“I”zation: Ignoring the “Civil” in Civilization

There are growing concerns by many, especially among the Baby Boomer Generation about what shall become of this world a decade or more from now. The concerns are exclusive from the common issues discussed on the media on Global Warming, gas prices, alternative energy and economics. Recent social changes in our society over several years influencing many of the younger generations elevate these concerns.

We have witnessed an age when the use of drugs (whether legal or illegal and organic or designer) has helped to fashion millions of users throughout the world. Like a scene from “Night of the Living Dead”, some of us remember seeing thousands of zombies walking our streets, watching these ghoulish creatures who were human beings feed off the living. Over time our society developed methods to contain these problems, but another worse issue arises and begins to loom into our view.

The technological advancement of personal computers without any doubt has revolutionized our world. Our accessibility to gather and store information and produce incredible innovations through the use of computers is a remarkable achievement. Each of us can absorb hundreds of articles, blogs, or graphics everyday on the internet. Each of us may also expend several hours playing video games on the computer, television or gaming consoles. It is these activities which alert cause for alarms for our society, more so for our children to become “self-absorbed” into these activities.

With the development of computers have also come improvements in graphic designs, thus enhancing the virtual world of gaming. While this technology incredibly improved our social skills did not improve along with them. Though considered fun many of the games played enact cruelty, viciousness, and callousness towards imaginary opponents within these games. Certainly the games are not real, but the players become desensitized to what is anti-social behavior; they are sometimes psychologically morphed into becoming the “players” and not human beings.

What is worse is many of these players are children left alone by their parents to play the games, often because their parents are “too busy doing” other things.

But consider these events… How often have we seen in the news when some kids have brutalized or even killed others in fun? How many times have we heard on the radio and/or television when someone lavished, molested, raped, or ravaged others, especially children while the assailants’ friends idly stood by or walked away saying and doing nothing? How many times have we recently seen or heard of a group of youth whether boys or girls or a combination of both beat up and disfigure others so they could video the spectacle over the internet? Internet videos displaying the cruelty of people towards others have become very popular. Beating up on the poor, addicted, homeless, the physically disadvantaged, and helpless has become more prevalent.