Video Games

Video games are often violent, inciting a decades-old debate as to if the gamer is more likely to develop violent behavior as a result or not. I believe it may contribute to people’s likelihood of violence, but is not solely responsible. Is it not a certain type of person who gains pleasure in animated strippers or running people over?

Jerald Block, a Portland psychiatrist who has reviewed thousands of documents about the Columbine shootings, published his theory in the American Journal of Psychiatry that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred after their parents took away their video game privileges. He wrote, as published by The Denver Post that it was clear they became more violent after being forced to quit cold-turkey from their computer or video games as punishment. If that is the reaction from playing Doom, what would the reaction be from a game like Grand Theft Auto in which you steal cars, run amok in an world with no rules and participate in “date missions” in order to bed the girlfriend?

While our second article reports that the results of a longitudinal study say that playing a video game is not a predictor of aggressive behavior, the study does have its’ flaws. Mainly, the video game in question dealt with a fantasy story line; that is not enough evidence to convince me that the same results apply to a first-person shooter game set in a world much like ours.


picture from Google image search; gaygamer.net

Semiotics & the I-Ching

Semiotics is the study of signs. It is hard to define, as a sign can be either a living organism or not. Most of us today would see semiotics as a study of the most primitive form of communication. People communicated in signs before talking was an option – it is something we still do today. How else would we know what to do at an intersection but for the red octagon? That is a prime example of a non-living organism being a sign.

The second article, written by Eugene Gormy, says that “perhaps the most widespread, canonical definition of semiotics is the definition by subject: “Semiotics is the science of signs and/or sign systems”.” He continues on to prove that “something which is usually perceived as a sign, can in some occasions be perceived (and used) as a simple thing. For example, one can read and interpret the Bible, considering it a sacred and symbolic object but one can also to kill somebody using the Bible to hit him on the head. Sometimes people give things special meanings, transforming them into signs which can be quite insignificant to other people.” I think an example of this would be the I-Ching. While it exists physically as an ancient (and classic) Chinese text, it is also seen as a system of foretelling the future.


picture of I-Ching coins found through Google at dragon-gate.com

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

I think the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is fascinating. While I didn’t quite understand everything the Wikipedia page was telling me, it’s still amazing to think that languages are linked, in some way, to thought.

I think it makes perfect sense that “different language patterns yield different patterns of thought” (Wikipedia) It’s a bit like learning a new language that is totally un-related to your own native tongue. When I learned Finnish, I had so much trouble in the beginning because the language doesn’t have any articles. It was a constant struggle to refer to something as ‘the cat’ because I was never fully sure if the other person understood which cat in particular I was talking about. On the other side of the coin, they as Finns had difficulties with pinpointing which article goes where in a sentence because they had no basis of comparison.

Missä on kylpyhuone?
Where is the bathroom?/Where is a bathroom?

The other reading dealt with proper e-mail etiquette. One of the things mentioned was the shorthand that seems to be taking over everyday life today. Could that not be an example of this hypothesis? If everyone begins using this “text speak”, we would ultimately forget the root of the word itself. We would begin thinking like we write because someday a generation would grow up learning that vernacular. As vowels disappear from textspeak, what would happen to the suffix -one because it's become so interchangeable with the number itself? Or the silent h of 'what'? How about the e of 'next' or 'text' or anything ending in the suffix -er?

picture from icanhazcheezburger.com