I thought that I’d start off on a relatively positive note…
“This past Sunday twenty-four year old Adam Mapleson rushed to the aid of a female security guard outside a railway station in Essex England, who was being robbed at gunpoint by two mask-wearing thugs, taking a bullet to the chest in the process. Now in stable condition at a local hospital, police are calling the young man a hero.”
With all of this media hype attributing violence to video games and song lyrics, this story puts even more emphasis on the word “hype.” Let’s check out Adam’s MySpace profile.
I was drawn into following criminals and victims on the internet in an attempt to answer the questions “why did this happen,” “who does something like this,” and “what kind of people become victims?” Being able to view a criminal’s or a victim’s profile on sites like MySpace.com puts such a personal edge on the events most of us only see in the news…it allows us to actually compare ourselves to those people we could never imagine ourselves becoming.
If you compare Adam’s MySpace profile content to that of many criminals’ profiles, you’ll find many similarities…but primarily visual similarities. Adam’s words don’t show hatred or the potentially murderous downtrodden hopelessness that the media tells us to expect from a video gaming metal head “goth freak.” Just goes to prove that you can’t judge a book by its cover!
I bought my tattooed rocker husband an XBox 360 for Valentine’s Day this year. He lets me wear the headset while he plays Halo 2. Like Adam, I’d be willing to bet money that he’d take a bullet for a complete stranger!
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excellent first post Morgan! it’s nice to be reminded that:
a) gamers are not inherently evil.
b) everyone on myspace is not teh debbil.
the world needs more people like Adam.
Great story! But I guess awesome hand-eye coordination doesn’t help one dodge bullets, huh?