1996 12 years old
It has been a month, but the death of my grandmother is on my mind and in school, I refuse to get bullied. In doing so, I have invited the wrath of two serial bullies, who won't take no for an answer. I get into a fight, and due to my lack of experience, size and speed (lack of it), I taste mud within the next 15 seconds. That's that for courage. I return home enraged with vengeance on my mind.
2002 18 years old
I reach home after college, have lunch and then switch on my desktop. I switch off the lights, keep the door open, a cool breeze is needed as it is a hot summers day. I double click on the grand theft auto icon to launch the game.
For the next 3 and a half hours, I play God. I go on a rampage killing people with guns, grenades and sniper rifles, commit grand theft auto at least a few dozen times, and run over at least a few people (collect their cash )while committing it. Kill at least 15 cops and then put in a cheat code to avoid imprisonment. This has been my routine for the last few years.
2003 19 years old
I leave St. Andrews College Bandra at 12:00 pm, walking with my friends Jonathan and Clovis towards Bandra station. As we reach Bandra station, we decide to bird watch and catch the next train. Just as the train is about to alight the station, I see a man perched on top of the local train, (resembling a beggar) who tries to get up and in doing so touches the overhead live wire. He shimmies for 5 seconds and then collapses to the roof, with a plume of white smoke rising from his corpse. I signal the attention of my friends, the man is dead. We stare at the frantic action in silence & then curse the delay in catching the next train home.
2005 21 years old
5pm, I freshen up, as my eyes are tired and leave to play rink football with my friends. Later, I end up abusing one of my teammates who could not score a sitter (an easy goal). This altercation turns heated and then it comes down to a fist fight which was broken up by others in the right nick of time. I feel a surge of energy and house a bad temper throughout the day.
2009 24 years old
MBA third semester, I get placed in an HR consultancy and life gets busy between work & studies. So most of my time at home is spent sleeping and on assignments.
Low Self Esteem at an early age pushed me, to finding an outlet in first person shooter gaming. Immediate repercussions to such gaming resulted in lower interaction and trust with others. Prolonged addiction manifested in, anger and short temper issues while playing or in interaction with others (reduction of empathy and compassion when conversing with other). It also resulted in being indifferent towards the suffering or plight of others.
Reversing the effects of first person shooter games, takes time, as it is the same as cigarette or alcohol addiction. In my case, it took me close to 4 years to build back empathy, compassion, trust, and patience. The same amount of time to replace my modus operandi from I Win, you Lose (extreme competitiveness) to We Win (getting along together).
Post Thoughts
Effects on Children*2
Children experience anxiety, elation, frustration, anger accompanied by tense muscles, headaches, drowsiness during and long after they have played first person shooter games.
Effects oF violent videos
Daily I come across a large number of people watch videos of suicides, massacres, terrorism aftermaths, fatal and near fatal injuries and laugh out off. I see them glued to such videos. Over a period of time, this is resulting in people taking videos and selfies with victims rather than helping them out.
Think about it!
Think about it!
*1 Impact of
First Person shooter Games
*2
Impact of Violent Games on Children
What
is fed by Media as Propaganda to the youth
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