Deleting Data Earns A Punch

[Samael Barghest]

My younger brother deleted my game data for GTA5. Naturally, I was pissed. But he said sorry and kept saying due to the fact that I was on the last mission and had lost everything. In the end, he just got the worse wedgey that he's ever felt. But then I learn from another younger brother that he went home and was laughing it up. He thought it was the best thing he ever did. So when I saw him again, I popped him. The question is: Was it wrong to do such a thing? And what would you have done if it was your game data that got erased?

Edit: He's 13 and I'm 26. He wasn't injured. The punch was to his right shoulder.

 

[Zhukov]

How old are you and your brother?

Because there's a difference between two kids having a squabble and coming to blows and a teenager or young adult throwing a tantrum and punching a kid over trivial things.

 

[porous_shield]

He deserved it even if he wasn't laughing about it.

My little brother reformatted our family computer's hard drive back in the day because of a minor virus and I lost saves from dozens of games and, not to mention, my mother lost three or four years of photos so I can sympathize.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Good. Little shit deserved it.

Malicious deeds deserve malicious punishment.

 

[krazykidd]

He got off easy. I would probably go to jail for child abuse if someone like that purposely deleted my save files . Especially if i was near the end.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I wish I could find an appropriate permutation of the meme but here is the source:

 

[Bertylicious]

Ugh, your family sounds horrible. You should get a job and move out, you'll be much happier.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

First, depending on where you live, you could be charged with a class 2 felony if the victim is under 15. This is considered assault and battery, and possibly even more charges due to the fact that you are an adult and he is a child. There really is no excuse for a 26 year old losing their temper and punching a child.

The prefrontal cortex( The part of your brain that controls judgement) is not fully formed until you are 26, and particularly at the age of 13 children tested making the most mistakes and having the most lapse in judgement. Basically, the part of the brain that controls their judgement and stop mechanism to stop them from doing " naughty things" is barely functional while the brain develops other sections during puberty, thus why children often test higher at the ages of 10 and 18 than they do at 13. This is why teenage brains are " hard wired" for risk taking and are more likely to do stupid things at 13. As for you punching a child, there really is no excuse considering your prefrontal cortex should be fully developed and you should be aware that there is never a " good excuse" for punching a child, no matter how frustrated you are. You being the adult, should understand self control by the age of 26 and know better than to punch a child.

 

[Mister K]

Revenge in the form of hitting? Not very creative. You should have at the very least went for archaic, yet strangely effective talion principle (i.e. eye for an eye). I don't know the specifics of your situation, but do something that will make him remember to not mess with you, and won't make you go to jail and/or earn hatred of your relatives.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

First, depending on where you live, you could be charged with a class 2 felony if the victim is under 15. This is considered assault and battery, and possibly even more charges due to the fact that you are an adult and he is a child. There really is no excuse for a 26 year old losing their temper and punching a child.

The prefrontal cortex( The part of your brain that controls judgement) is not fully formed until you are 26, and particularly at the age of 13 children tested making the most mistakes and having the most lapse in judgement. Basically, the part of the brain that controls their judgement and stop mechanism to stop them from doing " naughty things" is barely functional while the brain develops other sections during puberty, thus why children often test higher at the ages of 10 and 18 than they do at 13. This is why teenage brains are " hard wired" for risk taking and are more likely to do stupid things at 13. As for you punching a child, there really is no excuse considering your prefrontal cortex should be fully developed and you should be aware that there is never a " good excuse" for punching a child, no matter how frustrated you are. You being the adult, should understand self control by the age of 26 and know better than to punch a child.

As much as I technically agree with you, it was a shoulder punch, it hurts, but not that much and doesn't do any damage unless the recipient has some sort of tissue disease.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Meh. I remember once (long ago) throwing a house party during which a few of my mates decided it would be a laugh to delete my PS1 saves files, including my Tony Hawks 2 profile (in which I had found all but two of the hidden jumps and which therefore represented an ungodly amount of spare time). I has pretty hacked off for all of about 10 minutes before realizing that it was just games, and certainly nothing worth alienating real, genuine people over.

So, to answer your questions: Yes, you were wrong to hit your brother. And I have had my game data erased, and after a moment's irritation I got over it and had a damn good party.

Bottom line: Games are just games. If the data deleted was a research paper, something you were working on for college/uni/work that would have furthered your personal prospects, then yeah, such willful destruction deserves some retaliation. But it wasn't the cure for cancer your brother deleted, it was a game file.

 

[McElroy]

Pain itself as punishment is fine, the implications behind it often aren't. Using this case as an example, it's possible that the kid learns that "there's this trigger that makes this adult punch me" instead of "the punch was a punishment for my wrongdoing". Yeah, I'd actually support corporal punishment if it was always done right, but it's simply much safer and ultimately better for everyone to just take away the kids' iPads and other stuff.

 

[ExileNZ]

I'm of two minds about this.

Firstly, you're 26, and what you just did was assault. I don't care if he deleted your game saves or slept with your girlfriend, you should know better.

Secondly, what he did seems to be not only intentional, but he made an ass out of you by avoiding punishment and then laughing it up behind your back. From his perspective, he should EXPECT a good thumping. I took a few punches from grown adults as a teenager and looking back I earned every single one of them.

While I can't condone your reaction (one that could also get you into trouble) as a responsible adult, frankly I'm disappointed you didn't punch him in the face.

 

[Shymer]

As a father I am compelled to say - please don't hit your brother. It is wrong. At 26 you should have all your adult decision-making faculties available to you - at 13 he has not. He is playing playground politics with you and you are lowering yourself to his level. Rather than teaching him the right lesson - this is only satisfying a petulant need for retribution which is childish. Not only do you have the relative importance of family and save game data out of proportion, but you are open to being manipulated by your younger brothers into getting you to hit their brother for them. It does not seem very smart and there must be a better way of being.

On a note related to other posts in this thread - never hit someone in the head/face. In rare circumstances it can kill.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

As someone who advocates explaining why things are wrong rather than resorting to physical violence but also has a younger cousin, I sure have to hit him a lot for being knowingly an asshole. If they regret it or do something by accident, of course don't hit them, that's harsh. But sometimes explaining doesn't work because they're not interested in being on your good side or the consequences of their actions, and you don't have enough time to think of anything more fitting or lasting, so there you go, they get a punch. Call me irresponsible. Honestly, it's more out of frustration than an attempt to raise the child to be a good citizen.

As for the game data, fuck like half the people in this thread (jokes guys, but a little bit not a joke), game data is time and effort. Depends on the game of course, but you're not just eating or something where you get immediate pleasure for consuming a resource, especially in a game like GTA, you make decisions and express yourself and form a narrative that involves that exact character and your unique experiences. Sure you can make another one, and then you get the experience again, but it's not as good as the first run. So if you delete someone's game data it's like sabotaging a creation of art or music, only they put in considerably less effort and it has less significance (that is not, however, equal to negligible significance).

And for clarification, the punch I would give and the punch I assume the OP gave are the punch you give to a 13-year-old, not the punch you give with the intention of harm, because that shit would cripple them. If your punch is worse than the hardest hit you would expect a 13-year-old to give, you're possibly operating at the wrong scale for the situation and should tone it down.

 

[Eve Charm]

Bah you hit in in the shoulder, a non fatal spot ;p. A few minutes to an hour of pain and a sore spot for a day or two is a lot less of a punishment then if he went to his level and say, deleted some pokemon saves or formatted a console hard drive to get him back. Also far less to start a war over it.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I can say that I've been that younger brother, only I still regret doing it, even though it was an accident.
I had overwritten my brother's 100+ hour FFX save, and he was torn up over it. It didn't come to blows, but I still felt like shit for weeks afterwards.
As I said, I still feel genuinely bad over it.

EDIT: Should try and answer the question, huh?

As a 26 year old, hitting your kid brother might not have been the best move. He's lucky he wasn't hurt, but if he was, it'd be a whole shitfest that's not worth it. Hell, bad enough and it'd have shown up in the news. Point is, teach him a lesson in other ways; violence leads to resentment, and you don't want your brother to hate you.

 

[Elijin]

Punch is such a loaded word, it seems. For one thing, it doesnt do anything to convey force.

As the eldest of 3 brothers, we horse around and do petty things and trade blows all the time. Punch just carries a different weight with brothers than it does with strangers. Reading people's reactions here, they seem to be picturing blind rage violence, bar fight levels or maybe even MMA style. Yet I can say every time I have punched (or been punched) by my brothers, its a harmless tap. Enough to know someone got punched rather than an accidental brushing of the arm, and ending at that.

So assuming you punched your brothers in the same way I would punch my bothers who have similar age gap, its no big deal. That said, that implies you hit him just hard enough to show it was a punch and not a tap on the shoulder, and thats that.


All that aside, if people's worst assumptions are correct and you straight up punched that kid going for real impact, I dont know I agree with that.