I've been thinking about videogames. What are videogames? Most literally a game on a screen created by other humans. It is a world you can look into and move around; you have control through the controller. So why do people play them? Control. It is enjoyable to have control. Young boys especially love having control. Many girls don't play a lot of videogames, for a lot of reasons. Some like to, but a lot don't. I think it's because we don't get as much as an adrenaline rush off of them as men do. It's that silly testosterone again. I don't know, I don't see a large issue with videogames as long as one knows what they are doing. You are dedicating time to a fantasy world because you have control over it. Problems only arise when the videogame playing becomes excessive. In society today we have videogames to do things that normally would be dangerous...we would probably die doing such things. In videogames there is unlimited life. You die, you can start over. In the real world you cannot reboot the system. This all goes back to the fact that humans are afraid of dying. Along with it, we are afraid of living because we are afraid of dying.
We are so afraid of dying, it has come to a point where we can channel what we really want to do into a fantasy world. This way, we can have the control we want to do what we want, but not die... so we have control over that too. I suppose we could go out into war or race cars or w/e but we sit in front of our tv and stare at a screen instead. It's nice if you don't want to die, but I feel like there are much more thrilling things out there that many people don't take it upon themselves to go look for. Simply, the environment that they are in at the moment isn't stimulating enough.
Now facebook is another story. Facebook is great because it connects a whole bunch of people. Living out in the boondocks it is quite lonely sometimes and also quite inconvenient to meet up with friends casually (can't really walk to the center of town without being gone for half the day). So, here is where society turns to other means of communication. When communication isn't convenient, we make it convenient because it is essential. That is why we developed such things as the telephone and internet. Connectedness is good, it makes humans feel a part of something. We often feel very unhappy when we aren't a part of something. No human is truly content with being alone (given they are not a feral child). So, for the people who spend a lot of time on facebook and myspace. They may not be in such and environment they think is convenient to feel connected or, they do not know how to connect with the environment they are in. This is often the case with loners at school or w/e. People who don't find it easy to make friends. They simply aren't well equipt with the skills and experience other children have.
I've been thinking about videogames. What are videogames? Most literally a game on a screen created by other humans. It is a world you can look into and move around; you have control through the controller. So why do people play them? Control. It is enjoyable to have control. Young boys especially love having control.
ReplyDeleteMany girls don't play a lot of videogames, for a lot of reasons. Some like to, but a lot don't. I think it's because we don't get as much as an adrenaline rush off of them as men do. It's that silly testosterone again.
I don't know, I don't see a large issue with videogames as long as one knows what they are doing. You are dedicating time to a fantasy world because you have control over it. Problems only arise when the videogame playing becomes excessive.
In society today we have videogames to do things that normally would be dangerous...we would probably die doing such things. In videogames there is unlimited life. You die, you can start over. In the real world you cannot reboot the system.
This all goes back to the fact that humans are afraid of dying. Along with it, we are afraid of living because we are afraid of dying.
We are so afraid of dying, it has come to a point where we can channel what we really want to do into a fantasy world. This way, we can have the control we want to do what we want, but not die... so we have control over that too. I suppose we could go out into war or race cars or w/e but we sit in front of our tv and stare at a screen instead.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice if you don't want to die, but I feel like there are much more thrilling things out there that many people don't take it upon themselves to go look for. Simply, the environment that they are in at the moment isn't stimulating enough.
Now facebook is another story. Facebook is great because it connects a whole bunch of people. Living out in the boondocks it is quite lonely sometimes and also quite inconvenient to meet up with friends casually (can't really walk to the center of town without being gone for half the day). So, here is where society turns to other means of communication.
ReplyDeleteWhen communication isn't convenient, we make it convenient because it is essential. That is why we developed such things as the telephone and internet. Connectedness is good, it makes humans feel a part of something. We often feel very unhappy when we aren't a part of something. No human is truly content with being alone (given they are not a feral child). So, for the people who spend a lot of time on facebook and myspace. They may not be in such and environment they think is convenient to feel connected or, they do not know how to connect with the environment they are in. This is often the case with loners at school or w/e. People who don't find it easy to make friends. They simply aren't well equipt with the skills and experience other children have.