Submitted by Betty Dean
Neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio’s research suggests that frequent exposure to violent news, television and video games numbs the emotions. He says that information and images are processed very rapidly by the brain—but their emotional meaning, or “tagging” takes seconds longer. “Events register faster and faster,” Damasio says, “and you’re not even given time to let them sink in. On the news, things are shown one after another. No matter how terrifying, images are shown so briefly that we have no time to sense emotionally the horror of a particular event.” The end effect is that the horrific scenes no longer evoke moral distress.
The danger of high-speed input, according to Damasio, is that “there will be more and more people who will have to rely on the cognitive system entirely, without using their emotional memory, in order to decide what’s good and what’s evil. They can be told about good and evil, but good and evil might not stick.”
In his book, Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment, psychiatrist Richard Winter compares today’s media entertainment with the days of neighborhood gatherings that consisted of getting together with neighbors, popping popcorn, and telling one another stories that kept important memories alive.
He adds: “When stimulation comes at us from every side, we reach a point where we cannot respond with much depth to anything. Bombarded with so much that is exciting and demands our attention, we tend to…shut down our attention to everything.” Os Guinness describes this state: “The flipside of consumerism is complacency. The most compulsive of shoppers and channel-surfers move from feeling good to feeling nothing.”
Parents lament that constant gaming is transforming their former peaceful children and teens into turbulent, moody strangers. Online games often use a mixture of novelty, reward, violence, and sex to rivet the attention of their players. The games are designed with built-in reward systems that lure players to spend hours achieving artificial goals. In reality, intensive gaming and excessive television viewing may affect three vital brain functions: (1) language, reading, and analytical-thinking; (2) information transfer between the two brain hemispheres; and (3) attention, organization, and motivation.
Media Alternatives. One of the best ways to break media addiction is to resolve that being a bystander to life is more painful and empty than engaging in meaningful activities. Media brain lock can be broken. The pleasures of real life can overtake media-dominated overstimulation. Take fasts from media and devices. Get them out of sight—when with friends, make a pact to leave them alone.
Pleasure comes in many packages, including intellectual growth, positive social relationships, the development of skills and talents, creativity, responsibility, mental and physical health, and the joy of discovery. God created us to enjoy life, experience pleasure, form relationships, and develop our mental faculties to a height that surpasses any other creature. Real pleasure, success, happiness, and balance are possible.
(www.LifestyleMatters.com Used by permission. Courtesy of LifeSpring – Resources for Hope and Healing, Stuart, VA.)
