The Perilious Impact of Video Games

“I withdraw my consent from reality. I deny it my assistance. I dedicate myself to the temptations of escapism, and throw myself wholeheartedly into the endlessness of unreality.” This quote from the book, Erebos, expresses how video games manipulate children into thinking real life is parallel to what’s shown on the screen in front of them. Do we want our children to grow up only to confuse reality and fiction? A survey polled by ABC news concluded that 2/3 of the children living in America play video games. As a society, we accept it and think that it is normal, when in reality it shouldn’t be. It’s like telling your children that running around with guns and walking into strip clubs is alright. Though all video games aren’t bad, most children play violent video games and do it often, making it part of their daily lives. Violent video games increase aggression in people and reduce social interactions. Parents, I would hope that after reading this, you might reconsider your position and understand what I am trying to convey.

One of the main concerns when playing violent video games around the world pertains to the increased aggression in players and the affect it has on children from a young age. According to a scientific study held by ‘Anderson and Bushman,’ those who play violent video games are more likely to “have increased aggression in thoughts, feeling or/ and behaviours.” Children are awarded for being violent in most games, and are more likely to do the same in the real world, like the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who were both known to be active members in the community of the violent video game called Doom. A question many ask is whether playing video games would result to their child becoming a mass murderer. If this was the case, then neighbours, friends, etc would all be killers. While this may be true, we cannot deny that playing violent video games are a harmless form of entertainment.

Another significant problems is that violent video games also contain very stereotypical and biased characters. It seems to me that the message they are trying to give us is controversial to the one we are trying to resolve. In most video games, women are very sexualised, and have very minor roles to portray them as weak characters. As a world, do we want to progress or regress? As of today, we are still unable to achieve a balance between the two genders everywhere around the world. And as a community, we need supporters, not opposers.

A Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura concluded that “social scripts presented on screen will guide children's behaviour in real life.” As a society, I think that we are losing the ability to empathise and communicate. Before this era of gaming on laptops and on mobile phones, humans would spend their free time reading, understanding and taking values from books. This is significant because young people these days prefer directing their energy and time online playing video games, learning and being awarded for violent behaviour, vengeance etc.  rather than have face-to-face conversations  or do something more productive, like reading.

Parents, I have experienced this myself. 4 years ago, I went to a friends house, where we all stayed up playing board games and interacting with each other. A week ago I went to another friends house, where everyone was either on their device playing a game or watching Call of Duty being played on the T.V screen by the host. This is how quickly we have evolved as human species. How do we know if we are going the right way?

I understand that when we play video games we do not fully comprehend its effect. Absent minded teenagers play for some form of entertainment, allowing their minds to be influenced by the screen in front of them, causing them to become more aggressive and have less social interactions. Therefore, I think violent video games should be banned, and as parents, you should engage your child in face-to-face conversations than one with an anonymous user.

By Ananya

Theme of The Maze Runner: Decision Making

              In society there is constant change everyday. When a problem is solved, new ones arise. Ideally, we all should work to solve the problems and to make the world a better place and to do that the right decisions must be made. People, however, have interesting ways of making decisions and sometimes it’s really hard to know if you have made the right or wrong decision. The book “The Maze Runner" by James Dashner takes place in a dystopian world which is a maze that was created by an organization named W.I.C.K.E.D. (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) that used selected boys to study their brain functions to produce a cure for a disease called The Flare. This disease occurred in another dystopian world that Dashner had created. However, nobody really knows if this is the perfect solution for the problem, but they go with it, even though not everyone in the society agrees with it. So, one theory is sometimes you need to trust your instinct and ignore what your brain or society says in order to solve problems.

              In this book, Minho, who is the leader of the runners and Alby who is the leader of the Glade were going to see the dead Griever (a mechanical beast that was part of the experiment). Minho had reported that Griever was dead, but then later turned out that the Griever was not dead and it “stung” Alby. They couldn’t travel really fast and reach the gate at seconds before sunset. They had to reach the gate before sunset, because it closed at sunset, when the Grievers would come out. Thomas was at the gate but didn’t know what to do but decided on his instinct that he would go out of the Glade and help the two. Later the gate closed right after Thomas had ran out. At that moment Minho was scolding him for how stupid he was instead of working on a plan. Minho was losing hope and still shaking when he told Thomas that they needed to separate so they would have a better chance of survival. However, Thomas didn’t do so, he trusted his instinct and tried to help Alby by tying him up on the trees where the Griever might not spot them. His plan succeeded. Later that night when Thomas reunited with Minho they figured out a trick to send the Griever off a cliff and Minho trusted his instinct this time because he saw Thomas did it and it worked, so he went on with it and succeeded.

              Later in the book, after getting stung on purpose Thomas went through the changing and called a gathering. He remembered everything(everybody’s memory was removed when they were put into the maze) and he had a plan but that plan would take away many people’s lives but he trusted his instinct and told it to them anyway. Later the leader Newt agreed to it and took Thomas and 40 other people to the hole that lead to the exit. In the end, twenty of them were killed but the rest succeeded and exited the maze.

              However, not everybody agreed with the W.I.C.K.E.D’s way of solving the Flare. W.I.C.K.E.D was responsible for putting pressure toward the children by putting them in the maze and even killing them. At the end of the book, a group of people that were tired of the W.I.C.K.E.D’s way, got into the lab and killed the crew and rescued the kids. W.I.C.K.E.D may have been harsh toward children but they were the only scientists that could have been able to solve the problem while the other group were just ordinary people with guns who used their instincts and thinking that by putting W.I.C.K.E.D to a stop the children would be alright, but if they couldn’t find the cure the people will suffer and so will the children. Certainly it could be said that if they use their rational mind they could have figured that out. While that is a good point the author clearly favor the use of instincts for decision making like the critical moments in the book when Thomas ran out into the maze to save Minho and Alby and actually found a piece of puzzle that lead to escaping the maze.

              To conclude, in order to live happily, make the right decisions, and shape a better world, we need to give our instinct more voice, but we need to use our rational mind too. Everything exists for a reason and if we don’t trust our instincts it’s like not using part of ourselves and the same thing applies for our rational mind. You have it, you use it. However, consider doing what your instinct come up first.

By Sewen

Divergent and The Maze Runner Comparative Essay: Decision Making~People and Instinct

              Decisions have tremendous impact. One good decision can save your life; however, just one bad one can also destroy your life. It is made by everyone in their everyday life. How people are making decisions though are very interesting. It had attracted the attention of researchers, scientists, and mostly authors. Two authors, Veronica Roth (author of “Divergent”) and James Dashner (author of “The Maze Runner”), are both interested in the topic but have rather different perspective of the process of decisions making.

              In the beginning of “The Maze Runner”, Dasher illustrated how people make decisions by their instinct. Thomas, the protagonist who lived in the dystopian world of the maze, instinctively ran outside the gate at sunset to help Minho and Alby from the danger that is outside even knowing that he too would be trapped outside in the maze and face the same danger. (The gate closes at sunset and at night in the maze there are the mechanical beast called “The Griever” that can”stung” you to death.) Even while being trapped in the maze, Thomas didn't panic because his instinct told him not to and he even saved Alby’s life by tying him to the ivy leaves on the wall of the maze. He himself also escaped the danger by instinctively working with his momentum and the Grievers’ momentum to escape them, if he just run without deciding to do anything because his rational mind told him that if he failed his own momentum he would tripped and then the Griever would kill him, he would've been killed.

              On the other hand, in “Divergent”, Roth demonstrated that different people make different decisions. She is doing that by categorising the people in the city. The Erudite make decisions based on logic, consequences and the big picture. The Candor make decisions based on the truth and only the truth. The Amity considered kindness, forgiveness, the truth and most of all peace before making a decision. The Dauntless make decisions based on justice, benefit, and reward, even it’s risky they'll take it. The Abnegation don’t think about themselves while making a decision, they think about other people and if the decisions that they are making will benefit people as a whole. The aptitude test also tells the reader that what you are define what you’ll do during the test. In the attack dog part of the test, Amity will pick chess as their weapon because they don’t believe in fighting with the dog, Dauntless will pick the knife because they want to take the risk and will fight for it if it’s justice; however, the Erudite won’t chose because they are curious about why do they need to choose one of the object and when the dog came they would lie down because they know the characteristic of the dog. Also when the dog attack the little girl Dauntless and Abnegation would sacrifice themselves and jump in front of her to save her while other factions would just stand there. One more part of the aptitude test is the bus. There is a man in the bus asking the tester if they know the wanted man that would kill the man on the bus, the tester will feel like they know the man in the picture. The Candor will tell the truth in that situation no matter what and the Abnegation would tell the truth too because that mean they can save the man’s life; however, other factions wouldn’t tell the truth.

Throughout the book “The Maze Runner”, Dashner uses third person narration to elaborate further that everybody trust their instinct. “He knew he should run into the Maze and help, but the rule about not leaving the Glade was seared into his mind.” (Excerpt From: James Dashner. “The Maze Runner.” iBooks.) This line worked very well because it clearly shown instinct is telling Thomas what to do if it’s in first person, it would be like “I should run into the Maze and help but the rule about not leaving the Glade is seared into my mind. However, in “Divergent” Roth uses first person narration because it signified that people are different and so are the decisions they are making. “I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent.”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) this moment of realization clearly had done the job well because If she uses third person narration, it would be: She is not Abnegation. She is not Dauntless. She is Divergent. It wouldn’t have sound as strong as the first person narration.

Some people might argue that in “The Maze Runner” Dashner want to illustrate how people act on their rational instead of instinct because at the end of the book Dashner demonstrated how a group of people act on their instinct and produce disastrous result and if they had just use their rational mind they would’ve figured out that they are not scientist and they can’t solve the problem and they can’t restore the world condition. However, their instinct may also told them that if they rescue the kids they can just let the kids live on with their life and there will be a generation with the immunity to the disease; therefore, solve the problem instead of putting the kids live in danger and watching how they react every seconds. In “Divergent” some people might also argue that people in “Divergent” make those decisions not because they are different type of people, they make those decisions because they are under peer pressure. For instance, when each family want their child to choose the same faction as theirs because they want their child to stay with them and when Caleb told Beatrice “We should think of our family.” “But. But we must also think of ourselves.”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) Maybe Beatrice pick Dauntless because those words that Caleb said push her not to take Abnegation. However, this line “My mother told me to save them. Because of that, and because I am Dauntless”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) clearly stated that she picked Dauntless because she is Dauntless not because of Caleb’s word or anybody’s.

In life, decision is an important aspect. Choosing your job, your school subjects… just because people around you or your friends pick History doesn’t mean you have to pick History. Everybody is different, you make your own decisions, they make theirs. Don’t fall to the peer pressure, be like Dauntless and fight it, be like Abnegation and help other around you to make decisions that they want to make, be like Amity and forgive your friends and be kind to them, be like Candor and never lie to your friends, and most of all be like Erudite, be smart and live your life but don’t ever forget about your instinct.

By Sewen

To Kill a Mockingbird Vs Parallel: Comparative essay

Everyone makes decisions. Everyone is put into situations where they have to choose one path and what happens next is unknown. In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee we can see the power of choices when the narrator (Scout Finch) tells the story of her father (Atticus Finch) and how his decision to defend a black man, who was charged with raping a white girl, affected him, his family and those around him. Similarly in ‘Parallel’ by Lauren Miller we see how Abby, the teenage protagonist’s life changes drastically as she makes different decisions in different situations that further leads her to a life she wouldn’t have expected. In both these text’s it is obvious that the decisions made, unravel many unknown consequences that we should be aware of.

A common theme that both these books primarily revolve around is the choice’s one makes. In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Atticus Finch is repeatedly seen in a negative light for defending a black man in court. Not only was he disrespected by the neighbours who thought that “lawing for niggers” was a poor decision, but also by the kids in Scout’s school who ran around calling, “Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers,” Besides that, even one of Atticus’s relatives called him a “nigger lover”. Nevertheless, Atticus was able to push through the insults since he was highly respected and honoured at the Negro church for his stand against racism. From this one decision Atticus made, many different opinions were created, leaving Atticus to settle the consequences.

In a similar manner, at one point in ‘Parallel’, Abby became a part of a huge fight with her best friend Caitlin in the cafeteria. Out of frustration, Abby told everyone that Caitlin had dated a married man, revealing a subject that Caitlin was very conscious about. Consequently Abby was in such a fluster that she, “a) lost her two best friends, b) failed her astronomy midterm and c) asked out a guy who was already dating someone else.” Repeatedly Abby asked herself, “How quickly can a person implode?” and the answer is simple. It just depends on the choices you make. The power of our choices is immense and we should be conscious of that.

It is quite clear that these two books share similar themes yet both authors use contrasting settings to highlight the theme. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is set in the 1960’s and primarily revolves around a family dealing with the consequences of segregation whereas ‘Parallel’ focuses on a teenage girl in the modern world and how her choices affect her. Both of these setting work well in order to express the theme yet in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ the setting choice seems slightly more effective. This may be because in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ they are dealing with much more mature issues that leave greater impacts on larger communities compared to a teenage girls problems, which usually are much smaller when looked at on a vast scale.

In conclusion, both of these books are able to explain how the choices we make lead to unrevealed consequences, yet ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ uses a more effective setting to convey this theme. After reading these two texts, the reader may believe that only negative results can be created through our choices but this is false. Positives results can also be created as long as the right decisions are made to lead up to those final results. This also doesn’t mean that every single small decision could cause a difference between life and death, but there is that possibility. This leaves the reader with the question of whether there is any way to know the consequences of our actions but that also is unknown.

By Aditi