Britain's Generation Y Factor and its 'Virtual Reality' Rioting Game

Why, why, Generation Y. Can we really be surprised?

The rioting and rampaging ‘Generation Y’ is the product of young people who have been kept inside for far too long, playing on electronic devices. When I was a young person (yes, I can still remember this bygone era!), I used to “play out” with friends in the local car park and waste ground. We used to ride bikes, go for walks and make dens. If we made the same dens these days, the council would no doubt order that they be pulled down, lest they cause a Health and Safety hazard or encourage paedophiles to lurk there. How things have changed! The main point I am making, in a roundabout way, is that we weren’t kept inside by our parents in case there was a random “kiddie fiddler” looming round every corner.

I believe that the combination of over-bearing UK Health and Safety rules that fly in the face of common sense, combined with disproportionate fear of paedophiles (really, how many of them exist in the population at large… thousands, hundreds, dozens or just a handful spread throughout the whole of Gran Bretana?) has lead our nation to its present state of play.

After being kept inside for the last decade, where they could be “inspired and excited” by the ‘X Factor’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, chat endlessly to mates on Facebook and Bebo, and play aggressive electronic shoot-em-down games, it’s little wonder that Generation Y believes that rewards are gained without effort, destruction has no consequence, and there’s no need to be responsible for one’s own actions. You can just press a button and it all resets to default mode, with a clear screen. Err… no! And, after all, Britain’s authority figures have set a sterling example re taking personal responsibility during the last few years, haven’t they?

In my last blog entry, I focused on Facebook and some of its negative effects. Bearing this out, the recent riots were largely mobilised by the aforementioned yoof interacting through social media and Blackberry phones, which cannot be traced in the same manner as Android handsets that store GPS tracking information. The yoof would know all about the technicalities: after all, they’ve had plenty of time to familiarise themselves with their electronic devices while sitting in the “safety” of their bedrooms for many years.

And now, young people who were caught up in the madness of the rioting and looting and who have received prison sentences for offences such as stealing a pack of bottled water, a bottle of wine or a pair of shorts from an already raided store will have their lives ruined. When I was 17 and ‘green at the gills’, I may have been stupid enough to wander into a smashed-up shop and take something off the shelf: who knows? The fact is that kids who had prospects and were drawn astray by the excitement of the “reality rampage and looting game” now face having their names blackened for life. Compare this to the politicians and their expenses scandals running to thousands and upon thousands of pounds, where jail wasn’t even a threat, and it doesn’t seem terribly balanced, now does it?

Britain has created a whole generation of disaffected and amoral teenagers in its own image. I doubt that we can ever turn the clock back to the days of hopscotch and dens but the “older generation” should at least take responsibility for the proliferation of reality TV shows that promise fame and fortune for being a dancer or a diva, and for unleashing a plethora of electronic games such as ‘Doom’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto’ where you shoot something, smash something or take something and nothing bad happens as a result. Where are the social values in that? There are none. Where does the virtual reality end and real life begin these days? Maybe, for the yoof, there is hardly any boundary at all.

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