Video game Culture (Week 12) and the Social Dilemma (Week 7)
MADE BY REGAN AMIRAULT AND SAILOR ROZEMA
The main character of our poster is trapped in his addiction. He is literally and mentally chained to his screen, and his video game. When his friends, family, or loved ones try to help him, he becomes defensive, and wants to isolate with his video games even more. Video Game Culture enables its gamers to become even more addicted, and defensive about their addictions... on purpose. Some video games use things like oversexualized characters, racial stereotypes, and offensive storylines to make its users addicted. It's an endless cycle that traps people until they realize it's too late. Both topics of Video Game Culture and the Social Dilemma share a connection of the root of addiction. Video games and social media can be seriously damaging to the brain if users become very addicted. More people need to become aware of this problem before it is too late and they become addicted themselves.
Video Game Culture
In class, we were able to shed light on the issue of racism and sexism found in multiple different video games. Video game creators often strategically use the characters of females in exotic and revealing attire as the sex appeal of popular games. In the YouTube video entitled, “Not your Exotic Fantasy- Tropes vs. Women in Video Games”, speaker Anita Sarkeesian goes into detail as she discusses racial and sexual stereotypes in video games, but specifically the way female “Tribal Warriors” are displayed. This issue of sexualizing women and systematic racism both play huge roles in video games to lure in the most common targeted audience of males. These are very evident things that people should realize in order to take a step back from video games, but this is challenging because of how addictive it truly is. There are thousands of different types of video games nearly everyone plays ranging from something as simple as Mario Kart or Pacman to more highly intense games like Call of Duty or Fortnite, but they all have one common similarity: they are all highly addictive. From Addiction Center website, the article called, “Understanding Video Game Addiction” discusses how easily a small video game hobby can escalate into an unhealthy addictive disorder starting at very young ages. The article mentions that the obsessive habit of playing video games affects the brain in the same way as addictive drugs do because they both release dopamine, a chemical that reinforces behavior and can therefore be an addictive stimulus.
The Social DILEMMA
The popular movie on Netflix called “The Social Dilemma” can be described as a documentary on the addiction of our phones and social media as well as the manipulation and surveillance behind it all. Most people are well aware of how much they are addicted to the apps on their phone and how much they rely on them, but the eye-opening movie serves as a wakeup call by expanding on the negative effects that social media has on our everyday lives. In our digital society today, teenagers are well known for being severely addicted to popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and even Facebook. With the growing of these social media platforms, more younger children start to become just as addicted as well. As more and more people become addicted, many people start to lose hope that it will be better in the future. The sole purpose of “The Social Dilemma” is to point out the growing problem of addiction so others want to engage less with social media and other apps on their phones. Similar to video games, social media is known for being very addictive and is also compared to a serious drug addiction. In the article, “Hooked on Social Media”, author Sherri Gordon conveys the message that it is just as easy to be addicted to social media as it is to be addicted to drugs along with providing evident signs of addiction to social media. Gordon elaborates on how people that excessively depend on social media, leads to poor decision making along with bad attitudes and behaviors, mimicking those of a drug addict. Whether it is the need to always know what is going on at all times or just the desire of infinite scrolling, social media is taking over our attention and our lives as a whole; and “The Social Dilemma” addressing it is a step in the right direction.