Virtual Reality vs. Reality

Korean Parents Neglect Real Child for Virtual One

March,4.2010

The South Korean parents have been neglecting their three month old baby.
The parents have completely lost their focus on reality and playing the online
game PRIUS for hours, while heaving the task to “raise” a virtual baby online, but yet leaving the real baby alone for hours, neglecting it with food, and care, while creating a different virtual world. The baby starved to death. This is a shocking story, supporting my theory that media can create a virtual fantasy world, and is often misunderstood. With this event I want to show that video games do have an impact on people’s behaviour, even though the game had nothing to do with violence or were it kids that were playing, you can see that even adults can be affected, and here a child had to be the victim. But is not the child a victim in many other cases? Being neglected by their parent’s, being exposed to violence on a daily basis, given so much information and decision making that a child needs to understand and handle.

“there's no certain clinical indicator to define 'game addiction' but our study shows that brain PET [scan] images of suspected online game addicts are very similar to that of a cocaine addict.” Dr. Kim Sang Eun, of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital



As we see from this report it is shocking how much more realistic these games are becoming to capture the audience, not only more real, but more violent, the level of violence is almost not existent. Anything from murderer, shooting, rape, robbing, is provided, the variety of these violent games are extreme. Where are the values we should teach our children in these video games? If the Korean couple has become so fixed on a video game's Ideology that is not the reality, why would we want our children to become in danger the same way? Sometimes the hours spend on these games are frightening, playing a game that can virtually give you anything you desire in violence, children could as the Korean couple, forget about the “real world”.


G4.(2010,March 5).korean couple neglects real baby to raise a virtual one.by Stephen Johnson [Image]. Retrieved from http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/tag/3305/other-peoples-misfortune.html

CBSNewsOnline.(2007,October 30).Katie Couric's Notebook: Violent Video Game (CBS News)[video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDi5X6sN_JA

GamePolitics.(2010, March 4). Korean Parents Neglect Real Child for Virtual One. Retrieved from gamepolitics website:http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/03/04/korean-parents-neglect-real-child-virtual-one


Joohee Cho.(2010, March 4). Game Addicts Arrested for Starving Baby to Death. Retrieved April 15,2010, from ABCNews International website:http://abcnews.go.com/International/baby-death-alleged-result-parents-online-games-addiction/story?id=10007040

School Shootings and the Media

MADISON, Ala., Feb. 5, 2010

A ninth-grader shot by another student

This recent event occurred in a Middle School in north Alabama.

A ninth-grader was shot by another student, during class inside the class room.

The 14 year old boy Todd Brown, died in the hospital.

The suspected shooter was arrested inside the school, where the police are

stationed. No one else was injured





This recent event occurred in a Middle School in north Alabama. A ninth-grader was shot by another student, during class inside the class room. The 14 year old boy Todd Brown, died in the hospital. The suspected shooter was arrested inside the school, where the police are stationed. No one else was injured.

This is one of many examples and events on school shootings. There are current event, such as events in the past, and they all have one in common, the kids are usually 10 to 18 years old. And here I believe we need to ask ourselves, who is to blame? How much can we blame a child for there horrifying actions? In the end they are just children, and they are usually still in their own learning process, so where do those kids come across such violence? I certainly believe that children had to be acquainted with violence for them to behave in such way.

The horrifying fact is that those are kids, and not reasonable adults, but where do these kids get their inspiration from? Even though it is not scientifically proven that this violent behaviour is taken from violent video games, movies or TV programs, I certainly believe that it can influence the children very much. Children are curious, they like to experiment and try things, and the violence they see on a daily basis is extreme. So the connection to behaviour from this reality they create by video games or TV can be misunderstood by children. And this is where it becomes a problem, because children create their own “reality” where they believe what they see. Those video games and violent TV programs do not portray the reality, because the child does not get the right message from those mediums. The hero worship from a gangster, or the portrayal of revenge, and the portrayal of immortality in video games, movies, and violent TV programs are totally absurd.

But where can we distinguish the line between what can be shown to children and what should be shown to adults? Is it even possible to forbid certain content? And who should be responsible to do so? These days it is so simple to just turn on the TV and entertain a child, but parents should be aware of the content, usually parents are too busy to look into detail of what the child is exposed to, and are more content that they have a certain entertainment. Here I believe the connection to the shooting, might have been a portrayal on what the kid has seen, because a 14 year old child is not so much aware of his own actions. In this case of the shooting we also have to question the security of children, security in schools and security of children at home by heaving such easy access to weapons.


CBSNews.(2010,February 5).Teen Dies in Ala. Middle School Shooting [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/05/national/main6179311.shtml

AssociatedPress.(2010,February). 14-year-old Shot at Alabama Middle School Dies [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5838d4GmcU&feature=related

The AssociatedPress.(2010,February). Teen Dies in Ala. Middle School Shooting.CBSNews.