Earlier I blogged about my feelings on games such as Grand Theft Auto and how that sort of unnecessarily violet games causes mixed signals in today’s youth.  My hypothesis is that this is merely a sign of our times.  Our society and culture, for the last 10 years, has been increasingly centered around a very “cold” world, the Internet.  Computer software development is at an all time high production rate, from business software to games.  Games are taking in serious dollars, such as Grand Theft Auto IV which took in $500 million dollars its first week, which is just under 100 million copies sold.  With gas prices soaring, its cheaper for today’s entertainment consumer to purchase a gaming system with Internet connectivity and a host of multiplayer type games, rather than going on to bars and clubs on the weekends.  Being a serious gamer, and having done the club scene for many years, I can get the same exhilaration playing a full party Halo 3 match sitting in my living room, as being sweaty and tired after a night of clubbing.

I have seen more and more people I know invest in home entertainment to combat the rising costs of traveling anywhere.  But, this means that people are spending less time face to face. What will this mean for our social structure?  I have met many people in the past few years that have, what I call, “Poison Fingers”.  A person with poison fingers is usually someone who is very mild-mannered in a face to face situation, usually accommodating and rarely raises issue in a meeting or group setting, until they get back to their computer and unleash a torrent of vile rhetoric in an email CC’ d to the entire free world.  Its like a digital form of passive aggressiveness.  But the point is that they probably would not have said anything unless it could be faceless.

So when we talk about empathy & apathy, we’re talking about the internal struggle within each of us.  Some have the ability to more overcome the logic of apathy and embrace the sensitivity of empathy.  Women are more readily able to be empathic where men tend to be more apathetic, by nature.  Though, that has changed dramatically over the millennia where men now have the “luxury” of being more sensitive, unfettered by the classical perceptions of hunter/gatherer.  We as a whole people have the same luxury, yet by and large we do not exercise it and when we do we’re not very earnest.  These are the hard truths we must tell ourselves.

“Sometimes the urge to do bad is almost overwhelming"" - Benjamin Horne Twin Peaks

I know that it is very hard to have true feelings for disasters half-way around the world.  We mumble words of regret for such tragedies, but do we really mean it or say it with true compassion. I'm sure some do and some just say it because its proper or socially acceptable.  So the observation is that the further away one is from an incident, the less they care, which is purely a logical reaction.  The illogical, yet more powerful reaction, is to have true empathy for the loss of life, no matter where it is.  We should have empathy for one another as much as we have for our own selves.  In the end we cannot survive as lone individuals.  Our continued existence, by necessity, requires our interactions, if only to procreate.  We need contact with others of our kind if only for a reality check. 

Of course, I love gaming as much as anyone, as my current Rockband addition demonstrates.  The paradigm shift we as a whole are facing warrants further attention by each of us, to ensure that we don't become some race of emotionless keyboard jockeys.  We've hosted a few Rockband gatherings are our house, and though you can play online, there's nothing like having a full band in your living room jammin' to More than a Feeling by Boston.