Since I was a teenager, there has been much debate about the role that video games and violent television has played in a general undermining of our social values. The general point being that violence in games, movies, television, etc. plays a role in aggressive behavior or an unrealistic view of right and wrong.
In my opinion, the issue is that our reality has been invaded by pervasive marketing.
What does that mean? Well, if we take an objective look at our current “reality”, we can see very little realism in it. From news programs to “reality” television, what we see is often fake, staged or filled with product marketing. People have been saying for years that there is very little news on the news. It is incredibly difficult to find solid, unbiased news sources that actually show bad things that happen along with the good.
But this isn’t really an article about truth in news. It is an article about the marketing of goods and services in the news and reality television. More importantly, it is about how this might be psychologically destructive for us all.
Why would this be destructive? The issue is that we as a people can have a hard time doing what is right and wrong. But to look at that further, I think we are losing the ability to differentiate between what is fake and real. I don’t mean to say that if see a purple dinosaur on television, that we all think we are being attacked by one in real life. I do mean to say that if we only see fake reality such as social devastation, fictional violence, war, etc. and do not see real life tragedy such as killings, what really happens in war, etc. that we can only further our apathy towards things that are truly bad.
Taken to an extreme, I believe that when a teenager kills his entire family because his video game was taken away, that the issue might not be video game “violence”, but a lack of understanding of real violence and it’s effect on life. This probably happens at a young age and I fear that my young daughter will grow up in a world that does not embrace the good AND the bad things that happen in life.
So why does this happen? Marketing over long periods of time can have lasting psychological effect on what we believe to be good and bad. Television, including the news, is often programmed around products or services that are being sold. We are marketed drugs that allow us to always feel good, sleep perfectly and to cure all instances of uncomfortable life. We are led to believe that happy people are only created through the deprivation of sadness, hostility or anything resembling discomfort. This is all marketing. People have been happy for thousands of years without any of this. When I say “happy”, I mean in the generalist of sense. Because this marketing is actually embedded within our reality shows and news, it is hard to know the difference between what is really “real” and what is essentially an advertisement.
I wonder if we need to learn how to cope with reality, rather than to pretend it is different than the actual truth. I believe that we need to allow all forms of emotion into our lives. This includes complete devastation as well as uncontrollably good happiness. I come from a place of many good things in my life as well as some that were straight-up awful. I identified my brother after he was killed in an automobile accident, was there when my mother died, my grandmother as well. I saw at least two dead bodies in the street, was in an induced coma for a few days, was in a few car wrecks of my own, one of which I came very close to seriously hurting someone because I was too tired one Sunday evening. I was also there when my daughter was born, got married to someone that can keep me on my toes, got to see my mom go on for years after they said she wouldn’t and so much more. I would of course want the lost people in my life forever, but it can’t be the case. With that said, I could not and would not change these experiences that I’ve had.
Without balance, it’s not much of a life. Without allowing reality in, I don’t think I could have ever learned how to cope nor get back to being happy after bad things happened.
