“Threat to society”

I read a really interesting article today which had an interview with Australian professional games designer Thuyen Nguyen, about gaming. He’s done some cool videos about gaming, which I interpret as his attempt to educate the masses about both the wonder of gaming, and some of the ridiculous hype around how it is a “threat to society” (videos embedded in story).

People are scared of games because they think they’re made by one loner sitting in front of a computer in a darken room. I compare “society” to the child who thinks Freddy Kruger is real. The child doesn’t understand that Freddy is an actor, who sat in a makeup chair for two hours, that he had to do the same scene over and over, etc. If society understood more about the people (men and women) and the process behind games development, I think that would go a long way.

I am constantly speaking to educators and people in Government about technology, and often come across people who see technology generally as a bad thing that needs to be contained to “protect” some segment of society (normally children). From these concerns there rarely seems to be an understanding that many of the issues “introduced” by technology have always existed in some form or another. The benefits of technology in my opinion so strongly outweigh the issues and by focusing on the negatives people lose sight of the opportunities. Cyberbullying is a new thing people are concerned about. At least online people can do to other communities, other friends, and other activities, which is a totally different ball game to being beaten senseless in the playground (which I’m sure still happens in many places to many kids). Below I’ve put some of my thoughts on pros and cons of technology.

Knowledge: Technology provides a massive pool of information, which means more access to knowledge and the personal ability to learn. There certainly is a lot of complete bollocks on the internet, however I think this is also good because it exposes people to different perspectives which means to actually be successful in anything from basic research, writing an essay or learning, one has to learn a certain amount of discrimination, a way to judge good from bad information. When I was a kid you learnt/wrote what was in Encyclopedia Britannica, and that was it! Now people need to make up their own mind from the plethora of data available.

Communication: Any person can find millions of other people from all around the world, every culture, every possible type of community. This can be bad as it obviously makes it easier for people of even undesirable interests to connect and get organised. It does however mean that people online inevitably end up somewhat more worldly, educated and connected outside of their birth place, which I believe is a good thing. Knowledge + interpersonal communication -> greater familiarity -> greater understanding -> greater compassion. I believe that the many issues of the world could be at the very least minimised if everyone remembered that their perspectives aren’t necessarily the only way, or even correct. By seeing how other people think and live we have the opportunity to see that underneath all the differences, we are all fundamentally not so very different. Technology has given us a way to rapidly communicate global events and perspectives, a way to connect to each other, to become more human in an odd sort of way.

I have a lot more on this subject, I think I’ll follow it up with a part 2 later on 🙂