The FINANCIAL — “The real-life activities and relationships that a person must experience and go through have now largely shifted to the virtual world. Children are increasingly unable to express their emotions adequately in the real world. A few years ago, there were plenty of girls fighting, and getting injured as a result. TV has a very large influence on human beings,” Marina Goksadze, Psychologist, told The FINANCIAL.
“There are two important aspects of computer games which significantly affect adolescents, the first is their virtual reality and the second is the content of the game itself,” Goksadze told The FINANCIAL. “It is important what kind of games a child is playing. Children can begin living in the virtual reality and find it difficult to adapt to the real world as a result of such games. This is one of the most modern forms of escapism.”
“The real-life activities and relationships a person must experience and go through have now largely shifted to the virtual world. Too often people are not able to express emotions properly in the real world, for example aggression. They get the satisfaction they need from the virtual reality, it gives them cathartic pleasure. But as the process progresses it becomes gradually harder for them to adapt to the real world,” she said.
“There is also the issue of the relationship between other people and children; in a virtual reality there is the chance to communicate anonymously. There you can be the real you but no-one can see you. In this virtual community people are writing what they wish and doing what they want to do. But only 8% of communication in reality is composed of the verbal part. The other parts include sound timbre and body language. These features are completely removed in the case of virtual relationships. That is why such relationships are much easier, but that much farther from reality. As a result, when a person starts a real relationship it is then very hard for them to cope,” Goksadze explained.
“There are many cases in my practice of parents complaining and trying to forbid their children from using computers. The method of imposing bans is often used. The computer is becoming more and more prominent in family life. The parents of children get used to this and how it has become a regular part of life today. The demand for a computer today is much higher than it has been before. Whereas before there was protest to the expectation that one should automatically have access to a computer in the home, now it is taken for granted. From the first year of school now many children have their own laptops. Setting standards is becoming more and more difficult. And this is a problem not only for children but also for parents. To avoid all of this it is necessary for children to have less free time. Children are also using their phones more at night, usually so that their parents don’t find out about it,” she said.
“Films have the power to have a big impact on people and their development. The kinds of movies teenagers tend to prefer are those which leave the strongest impressions, for example horror movies. These films lead to serious emotional involvement in the subject and all of this has a great impact. At some level it provides a form of liberation from aggression. Films tend to show a strong level of violence from the depicted oppressor, being an imitation of examples from reality. There are examples of women as hunters. Then a few years ago, there were plenty of girls fighting, and getting injured as a result. The TV has a very large impact on human beings. There are many reality programmes which make people think that it is acceptable to behave in a similar way. And completely unintentionally, there can also be people imitating the actions of heroes from movies. This happens when one thinks it cool to try to imitate such a character,” she added.
The war of the 21st century is war of information. There should be a family value system in place to adequately help children. But children are behaving as they want; if a parent tries to educate their children, and the children don’t like their parents, they won’t obey them. They instead imitate the characters of movies which they like. Parents are finding it difficult to adapt to today’s reality,” she said.
“Computer games are a trouble of our times. As well as parents, children spend a great deal of time staring at computer screens,” Marina Chavchanidze, Psychologist, told The FINANCIAL. “On the one hand it is good for training one’s attention, when you are concentrating concurrently on different devices, for example when you are looking at a computer, a tablet and a TV too. But it is not good for fostering one’s own ability to fantasise and imagine; it provides all the visual materials ready prepared and it is impossible for one then to use their imagination for themselves.”
“There is also a problem with books, young people don’t read books nowadays. This is happening because the rhythm of reading a book is comparatively slow relative to watching a film, or playing a game. You cannot read as fast as you can watch. The process of imagining the scenes and characters of a story has disappeared. Many people are illiterate and do not achieve the minimum performance level,” she said.
“What this can affect is that it reduces disciplinary features. There are children who cannot live without a computer. This is a terribly undesirable situation and can lead to nothing positive. The result will be that children will have no problem with memory and focus, but they will have zero knowledge, and there is no talk at the moment about zero fundamental knowledge,” Goksadze said to The FINANCIAL.
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