Influence to society

The theme of this week is influence to society. Especially, I am going to talk about the influence to children.

While a child’s atrocious crime happens one after another, the interest how many influences television has had on a child’s action is high. About the television game having had various influences on a child, various indications from the usefulness to a bad influence is carried out. Until now, research has been done about the influence from broad viewpoints of psychology, sociology, physiology, etc. A possibility whether a television game would have a bad influence on a child’s development was often pointed out from before as a problems of a television game. It is especially worried about the bad influence to violence, social awkwardness, academic ability and mental faculties, eyesight, physical strength, etc. The television game bad influence theory has been repeatedly taken out with the cycle of about five years briskly. The peak of beginning of a bad influence theory is considered to be around Showa 63. Family Computer was sold in Showa 58 and it became the cause for a television game to spread through the home in Japan. However, we were not anxious about the bad influence for a while. But, after that, a family computer was spread explosively and a bad influence theory came to be seen gradually. At the time of “Dragon Quest incident” in Showa 63, the frenzy to child’s television game reached the peak, and the bad influence theory also reached the first peak simultaneously. The following peak is Heisei 5 after five years. This is related to the incident of Heisei 4, while a 14-year-old boy was doing the television game, an epileptic seizure was caused and he died. It not only says that a television game has a bad influence on epilepsy, but concern whether to have a bad influence also on various somatic aspects and also mental sides was briskly issued in journalism etc. The 3^rd peak is from Heisei 9 to Heisei 10, and makes an occasion frequent occurrence of the juvenile crime of those days. Existence of television game play was pointed out as one of causes. The 4^th peak is these days. The argument on a “game brain” which it has for television game play to check development of the prefrontal area which manages advanced information processing in man’s brain was issued in July, Heisei 14. Taking advantage of this, there is “video game bad influence theory” that a video game produces a quick-tempered child.

It cannot generally be said that the television game has actually had a bad influence. The television game may have had good influence. It may turn out that things must not be given up to the last. For example, probably, there is also a video game as an object for teaching materials. Don’t deny a television game completely. The television game is used in order to urge social awkwardness, especially adaptation of a child absent from school for a long time in recent years. Thus, the television game has had bad influence and good influence on society.