The Next Generation Of Kids

[Archer Vonn]

do you have a point, mr shadows, or is this another one of your elaborate jokes again.

[Rarity]

C'mon guys, quit it.This topic has gone from complaining about this new generation of kids, to debating weather video games make you violent or not. =/

[Bundalings]

I'm not sure which is more ridiculous.

[Angel Beat]

I'm not sure which is more ridiculous.

A bit of this and a bit of that.

[Transcendence]

do you have a point, mr shadows, or is this another one of your elaborate jokes again.

The point was that people have believed all sorts of crazy things in the past, so why should video games be any different? I think kids are brilliant for the most part. They don't camouflage their disdain and neither do they sugarcoat. It's like, they're curious devil spawns. For someone with my love for offensiveness and surrealism, kids are the future. If only they could find a way to preserve their curiosity and creative intelligence.

[Alex Humva]

I'd like to point out that eons ago, when the printing press came out, it was thought to be the work of the devil because it was 'too perfect'. The actual reason is too religious to get into here. Yet I hardly see anyone nowadays arguing that printers are corrupting our youth.Fact of the matter is, every bloody new thing since the dawn of time has been accused of being evil. Socrates didn't like writing because it 'weakened the mind'; the telegraph was hammered by journalists because they thought it'd destroy the news media. The telephone was predicted to cause massive increases in organized crime because it meant criminals could talk to each other from the safeties of their home; some even tried to get the telephone banned. Do some research and you'll find everything has had someone screaming that it'll end the world as we know it.How does this relate to the argument at hand? The whole violent video games=violent people stuff is based on similar panic attacks. I can play Halo for hours on end shooting up aliens, but I still get squeamish at the sight of any significant wound in real life. Now, that's just me; I can't take this and say that all other seven billion humans are the same way. But one can't say that their argument is any more valid if they state some anecdotal evidence and say it must apply to the other seven billion.Ultimately the only thing we can do is just sit and watch to see what happens. There have been naysayers since the dawn of time and there will be until the end of time; trying to predict the future with hard evidence is already hard enough, without such evidence, it's near impossible. Me personally, if I were in the shoes of someone arguing about how screwed up the next generation will be, I'd be more concerned about VR tech than anything else, now that we're getting nice sunglass style VR goggles.

[Mel]

^This. IMO, it's when you can no longer distinguish reality from fantasy that it really becomes a problem.

[Archer Vonn]

I'd like to point out that eons ago, when the printing press came out, it was thought to be the work of the devil because it was 'too perfect'. The actual reason is too religious to get into here. Yet I hardly see anyone nowadays arguing that printers are corrupting our youth.

i'd like to point out psychology studies have evolved somewhat since the middle ages.few years back there was a case in, i want to say philadelphia since a lot of bad things seem to come out of there but i also wanna suggest washington, of a teenage boy who murdered his mother after she confiscated his halo 3 disk. then there are more publicated cases, thanks to things like video sharing. i think we've all seen the videos of the german kid screeching at his computer and smashing his keyboard, or the one of the kid who did terrible things with a remote control after being banned off world of warcraft. i think we've all been frustrated after playing skyrim on one difficulty too high, or when we discover our pokemon are nowhere near the level of the gym leaders and we get thrashed.now, stay with me.before mr shadows or mr alex decide to comment on 'those are just the horror stories not all cases are like that' or 'you can't prove there's a correlation' [but oh dear lord if the latter comes up] there is viability in those comments. keep in mind, though, that people still get away with murder. not everything is reported, not everything is made public. if examples aren't hard to find and some of them are even mildly relatable, it's not very hard to see where i'm coming from on a subject as popular or addictive as video games.

[Bundalings]

I'd like to point out that crime rates have been decreasing pretty much across the board for the last decade or so, in the United States, at least. I don't recall any actual numbers but I've heard it from multiple sources and I imagine it would be pretty easy to look up if people disagree.It seems like with more and more people playing these violent games every year, if there really was a connection, the crime rates would be going up.

[Archer Vonn]

did i mention crime at some point?

[Bfahome]

did i mention crime at some point?

No, just murder.

[Bundalings]

Actually, yes, you mentioned murder.And typically violence is associated with crime. It was an association, not an outright statement.If the violence/bad influences video games... emit... is limited to irritability rather than violence, then it really isn't a huge deal. If playing too many video games does lead to a troubled childhood (I'm sure it could tip many fringe cases over the edge [example: crazy Halo murder kid {I have been playing Halo since I was nine, I guess? and the only aggressive tendencies I have are verbal and mild so obviously the effects (if there are any) vary wildly from individual to individual}]) (that's some crazy parenthesisery right there) and troubled childhood leads to aggressive kids (what this topic is about I think?) then wouldn't crime rates be, if not rising, at least staying constant?Anyway, instead of the circular argument about the effects of video games on a developing mind, in which neither side has compelling evidence, I'm going to get back to the true topic at hand by sayingYes, children are scary. Very scary.And that's about all I have to say on the matter.No wait. Even though they're scary and vengeful, it's not like they're another species. Everyone starts as a kid, and every kid is different. Some are spiteful little runts/bullies, others are not but since they're not as visible I guess this topic isn't complaining about them. Still more kinds of kids/teens take the less direct approach and post meaningless unhelpful (but extremely humorous) topics on a forum that was actually made for, hey, kids, that most of us joined as, hey, kids!woah there's my halo inspired aggressiveness coming out, better go do something else for a bitEdit: thanks bfa

Edited March 3, 2012 by Bundalings

[LewaLew]

It's funny to see teenagers talk this way about kids the same way their parents talked about them and so on.Kids may not have a lot of wisdom concerning how they behave, but if they are being raised correctly, they will at least feel guilty when they lie, steal, or break a promise. Adults and teenagers know right from wrong, but unlike most kids, they don't feel shame when they do wrong. It's too bad that eventually, those kids learn how to cheat, steal, and be dishonest with a face that would make a Poker player jealous.Immaturity will go away. But the degradation of society is not, and never has been restricted to the newest generation.

[Dralcax]

You know, I heard that once, a kid really liked his video games. His parents took them away, so he shot his parents. When the cops arrived, he was playing video games. Now that's one hardcore gamer.

[CroMagnonMan]

Adults and teenagers know right from wrong, but unlike most kids, they don't feel shame when they do wrong.

That's kind of a blanket statement. Plenty of adults and teenagers feel shame. Actually, I would consider shame a much more adult concept. You can learn the difference between right and wrong as a child and still not feel bad about doing something wrong, simply because you haven't learned to associate "wrong" with "bad feeling" (I'm sure we've all observed this type of behavior from children at some point or another). Part of the parent's role is teaching by example the consequences of wrong behavior, whether through punishment or chastisement, so that the child acts according to those standards instinctively later in life. Shame is something you feel in response to the judgment -- or imagined judgment -- of other people, whether or not those people are present. By integrating moral standards through the lessons of your parents, and through associating their standards with those of your peers, that shame is something that is meant to guide you in adulthood.So there is cause to believe that both kids and teens/adults are capable of shameless actions, and also that even teens/adults that do shameless things (or outright awful things) do not do so simply because they lack the capacity of feel shame, but because their standards have been replaced or reinvented since childhood. (This is why there is all this concern about "bad influences" and "peer pressure" -- that the moral standards that should be under the sovereign control of the parents could be misaligned to other unqualified individuals.)

Immaturity will go away. But the degradation of society is not, and never has been restricted to the newest generation.

Indeed.

You know, I heard that once, a kid really liked his video games. His parents took them away, so he shot his parents. When the cops arrived, he was playing video games. Now that's one hardcore gamer.

He was playing that there Dig Dug. No game that teaches children to blow up tomato creatures with an air pump can be a healthy influence.(Atari FTW)~QMark

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Okay, you know what.I'll resume discussing the evidence brought forth when somebody starts bringing forth evidence that is something other than anecdotal.Instead, I will leave you with a simple musing on the odd trick of perception by which children always seem to be shorter than I was when I was their age.

[Transcendence]

But we can't have been that small! I don't remember it like that!

[Mel]

^ <3Dang, and they look so much younger too.

[Transcendence]

I wonder why they like Justin Bieber. It's a serious question. Because to me, he obviously is an obnoxious, egoistic brat with a void instead of a personality. And it's not even entirely his fault. He wasn't particularly bright to begin with, but all the pampering he's received hasn't helped. But you would imagine that kids can see right through those big dirtbags, right? I don't know. I've always been particularly gifted with perception, seeing others. Even as a kid, I'd see right through you if you were rotten. To me, it's always strange when you see others take kindly to someone who's obviously a bad egg. And kids are devils. Takes one to know one, right?

[Archer Vonn]

On one hand, you can love Justin Bieber for ____ reason, or you can hate Justin Bieber for ____ reason. Ultimately, it's a status thing. I don't mind him, for one.

[Transcendence]

I don't mind his music or anything, and I firmly believe that if I ignore it, it will go away. But it bugs me that people aren't willing to debate him in a serious manner. Yet kids love him.

[Archer Vonn]

Debate him? I think you're looking into him too much.

[Transcendence]

And I think you reflect too little. Every idol, every trend that comes and goes? It's there for a reason.

[Archer Vonn]

And that reason is not necessarily controversial, nor is it really debate worthy. I think it says more about you than Bieber fans if nobody wants to debate him seriously.

[Transcendence]

I never mentioned taking him seriously. You can try to ignore it all you want, but it is a fact that he has an influence on people due to his celebrity, and that is something we have to debate.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Okay.His music is vapid and simple. Kind of like Barney songs without a big purple dinosaur.I don't see what there is to debate. He's popular with children - and, even then, only a specific group of children - because that sort of music has been popular with children for a while.