Computer Addicts and lucky Pilots

Computer Addiction

With parents allowing children to play computer games more and more, I have always worried about the addiction factor of such practices. In the seventies it was common to allow your child to sit and watch TV all day. This was frowned upon by older generations, and children were actively encouraged to go out and play. With the advent of home computers in the 80s more children were staying inside, and I am the first to admit that this was the case for me. I confess to being a game addict still to this day, needing a ‘fix’ at least once a day, whereupon I play any sort of game to stimulate my brain. As a teenager I was out of control, when my aggression levels weren’t so controlled, and my family can testify to this. I have long thought that this aggression was a form of withdrawal, and an interesting experiment that I would like to see carried out would be to allow a child to play a PS2/Xbox/Gamecube for weeks, if not months, then to make him or her go cold turkey. I don’t think it’d be prominent in girls, but certainly in boys it would lead to aggressive tendencies. My own son is limited to 2 hours a week playing on the PC, because he’s at the age where he would play non stop given the chance. Some might say this is overly strict, but when I can identify the aggression rearing its head, I can spot how long is suitable and how long isn’t. The young 12-year-old boy who stabbed his nephew with a kitchen knife so that he could on play his computer has recently highlighted this idea of game addiction and aggression. What is more worrying is the complete failure by social reports etc is to identify the cause, blaming it on bullying at school or lack of interest from his parents at home. It’s easy to blame it on the game itself. Such delightful games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas actively encourage you to steal, shoot or stab people to get what you want, but if the child plays nothing more then an educational spelling game, then the symptoms of aggression still become apparent. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Lucky (!) Aircraft

With all the safety issues of aircraft and so on, one question is positively dying to be asked. Since when did safety rely upon good luck? This story, about a plane with faulty front landing gear, is staggering to watch. But more importantly, the fact of the matter is the pilot used as much skill as he could to land. He still took a hefty chunk of luck to land and to stop safely. They say hindsight is 20/20, but it doesn’t take a genius to spot flaws in the safety of aircraft. We always look to improving and alleviating problems after they’ve reared their heads, but why not actually look at worse case scenarios, and then work to fixing them. That way when they do happen, which they will, the safety has already been taken into account and the loss of life would be so much less.