The growth of online and computer based entertainment has seen exponential growth over the past two decades. Games such as Grand Theft Auto, Blood Curse, Metal Gear, etc are now household names and played by millions of children and adults in the UK.
Video games are classified according to their content just like films; however, unlike films where underage children may be prevented from accessing inappropriate content there are no such measures for those wishing to play inappropriate video games.
The most popular games visited on gaming sites listed below provide an insight into what is entertainment and what young minds are exposed to:
Soulcalibur IV
SIREN: Blood Curse
American McGee’s Grimm
Final Fantasy IV
Baldur’s Gate II:
Shadows of Amn
Legend: Hand of God PC
Metal Gear Solid 4:
Guns of the Patriots
Madden NFL
Spectral Force
1942: Joint Strike
Almost every game listed above has a theme in which the player has to “defend” or “achieve” certain objectives for which actions and tools are employed, the action being, to destroy any object or individual that stands in your way and the tools are weapons and methods used to exercise objectives.
Are we surprised that there is an explosion in child violence when we are effectively conditioning, brain washing their minds through access to such methods that teach them how to be violent.
The stress flight or fright response is triggered throughout the games, increasing immediate internal stress levels and conditioning our physiology to react and most importantly, learning a response based on such reactions, which are most likely to reflect what has been learned in these violent games.
Stress management is recognising how our minds responds to stimuli, the most effective drug free method is mindfulness meditation or mantra meditation.
EXERCISES:
Mindfulness (by Dav Panesar)
Symran (by Dav Panesar)
