Zimbardo: How Video Games & Porn Are Ruining a Generation

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If you’ve ever taken a psychology course at any level, you know the name Philip Zimbardo. If you don’t (and have 30 minutes to spare) watch his Stanford Prison Experiment here.

Zimbardo teamed up with artist and psychologist Nikita Duncan to write “The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It,” released Wednesday by TED Books. As a part of the release, the pair also published an article to CNN health:

‘The Demise of Guys’: How video games and porn are ruining a generation

The article is incredibly on-point. Although it’s purely clinical and doesn’t mention any faith/God/Jesus whatsoever, you can’t help but see how this generation of boys/men is clamoring for something more. Here are a few excerpts:

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Every compulsive gambler, alcoholic or drug addict will tell you that they want increasingly more of a game or drink or drug in order to get the same quality of buzz.

Video game and porn addictions are different. They are “arousal addictions,” where the attraction is in the novelty, the variety or the surprise factor of the content. Sameness is soon habituated; newness heightens excitement. In traditional drug arousal, conversely, addicts want more of the same cocaine or heroin or favorite food.

The consequences could be dramatic: The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.[/box_light]

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A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that “regular porn users are more likely to report depression and poor physical health than nonusers are. … The reason is that porn may start a cycle of isolation. … Porn may become a substitute for healthy face-to-face interactions, social or sexual.”

Similarly, video games also go wrong when the person playing them is desensitized to reality and real-life interactions with others.[/box_light]

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Young men — who play video games and use porn the most — are being digitally rewired in a totally new way that demands constant stimulation. And those delicate, developing brains are being catered to by video games and porn-on-demand, with a click of the mouse, in endless variety.

Such new brains are also totally out of sync in traditional school classes, which are analog, static and interactively passive. Academics are based on applying past lessons to future problems, on planning, on delaying gratifications, on work coming before play and on long-term goal-setting.

Guys are also totally out of sync in romantic relationships, which tend to build gradually and subtly, and require interaction, sharing, developing trust and suppression of lust at least until “the time is right.”[/box_light]

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Here is Zimbardo’s conversation at TED in 2011:

[box_help]What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments.[/box_help]

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