I think it's false to be honest, and that while people can become jaded they do not become "desensitized" through things like video games and such. The only way you can truely doe that is through drugs or high level deprogramming techniques.
Truthfully, I think the entire issue is a sociological one. Right now you have a bunch of people in the US who have become over civilized, and over-sensitive, to the point where they become offended by things that are relatively "normal" despite not wanting to see them as such. I think a lot of it is the peace & love junk of the 1960s and how some people conditioned themselves to think of that as a normal state rather tan an alternative point of view.
To put things into perspective, warfare and violence have been around through human history, as has taking great pleasure in such things. While it's downplayed today or portrayed negatively today there is this simple concept known as "Glory" that has fueled massive conquests and acts of violence. It's just how we're wired.
What makes humans differant animals however is that we can control our violent impulses, and understand the benefits of doing so. After all what we can accomplish cooperatively is far greater than what we can achieve by killing each other and knocking everything down.
Look at the third world with less civilization holding things togethers. These bands of warlords and such don't have video games conditioning them to being homicidal maniacs. It's simply the fact that they are in an uncivilized area and nothing has been created that has lasted long enough to get people to curb their violent impulses. Sure you can go into some deep sociological and cultural analysises of say Africa or South/Central America and all the violence and war down in those parts, but the bottom line is that it's part of being human.
I'll also say that I feel violence with children and such is not anything new, nor has it really been increasing. People like to talk about a rise in violent behavior, but in reality I think it's simply a matter of better communication and shared record keeping. When something happens EVERYONE hears about it, compared to how things were just thirty or forty years ago when if some kid killed someone it would have just become a little local legend, locked away in paper archives. Heck, it wasn't THAT long ago that huge Biker gangs were able to virtually take over entire towns for that matter if you think about it.
Comparisons to other countries are borked in many cases because unlike the US they don't have the same level of free information, even if they claim otherwise. For reasons of keeping people calm, and looking good to other nations, a lot of countries are going to carefully control their statistics and keep dirty laundry out of sight as much as they can unlike here where the dirtier something is, the more reporters want to scream it from the rooftops to get attention.
Video games are just an outlet for escapism like anything else. Some kid running around and whacking other kids with sticks pretending they are swords (and perhaps causing injuries during play which is why parents tend to try and discourage things like this... even if all kids tend to instinctively do them) is no less an issue than someone playing a video game where the character kills enemies with swords. Same thing, less chance for injuries.
The basic point is, people are violent, it's who we are. Violence is one of our instinctive ways to solve problems. The fact that we hold it back in society does not mean it's not there. With children one has to expect that they aren't going to be as good at dealing with this as adults.... that's an issue with children in general, and always has been, not with video games or any other media.
As far as becoming Jaded, I think that mostly occurs when your dealing with things like horror that are intentionally intended to shock someone. Not with violence, even extreme violence. I mean there is only so much you can do with someone being shot or stabbed as far as realism goes.
When it comes to extreme gore, or torture, or whatever else that is beyond simple violence and combat I don't think people ever convince themselves it's acceptable, it's just that when they sit down and watch something that's supposed to be shocking and they are braced for it, it takes more and more to achieve the same results.
Interestingly enough, I rate this as not being desensitized because context matters. See if a horror fan decides to walk in and see "Splattergore VII: Electric Saw Bugaloo!" watching some young hottie being bondaged and having her face peeled off while she screams might just be mildly attention getting, after all you saw the other six Splattergore films and your just trying to find something that can give you the same 'shock' that way. BUT if the same jaded horror nut sits down and say watches another kind of movie/show like say a romantic comedy and someone graphically beats a kitten to death with a mallet THAT might shock or upset someone because context matters and it's not what your expecting. Some directors are QUITE good at pulling unexpected stuff like that out. Oh sure, it was nothing compared to Splattergore, and it made context that the father in law hated the kitten after it peed on him, but you weren't EXPECTING that and the fact that it happened in so normal a context...
Truthfully most of my "that was just plain wrong" moments in movies through the years have mostly come from non-horror films (which I still love). As a result I can sit there and say I'm jaded, I can sit down and watch some of the most depraved movies out there and tell you that don't go far enough for what they were trying to do. Yet show some of the same stuff (or even a lot less intense) out of the context... of such movies and I can be a bit of a softie.
I can also say to an extent that I think most people who play very violent shooters, will sort of say "wow" watching say the end of say "Casablanca" simply because context of violence and what it means can actually mean more than the act itself. That paticular bit meaning (and saying) more with a simple act than Rambo standing on a 20' corpse pile of southeast asian militants.
Truthfully, I think the entire issue is a sociological one. Right now you have a bunch of people in the US who have become over civilized, and over-sensitive, to the point where they become offended by things that are relatively "normal" despite not wanting to see them as such. I think a lot of it is the peace & love junk of the 1960s and how some people conditioned themselves to think of that as a normal state rather tan an alternative point of view.
To put things into perspective, warfare and violence have been around through human history, as has taking great pleasure in such things. While it's downplayed today or portrayed negatively today there is this simple concept known as "Glory" that has fueled massive conquests and acts of violence. It's just how we're wired.
What makes humans differant animals however is that we can control our violent impulses, and understand the benefits of doing so. After all what we can accomplish cooperatively is far greater than what we can achieve by killing each other and knocking everything down.
Look at the third world with less civilization holding things togethers. These bands of warlords and such don't have video games conditioning them to being homicidal maniacs. It's simply the fact that they are in an uncivilized area and nothing has been created that has lasted long enough to get people to curb their violent impulses. Sure you can go into some deep sociological and cultural analysises of say Africa or South/Central America and all the violence and war down in those parts, but the bottom line is that it's part of being human.
I'll also say that I feel violence with children and such is not anything new, nor has it really been increasing. People like to talk about a rise in violent behavior, but in reality I think it's simply a matter of better communication and shared record keeping. When something happens EVERYONE hears about it, compared to how things were just thirty or forty years ago when if some kid killed someone it would have just become a little local legend, locked away in paper archives. Heck, it wasn't THAT long ago that huge Biker gangs were able to virtually take over entire towns for that matter if you think about it.
Comparisons to other countries are borked in many cases because unlike the US they don't have the same level of free information, even if they claim otherwise. For reasons of keeping people calm, and looking good to other nations, a lot of countries are going to carefully control their statistics and keep dirty laundry out of sight as much as they can unlike here where the dirtier something is, the more reporters want to scream it from the rooftops to get attention.
Video games are just an outlet for escapism like anything else. Some kid running around and whacking other kids with sticks pretending they are swords (and perhaps causing injuries during play which is why parents tend to try and discourage things like this... even if all kids tend to instinctively do them) is no less an issue than someone playing a video game where the character kills enemies with swords. Same thing, less chance for injuries.
The basic point is, people are violent, it's who we are. Violence is one of our instinctive ways to solve problems. The fact that we hold it back in society does not mean it's not there. With children one has to expect that they aren't going to be as good at dealing with this as adults.... that's an issue with children in general, and always has been, not with video games or any other media.
As far as becoming Jaded, I think that mostly occurs when your dealing with things like horror that are intentionally intended to shock someone. Not with violence, even extreme violence. I mean there is only so much you can do with someone being shot or stabbed as far as realism goes.
When it comes to extreme gore, or torture, or whatever else that is beyond simple violence and combat I don't think people ever convince themselves it's acceptable, it's just that when they sit down and watch something that's supposed to be shocking and they are braced for it, it takes more and more to achieve the same results.
Interestingly enough, I rate this as not being desensitized because context matters. See if a horror fan decides to walk in and see "Splattergore VII: Electric Saw Bugaloo!" watching some young hottie being bondaged and having her face peeled off while she screams might just be mildly attention getting, after all you saw the other six Splattergore films and your just trying to find something that can give you the same 'shock' that way. BUT if the same jaded horror nut sits down and say watches another kind of movie/show like say a romantic comedy and someone graphically beats a kitten to death with a mallet THAT might shock or upset someone because context matters and it's not what your expecting. Some directors are QUITE good at pulling unexpected stuff like that out. Oh sure, it was nothing compared to Splattergore, and it made context that the father in law hated the kitten after it peed on him, but you weren't EXPECTING that and the fact that it happened in so normal a context...
Truthfully most of my "that was just plain wrong" moments in movies through the years have mostly come from non-horror films (which I still love). As a result I can sit there and say I'm jaded, I can sit down and watch some of the most depraved movies out there and tell you that don't go far enough for what they were trying to do. Yet show some of the same stuff (or even a lot less intense) out of the context... of such movies and I can be a bit of a softie.
I can also say to an extent that I think most people who play very violent shooters, will sort of say "wow" watching say the end of say "Casablanca" simply because context of violence and what it means can actually mean more than the act itself. That paticular bit meaning (and saying) more with a simple act than Rambo standing on a 20' corpse pile of southeast asian militants.
