Alright, I would love to respond to all of your posts, but frankly I feel it more necessary to acknowledge the discussion we had yesterday in class. I apologize, and will try and respond to future posts where I think my input might be interesting.

That being said, lets talk about Gamers. I can say quite honestly that I was unprepared to watch the documentary "Second Skin". I am not a gamer, and despite having gone through adolescence with a y chromosome, I cannot say I ever really engaged with video games outside of "Grand Theft Auto" and a little "Gears of War". But I'm not sure that even matters. When you get down to it, the people we observe in "Second Skin" are an entirely different beast than the acne scarred introvert that commits themselves to a virtual reality. Adolescence, when it seems many kids are first allowed to indulge a video game obsession, is about having certain qualities of an adult, such as an understanding of strategy, while lacking other qualities, such as an ability to communicate effectively with the opposite sex. This makes a virtual reality all the more attractive, especially one that indulges the most animalistic urges of violence, competition, and in some games even, sex. So it's hardly a shock that herds of young men create an avatar in which they lack the awkwardness of pubescent ascent.
In this way, video games on the very outset become escapist. Much the way that children have imaginary friends, build forts and play with water guns, video games allow players greater control over themselves than they have in reality. Your ability to affect every physical attribute of your character, combined with a lack of hunger, exhaustion and most importantly, death, gives players a sense of control that is understandably appealing and can often become addictive. While I am not shocked, nor even really worried about the young players, I find it deeply troubling, even upsetting to consider how small a portion of the gamer population this is. In fact, the average age of of male players in 26 and the average age of female players is 31. Most startling is the fact that I imagine many of these players seek the same escape as the younger generation. This mentality demonstrates a fundamental dysfunction that as observed in the documentary leads to social inability and more importantly obesity. The critical step of adolescence in leaving the stability of childhood for the tumultuous reality of adulthood has either been entirely skipped, or even more interesting been recessed, in gaming communities. This peculiar behavior might seem like a social echolalia in terms of other social media, but the difference lies in the onticological presence of such devices as messengers not passengers. The passenger quality of the MMORPG takes it from being the instigation to the instigator, and in turn allows people to construct social realities that have no physical presence. I would like the case that this is dangerously unhealthy, and deserves the kind of attention given to alcohol, cigarrettes, gambling and more recently junk food. As a society we should recognize the addictive and destructive qualities these games possess. Ofcourse there is a healthy way to play video games, the same way there is a healthy way to drink, but at some point these games go beyond a brief escape to an entirely virtual existence and at that point they should be considered dangerous.