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According to a number of recent articles like this one from the BBC, “Violent video games leave teens 'morally immature.’'”
The BBC writes about work done by Mirjana Bajovic, a researcher at Brock University, who published an article in the journal Educational Media International entitled: “Violent video gaming and moral reasoning in adolescents: is there an association?”
Understanding what Bajovic’s study discovered depends on how one defines moral maturity and how one contextualizes the research. Consider for example, this 2011 study that also came out of Brock University which discovered that it is competition, not violence, that makes gamers aggressive. While it seems to contradict the aforementioned study, the two researchers were, in fact, asking different questions. We have many loaded words between these two studies--moral maturity, aggression, violent, competition--all of which are used and defined in different ways depending on the particular research.
Don’t jump to conclusions based on a title. Savvy consumers already know that they should be wary of sensationalist journalism. Especially in the age of social media--where Upworthy-style click-bait abounds--headlines that validate our fears play well. We love to click on links that could potentially reinforce things we already believe but have no foundation on which to ground our irrational belief. The idea that video game violence is harmful in and of itself is a perfect example.
If you read Bajovic’s (much longer) dissertation, in which she lays out her research in detail, you discover that her study does not conclude that “violent video games leave teens ‘morally immature.’” Instead, she writes, “I believe that emphasis should be placed more in helping our children in understanding the meanings behind the violent video game messages through the collaboration of educators, parents, and students in and out of school.”
Brajovic is a smart academic. She presents a combination of qualitative and quantitative data in a much more nuanced way than tabloid-like hyperbolic journalism would have us believe.
Of course, it doesn’t take research to know that video games are neither good nor bad. However, like all forms of media and entertainment (even books), certain video games can send our kids messages that we may find morally questionable. This is the risk we take in exchange for freedom of speech. While some adults realize that it is our responsibility to teach kids how to think critically about the media they consume, other adults go with a polarized on/off approach, blaming new forms of interactive storytelling for corrupting the youth.
Sometimes, when I drop my kids (boys, six and eight) off at school in the morning, I like to tease them. “Don’t learn anything,” I warn them. “Especially not reading. If you start reading you’ll start learning how to think. Then you’ll start interpreting the world for yourself and soon it is all over. You’ll stop being obedient.” They roll their eyes and ignore me. They know I’m joking.
At night I read to them. In the mornings, I help them practice by making them read to me.
Whether I’m reading to them or they are reading to me, it is not just about sounding out the letters on the page. Afterwards, we talk about the book. Literacy has as much to do with interpretation as it does with comprehension. I guide them through a process of making meaning out of the story. Some of these conversations are simple, “why do you think he’s so afraid to try the green eggs and ham in the first place?” and “why does he want Marvin K. Mooney to ‘please go now?’” Others are more complicated, “why do you think Mazer and Graff have to lie to Ender in order to get him to exterminate the formics/buggers? Is lying okay in this context?”
My kids are still young. They struggle with interpretive questions. If they answer them at all, their answers are often simple, “he doesn’t like green things. I don’t either. Like broccoli. He probably thinks the eggs will taste like broccoli. Yuck!” Or else, their answers are crazy, “because Marvin K. Mooney is secretly an evil dragon in disguise.” That’s fine, my goal is not to teach them the right ways to interpret the stories we read. Instead, my goal is to teach them that interpretation is a critical part of life.
It doesn’t stop at the end of a book. There are many different kinds of texts in the world. We have the same kinds of conversations when we watch TV or Movies. Even when walking through the toy section at Target, I ask my boys “why do you think there are special pink Lego sets just for girls? Don’t girls think rocket ships are cool?” They share my confusion. They can’t make sense of it. They don’t have an answer. That’s okay. My goal is not to teach them to answer. My goal is to teach them that things should be questioned.
Obviously, at their age, it is not yet important that they approach toys from the perspective of equality in gender representation. However, I do want them to realize that reality is constantly being constructed, especially in the brand saturated landscape of a big box retailer. I point to the posters above the clothing. “I think the people who own this store believe that women only wear clothes to do three things: yoga, business, or laughing while walking on the beach with other women.” My kids look up. Why aren’t the women in the glamour shots shoveling snow, teaching, reading, or playing video games?
I’m slowly creating prepubescent conscious consumers. I’m making them aware of the fact that they are customers, that someone is actively selling to them, that they have the ability to say no. They learn lessons about spending and commerce. They develop the confidence that forms the foundation of successful negotiations.
It seems obvious when we I talk about books, advertising, and sales. We all know that part of raising children is making them wary of scams. Believe it or not, an attitude of caution when dealing with salesmen predates the Nigerian wire transfer emails. It existed long before someone decided to enforce lemon laws. It is far more antiquated than the snake oil salesman.
The ancient Greek god Hermes was not only a messenger with winged sandals, but also the god of both merchants and thieves. In her book Pagan Grace, Ginette Paris explains, “Greek merchants were pirates before turning to commerce; the first merchants had therefore stolen what they had sold.” Eventually, of course, “the notion of profit replaced theft.” Hermes is the young trickster of the Olympians, mischievous and frolicsome while simultaneously belonging to the ‘agora,’ or marketplace. His youth represents a market economy’s love for innovation, novelty, and start-ups. And it is likely because of juvenile Hermes that we still say investors “play” the market.
It is also because of Hermes that we teach our children to be wary of swindles, cheats, and rackets. We believe it will make them more successful citizens. Unlike Abrahamic morality, which commands against dishonest schemes, the ancient Greeks warned citizens to be on guard. Where Hermes, “founder of trade,” is concerned, there’s a “hazy boundary between theft and commerce...with no guarantee of integrity on either side.” Ginette Paris writes, “it was just as shameful to be duped as to use one’s brains to dupe someone else.”
When it comes to video games, however, most of us let the games speak to our kids unmonitored. We forget that as an interactive communication technology, all things that are connected, or networked, belong to Hermes, god of the crossroads. We often forget that we should be cautious, teaching our children to recognize the motives or agendas that may be hiding right beneath the surface of these devices.
Perhaps the big problem for modern parents is that we’re told that new shiny technologies are going to make our lives much much better. We’ve started to believe it. We’ve been duped into thinking that it is the technologies in themselves that improve our standard of living. It is not. It is the way we use technologies that deserves praise...and often criticism. Communication technologies, belonging as they do to Hermes, make “no guarantee of integrity on either side.”
This is why Bajovic, author of the study I referenced at the beginning of this post, writes, “As an educator, I strongly believe that positive guidance and help in deconstructing the real meaning of messages delivered through different forms of media, places students on the path to becoming positive, democratic citizens of the world.”
The key is to talk to your kids. Play the games with them. And ask them the same sorts of questions I ask my kids when we read books or shop at Target. Let them know that rhetoric of any sort, unquestioned, is dangerous. “The unexamined life,” Socrates told us, “is not worth living.”
It is not the violence of video games that creates morally immature individuals, but lack of supervision, education, and good parenting. Computer programs, televisions, and tablets can’t be trusted on their own, parents need to teach kids how to use them.
Robots can’t raise your kids. If they could, there would never be crumbs on my floor. I’ve been watching my boys follow Roomba around the kitchen for years.
P.S. I don't let my kids play violent first person shooters, not because I think it will turn them into sociopaths, but rather because I don't understand why killing is considered entertainment.
Jordan Shapiro is author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss. For information on his upcoming books and events click here.