Screen shockers and teen "e"-boppers Victims of Video… In the last 2 Daily Doses, I've talked about an alarming spike in the rate of teenaged suicides in America - as revealed by some CDC numbers from 2003 and 2004, and as reported by the Associated Press… I've also told you in detail about one of the reasons why I think this spike has occurred. And no, my reasoning isn't the same as what the AP author postulated in her pseudo-advocate piece - a decline in the number of antidepressant prescriptions. As you'll recall, instead of imagining inverse correlations between teen suicide and shrinking usage of Prozac and other mood-altering depression drugs, I instead pointed out the very real correlation between this suicide spike and the recent explosion in sales and use-hours of violent video games… To recap, I mentioned studies summarized in various sources that link these games to increased aggression, anti-social tendencies, and alienation among teens. And although no one has specifically correlated these games to suicides, it doesn't seem much of a leap to me to conclude that anything that cheapens human life and trivializes brutality to the extent that a lot of these new games do CAN'T be good for the self-image - especially if the attitudes these games engender cause vital relationships to suffer. These kinds of interactions and relations with family and friends are the things that prevent kids from committing suicide, if you ask me. And violent video games - both by virtue of what they teach and by robbing kids of time normally spent interacting with others - are decaying these vitally important influences. Also, according to research presented at the most recent annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, violent video games actually affect kids' brain function in a lasting manner. And not in a good way. According to the Indiana University School of Medicine affiliated study, the games over-stimulate the area of the brain in charge of emotional arousal… They also decrease the brain's ability to FOCUS AND CONCENTRATE. Hmmm. Are you seeing what I'm seeing here? Could there not only be a correlation between the rise of violent video games and teen depression/suicide - but also with ever-rising rates of ADHD? Even though I'm on-record as saying this "disease" is the most over-diagnosed condition on the American landscape today, I'd be foolhardy not to concede that an increasing number of kids nowadays do indeed have trouble staying focused and attentive in school. Could violent video games be the culprit? But there's more. The realm of disturbing and possibly damaging-to-kids video influences don't begin and end with games - or even with the movies and TV. There's a new "e-nomenon" that's sweeping the nation's youth: The self-made violent video. Now, there's nothing wrong with being an amateur auteur - I did it years ago with my Super-8 movie camera, and families have been doing it for decades now on a wide scale with the advent of home video in the 80s…. However, the recent development of small, portable, video-capable digital cameras and cell phones has given kids a way to film every outrageous impulse they have or event they see (or take part in) on the street or in the schoolyard. With the Internet, they have the ability to disseminate such images widely - and increasingly, the things they post are centered around violence. If you're not up on this stuff, you need to be, especially if you have teenaged kids (or grandkids). Take an afternoon and surf YouTube, Photobucket, and iFilm… Take notice of the smorgasbord of amateur teen videos and pictures on these. In addition to your standard, harmless prank vids, backyard stunts on film, and skits (some of these are hilarious and creative, I'll admit), you'll also find a disturbing number of fistfights and brawls on tape. They're vicious, and they aren't just the boys going at it, either. If you really want a get a handle on the scope of this, log onto PSFights.com - but don't do it unless you're ready to see some shocking stuff. Seriously, it's scary and it's real. Bottom line: Due to the proliferation of real-time digital video and the ubiquity of video games that glorify crime, murder, and mayhem, the entire teenaged population is getting increasingly desensitized to both real-world and "virtual" brutality and death on a scale that movie and TV violence could never approach… And I think it's causing them a lot of emotional maladjustment and cerebral harm. Some can't process it, and so they don't anymore. May they rest in peace. | 
