For the second time in a little more than six months, the residents of Florida have woken up to the news that a gunman has struck, inflicting death and injury in yet another mass shooting, events that seem almost uniquely American. This time, the place of tragedy was at a waterfront community of restaurants and shops where video gamers had gathered to play virtual football.
The perpetrator has been identified as 24-year-old David Katz from Baltimore, who murdered two people and injured 11 others before killing himself, police officials say. The horrific tragedy was caught in a live stream of the event.
There are too many words written over the need for real and meaningful change in the gun culture of the United States, and it is a legislative and societal struggle that has been going on for too long, without little real progress. Those efforts will no doubt be again redoubled by this most recent tragedy — but how meaningful will any change be?
This incident in Jacksonville does, however, offer an opportunity to highlight the potential dangers posed by spending too many hours and investing too much time in online gaming. The reality is that the level of play and the quality of graphics is simply astounding — to the point that they are inherently addictive to gamers.
These games have a near-hypnotic effect, one that de-sensitises players to high levels of graphic violence while simultaneously allowing them to kill at the press of button or the toggle of a controller. There was a blurred line between the events and killing on a screen and those in real life. Now virtual reality is too close to real life. Every parent should be aware of this.
