Rhizome Experiment, Fall 2015

Video Games and Identity

From the 1996 Nintendo 64 to 2013’s XBox One, extensive technological advancements have dramatically impacted not just our interactions with video games, but also our perspective on ourselves. The majority of the United States’ adolescent generation of today has grown up not knowing a life without computers, which can explain how things like video games can play a key psychological role in the development of the self.

Video games are designed to have that medium of being difficult enough to present a challenge, while also allowing the player to attain small wins and want to keep playing. With graphics becoming more life-like, it is easier for players to develop an emotional attachment and consider their role as a character more strongly. In these virtual worlds, players are able to develop a sense of control over a challenge and build relationships with other players/characters that can ultimately boost self esteem and allow for the player to foster a sense of belonging. Ethnographer Sherry Turkle has been successful in using a psychoanalytic approach to conclude that video games can be a beneficial method for individuals to relax, mediate, and have the chance to feel complete control over their environment for once (Turkle 1984, 512).

 On the contrary, these imaginative, “rule- governed worlds” (Turkle 1984, 508) tend to have a “holding power” (Turkle 1984, 501) that do not take the physical reality into consideration and can leave players feeling cut off from the real world. With video games presenting a utopic atmosphere, they can negatively impact players’ social experience with reality when they must return to society where their flaws are acknowledged or they are not as accepted by a peer group.  This proves that relationships with simulated worlds can affect relationships with reality.
 

 Sources:
Turkle, Sherry. “Video Games and Computer Holding Power”. 13 Nov 2015. Web. 
 

This page has paths:

This page has tags:

Contents of this tag: