February 23, 2018 - News Post

In January, I ran a little experiment. I attempted to go an entire month avoiding entertainment containing gore, pain, or violence.

This meant cutting out most video games, live action TV, and “to the death” gladiatorial battles at the local amphitheater. Light violence and action was okay, as long as it wouldn’t traumatize a 10-year-old.

Here’s what I found:

• Avoiding violence was harder than I thought.
  
  I apparently watch A LOT of gory violence... even while making a conscious effort not to. Comedy clips, commercials, and suggested videos on YouTube placed one graphic scene after another in front of my eyes.
  
  While watching only what I thought would be “safe”, I witnessed 1 shooting, a blunt force trauma to the back of someone’s head, suicide by cliff jumping, and 3 decapitations (all hopefully fictional). It got so bad that I had to limit my “screen” intake.
  
  
• I thought I missed realistic violence, until I realized I missed compelling writing.
  
  To avoid gritty reality, I watched a great deal of entertainment meant for children, with films and TV from the 90s filled the remaining gaps. And while I enjoyed this experience considerably, the lack of realism in action scenes started to bore me after a few weeks.
  
  The lack of stakes dulled everything I watched. Real-life consequences can be important to the plot, and most intense dramas made these days revel in it. I’m sure there are dozens of intense, suspenseful shows that don’t feature gore, I just wasn’t running my experiment long enough to seek them out.
  
  
• Video games were a horrible nightmare all month.
  
  I have a lot of wonderful nonviolent games. Most of my favorite games are nonviolent. I love a good puzzle, racing game, or cute little cartoon I can play... but not all the time.
  
  Sometimes, I want to shut my brain off. Nothing does that better than getting in, shooting some creatures, and getting out. I’m currently in the middle of Prey, Arkham Origins, and Rise of the Tomb Raider. None of those could be played during my violence-abstention month, so of course, those were the only games I wanted to play.
  
  
• Unsurprisingly, my stress levels went down.
  
  My stress went down considerably.
  
  Now, this month didn’t happen in a vacuum. The holidays are typically hectic, so taking January to run this experiment was probably not a fair assessment. Still, while I found time to rage about politics, whine about technology, and injure myself for fun, I’d say January was the calmest month I’ve had in quite some time. With no violent TV, the lack of screaming people, terrifying moments, and gruesome injuries did something amazing: It allowed me to relax.

And there you have it. My anecdotal and non-scientific results of a month of violence free entertainment. I can’t think of any negative results of the experiment, aside from having to wait to see a movie or two. Oh, I don't mind waiting... but that waiting resulted in more time spent on this comic, which I consider profoundly negative.

Three weeks later, the transition back to violence has been a slow one. I've found that I'm not as numb to it as I used to be, so a little bit goes a long way.

Honestly, the difference in stress was so great that I might cut down on violent, gore-filled entertainment permanently. I'm far too addicted to give it up entirely, but not so addicted I can't cut back a little.

I watch so many dark, depressing shows. It's easy to forget that the main reason I seek out entertainment is to give me a break from reality. It turns out, I don't actually need my heart to race or stomach churn every time I stare at a screen. It can be fun to sit and smile once in a while.

Who knew?

-Jeff