible or, more importantly, ethical.

The article can be found here, again subscribers can view the whole article.