Azgar Nuhman
Although murders are not strange in our country, murders in the peaceful countries of a developed world are shocking.
The recent murder of six people of one family in Canada has shocked the whole world. A thirty-five-year-old mother of a family who recently immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka and her five children aged seven, four and two, including a two-month-old infant daughter, and another forty-year-old man in the same house were hacked to death with a sharp weapon inside the house, and the father of those children also suffered serious injuries. This was all committed by a nineteen-year-old Sri Lankan youth.
It is said that the young man had gone to Canada to get an education and was friendly with this family and lived in their house for some time. The media reports say that he spoke only a limited number of words when he was arrested by the police and the media reports further state that this young man was addicted playing computer games on the internet.
19 years of age is not a sufficient age to gain a good understanding of the society because in Sri Lanka’s current education system, from the age of three to four years, only book-focused education is provided throughout the day. The environment they live does not give them enough space to gain an understanding of the world around them and successfully face the problems and challenges of living in society, establish social relationships and develop morals.
Back in the days we used to play with live people, friends and acquaintances in the playground. As a child, when we went to school, we were most enthusiastic in the time and space we got to play. In this way, we engaged in various games before the start of school starts as well as during recess and at the end of the school term. The most played games were cricket, football, rugby, basketball and volleyball. We learned from those games how to endure victory and defeat, learn from defeat, correct mistakes and return to victory. How to work together as a team. Experienced how to achieve goals collectively as well as share success and failure collectively. They are still used as experiences to face our lives.
But unfortunately the present children do not get any practical knowledge about society due to formal schooling, evening, weekend tuition education, homework and online education provided by evening schools in our country which is not available anywhere else in the world.
Not only support but benevolence, collegiality, compassion, but also happiness and enjoyment are not found in the current generation. Especially the people who come to jobs after memorizing and passing exams are like robots. No emotions, no smiles, no altruism is seen from them. Only a strong selfishness can be seen from most of them. It can be observed that this situation is very common especially among professionals such as doctors, administrative officers, lawyers and engineers in the middle and young ages.
Children growing up in this situation make the computer and social networking sites their primary hobby and companion. The society they live in is a virtual society created by computers and the Internet. Its friends are just imaginary characters they meet on the Internet, often never seen live. It’s hard to imagine out if many of the stranger friends you meet, especially on Facebook, are real people or fake accounts run using other people’s or fictitious identities. People who meet through this kind of virtual society use the social media platform to achieve their various goals. It can be observed that many children as well as women are abused because of living in this virtual society without the association of the outside society. Due to the lack of social relations in the real society, when they are in trouble and need help, this virtual society does not help them to sort help from anyone.
The suspect involved in the incident in Canada had gone to Canada at the age of 17. It seems that this young man, who is alone in a society completely different from the society of Sri Lanka, has difficulty facing the social anomie and has become frustrated. It is said that he went to the educational institution and received education for a very short time. Working part-time, in a country with a lack of relatives and friends, in a society completely different from his own culture and social context, that this young person may be tempted to use the computer and the Internet more to escape his frustrations. People who are addicted to computer games often like to live alone. They only have a very limited number of words in conversation with other people. This is a situation that needs special attention.
Nowadays, most of the computer games are competitions where you win by destruction of all the people who are against you. In the virtual society, space is provided to kill people using various weapons as they wish. There are none of the rules and morals that exist in a civilized society in the real world. There is no punishment for mistakes. The one who makes complicit is the winner. Victory is achieved by killing everyone. Through this agitation, restlessness, anger, rage, desire to kill people are automatically promoted in the brain. Compared to that, spiritual qualities such as love, mercy, kindness, and compassion are reduced. It may be difficult for the brain to differentiate between the real world and the virtual world. For this reason, children who are addicted to computer games, isolated from the real society, have a strong tendency to be tempted to commit violent acts.
The biochemical substances secreted in the brain to cause situations such as the immediate reactions required in computer games, constant fear, anxiety and hesitation about possible attacks on the character represented in the game, are secreted in the same way when faced with such a situation in reality. Often, these biochemical substances are secreted in the brain over a long period of time, resulting in severe mental health disorders. This results in mental illness such as depression, anxiety, restlessness, irritability, impotence, violence, loss of concentration, etc.
Also, people who play computer games get used to the speed of the virtual society and they expect such immediate responses in the real society as well. But naturally they get angry when they don’t get such immediate responses in real society. Also, due to the decrease in the ability to focus on the things being taught, the memory ability of school going children is weakened.
Not only that. Due to constantly looking at the computer in the same position, there is a strong possibility of developing diseases such as neck muscle tightness and neck bone pulling, numbness of hands and fingers, long-term headaches, dry eyes and poor eyesight, swelling of legs, protruding abdomen etc., Due to the radiation constantly entering the brain to the use of computers as well as mobile phones, there is a possibility of depression, restlessness, insomnia etc. There are also people who play computer games in order to avoid the problems they face without facing them. As a result, their personality deteriorates and their ability to find answers to problems and questions decreases and when the problems worsen, there is a possibility of committing suicide. Due to many such factors, developed countries have advised that the time spent playing computer games should be limited to between half an hour and an hour a day.
Therefore, the current education system of pushing children away from reality into a virtual society must be changed immediately.
Also, an educational system should be introduced to set up to remove the pressure of education and give children the opportunity to develop their intelligence freely. The system of passing exams by rote learning and the system of providing jobs only on the basis of memorizing degrees and certificates should be changed. Therefore, it is necessary to change the current education system based on the tuition system and introduce an education system that develops the child’s intelligence in our country. Along with education, it is essential to prepare the education system in such a way that it creates good social relations, develops spirituality, good feelings and virtues. By introducing children from an early age to enjoy high-quality art that calms the mind, children gain the ability to control their emotions and impulses. Finally, in order to prevent children from becoming criminals in a society addicted to computer games, the government must emphasize the responsibility of the parents as well as the entire society.
Azgar Nuhman – Independent journalist and Sufi author
