5:55 AM --- backache

Well.... things would be much better if I could actually sleep. There's a slight chance that will happen before 8 when I am supposed to be awake and getting ready to go to my appointment. I tried moving to the couch even, but no luck. Sitting hurts; sitting on kitchen chairs hurts, I tried all of the chairs in the living room, I can't lie down; on my side, back, or obviously stomach.... so I guess that leaves me with standing?? haha..... Maybe its all the extra boob weight. Because it hurts way up high. Like I really needed them to get bigger! Ugh. I should probably do the dishes. But... they would probably aggravate my backache =) So I think I'll sit here with a pillow behind my back, "good posture", ice cream and watch "When a Stranger Calls" online!

Do violent video games incite violence in youth?

Many video games out there today feature themes such as stealing cars and murdering people, but are the percentage of youth who play them affected by their underlying themes? I think so. Although only about 10% of the "video gamer" population is under the age of 18, they are also the most impressionable age group. The average amount of time that a youth will spend to beat a video game is 50 hours. That's more hours than holding a full time job. Research shows that during and after playing a violently themed video game, the player experiences feelings of agression. Who wouldn't if for the last couple hours you walked around the virtual streets of San Andreas stealing cars, evading law enforcement, and shooting innocent bystanders? Aggression and rage in a video game can lead adolescents to feelings of power, and if carried out into the real world can have severe problems. Their line between virtual reality and reality becomes blurred, which could lead to cases of that which occurred when the two tennesse teenagers carried shotguns to the local interstate highway and started shooting at traffic, killing one motorist. They told police that they were copying GTA (Grand Theft Auto). Incidents like this could be prevented by the limitation of video games and availability of them to certain age groups. However, it is not always the manufacturers fault, parents should pick up responsibility where the manufacuterer leaves off. Because as the facts stated before, nearly 90% of video gamers are over the age of 18, and most of them are able to distinguish for themselves what's right and wrong, good and bad, inside of vitual reality, and out. In a perfect world there would be no violence in video games, or on television, everyone would get along, and no criminal would go unpunished. But in today's technologically advanced world that is hard to avoid. 75% of homes in the U.S. with school age children owned video game equipment. Not a bad amount if it weren't for the fact that 81% of video games contain some form of violence, and 61% of criminals go unpunished in the games and 41% of the video games require violence to accomplish the main goal of the game. In order to make sure that violence does not affect the adolescents of today, they should be properly monitored, (amount of hours played) and should be able to clearly distinguish the game from reality. Maybe instead of increasing the amount of violence in the games that are already made, manufactuers should possibly focus more on creating more productive games, that do not require violence.


SOURCE FOR STATISTICS: surgeon general's letter online