Zoned in

In a battle of benefits and harm rendered between videogames and television, the loser is …

By Michael Lafferty

 

Games get a bad rap at times, but that isn’t the biggest contributor to problems facing the nation

 

Unless totally oblivious to the world in which we live, you have likely seen that young teen-age girl, not even old enough to drive, and yet toting her baby around with her. You may even know a girl like that.

 

Before going too much further into the topic, let’s cut to the chase – what has this to do with videogaming? The videogame industry has often received a bad rap in other areas of the media, who find a soapbox to denounce the violence present in some games.

 

According to information on Brainy Encyclopedia, in 2000, the city of Indianapolis (Indiana) passed an ordinance prohibiting minors from playing arcade games with graphic violence unless parental consent was given.

 

Videogames are the easy target simply because the industry is so huge and shows no sign of slowing down. I used to work for a newspaper that shortly after the Columbine High School shooting tragedy in 1999 decided to pull software game reviews, while at the same time continuing to publish a weekly television guide. It never ceases to amaze how certain elements of society wish to target one brand of entertainment while turning a somewhat blind eye to a greater contributor to the problems plaguing our society.

 

Here it is, point blank: If you want to point a finger at one entertainment source that is more of a detriment, one that contributes more than its share to the problems our society faces, look no further than your television set.

 

(Disclaimer time: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect the opinion of GameZone.com, nor its parent company.)

 

Turn on the television on a Saturday afternoon and surf. You will see the name of Viagra splashed across sports venues, or maybe see the brain-dead smiling Bob hawking Enzyte with his “wife” looking particularly mindless and giddy. Maybe you might tumble across the ad for Levitra or any of the other sexual-performance enhancing products. The message is that these are the products that satisfy the deepest purpose and joy of being a member of the human race. What rubbish!

 

Oh, you might say, that is only on cable networks. Not true. Just think back to the Super Bowl – which is a mainstream broadcast network show that airs around the world, which had ads for Levitra, Cialias and Viagra. Promiscuity abounds in soap operas, infidelity in a mainstay, and these air during the days when children may see them.

 

We need some statistics, and the Web provides that in abundance.

 

According to information on http://www.pregnancy-info.net/teen_pregnancy_statistics.html:

 

  • The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.

 

  • Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school (only one-third receive a high school diploma) and only 1.5% have a college degree by age 30. Teen mothers are more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).

  • The sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison while teen daughters are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

 

And yes, the numbers are falling, but with the increased emphasis on commercials touting sex as the all-encompassing goal of humanity, for how long?

 

How bad is television and how wide ranging is its impact?

According to http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/health/docs/tv&health.html

 

  • Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99

  • Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24

  • Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66

  • Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes

  • Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5

  • Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

  • Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000

  • Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000

  • Percentage of Americans who believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79

  • Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

 

A group out of Washington, D.C., TV-Free America, compiled those stats. And if you are willing to dismiss that voice as substantiating the impact of television, here are some other sources of information regarding the pervasive effect that television has:

  • A 1999 Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Report stated that television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence.

  • A Nielsen Media Research report in 2000 stated that the average time per week that the American child, ages 2-17, spends watching television is 19 hours, 40 minutes

  • Benjamin Barber, in a November 1993 edition of Harper’s, stated that the average American youth spends 900 hours per year in school while that 2000 report from Nielsen Media Research stated that the average American youth watches 1,023 hours of television per year.

 

How do videogames stack up in terms of penetrating the home? The Web site http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/mediaviolstats.asp revealed that a recent survey of families with school-age children found that 74 percent owned videogame equipment and that school-age kids play an average of 53 minutes per day. According to the television survey, the average amount of television averages out to 240 minutes per day.

 

The http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/mediaviolstats.asp site also stated “Parents are less likely to supervise their children’s use of video games than they are to supervise their use of television. While most parents (88%) report regularly supervising their children’s use of television, only about half report regularly supervising their children’s use of video games (48%).”

 

And the percentage of videogames in which sex has any kind of role whatsoever is minute. The Sims actually will allow adults to have a baby, and Grand Theft Auto has had some scenes involving hookers, but for the most part, this is a topic that the gaming industry has steered well clear of. But we don’t see that reported on.

 

Another stat, on the subject of violence, from the safeyouth.org site:

 

“A 2001 review of the 70 top-selling video games found 89% contained some kind of violence. Almost half of all games (49%) contained serious violence, while 40% contained comic violence. In 41% of the games, violence was necessary for the protagonists to achieve their goals. In 17% of the games, violence was the primary focus of the game itself.”

Here is another stat from TV-Free America:

 

  • Percent increase in network news coverage of homicide between 1990 and 1995: 336

 

And for those so ready to dismiss the impact of television on our social consciousness, TV-Free America has this:

 

  • Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59

  • Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices: 17

 

Television, broadcast and cable, pounds us daily with images of violence and sex, and yet people seem to look for that easy scapegoat, and for many in a higher-profile position, it appears that videogames provide that. After all, television is the way they get their message out to the majority of people in the nation. To actually speak out against the messages that television is sending may alienate that huge communication medium.

 

Very few tout the contributions that videogames have made to the computer technology we enjoy today. While violence does appear in videogames, games also have some beneficial effects. It involves the gamers, unlike television, which just hammers away at the mind without personal involvement. Games urge creative thinking, and some even improve reflexive abilities. Peripherals like the Dancemat allow players to break a bit of a sweat. About the only exercise one gets watching television is the jaunt to another room for refreshments or other needs, or using the remote to surf. Television breeds inactivity.

 

Don’t get me wrong – not all television is bad. It can be informative, a relatively cheap source of casual entertainment and with the Olympics looming, it is certain to be on in my house much more than usual during any given year.

 

When one breaks down the numbers, television is far more reaching than videogames in terms of household penetration. When it comes down to a battle between videogames (as an entertainment industry) and television, the one that has more impact, and thus can be the bigger source of either benefit or harm, is television.