I was relaxing deeply the other day–at least, as far as I can get at this point–and asked the universe “what is our greatest threat?”
The answer came back “video games”.
Now, that may seem like an odd answer, but I thought about it, and will make a few points.
- Video games are almost exclusively visual, and if you spend hundreds or thousands of hours playing them, especially when growing up, it seems likely that many other neural pathways become stunted. Over and above the violence, the process itself makes you less responsive emotionally, less alive, and less human. Or so I feel.
- Video games ARE violent. They desensitize kids (and adults), and make violence more acceptable, if not proximately more likely. This is well documented, by among others David Grossman. And ponder the effects of extremely realistic violence in Virtual Reality. And what is not possible? Virtual torture? Virtual child pornography, in which no actual children are harmed? Those things most likely already exist, and if memory serves they already had to ban child sex dolls somewhere, perhaps this country.
- Video games are an easy gateway drug for neural connections to a wider network. You don’t operate a controller: you just THINK, and it happens. Obviously, though, any signal going one way, can go the other way. If you are linked, you can be controlled.
Big picture, a VERY high percentage of at least American children spend much of their youth hiding in their bedrooms watching screens. They are not being socialized. They are not becoming social animals. They play video games, watch movies, and watch porn whenever puberty hits, or maybe even before.
Where will we be, even if everything else works out, in 50 years if we cannot find ways to bring these kids back into the human race?
I think such a thing is possible–I think brains can be rewired for connection–but we will need a method, and we will need to recognize it as a problem.
It’s hard enough living as a truly aware human being in this world. If you spend all your time in a constructed alternative world, it becomes that much harder. You are one long and large step farther down the rabbit hole.